In January 2003, Bill Gates decided to download Moviemaker onto his Windows XP PC. The experience quickly turned frustrating and alarming. The sequence of really bad user experiences resulted an a scathing indictment of the whole process in an e-mail to Jim Allchin.
In the e-mail, posted by Gizmodo on Wednesday, a telling section highlighted the thinking behind the design of the Microsoft Website.
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
The e-mail is long and expresses grave frustration with installing Microsoft software on an XP. "What an absolute mess," Mr. Gates wrote.
Aside from providing an insightful picture of how little influence Mr. Gates had in the design of his products, the e-mail also raises the question as to whether anyone got fired after that event.