[geeks] Gizmodo has a classic email from Bill G. you might like...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Brian Dunbar <brian.dunbar at liftport.com>
>Date: 2008/06/27 Fri AM 12:07:42 EDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Gizmodo has a classic email from Bill G. you might like...

>Rick Hamell wrote:
>>> Over at Gizmodo.com they have the text of a Bill G. email ripping Jim 
>>> Allchin "a new one" over his experience attempting to download and 
>>> install two MS products ("Moviemaker" and "Digital Plus Pack")...
>>>
>>> Interesting to see how Mr. G vents...
>>>
>>> Link: 
>>> http://gizmodo.com/5019516/classic-clips-bill-gates-chews-out-microsoft-over-xp 
>>>
>>>
>>> Lionel
>> 
>> The worst part of that email was how grammatically terrible it was. I 
>> expected the "it doesn't work" part. But I had a hard time following 
>> what he was trying to do to get to that point.
>> 
>
>I don't think the fault was the grammar - the process of getting stuff
>done in Windows doesn't lend itself well to textual descriptions.

I disagree (partially) - as a one-time software tester, it just takes a little bit of effort to accurately describe GUI interactions precisely.

But, I would also say that Bill G. wrote his note as an expression of his frustration, not as documentation of bugs that would be hard to replicate. His frustration was based on the interaction/user experience, not the details of the interface. He is technical, his reader is technical, and his real complaint (as I read it) was that no one appears to have stepped back and thought through the product purchase/download/install process, which was to him, simply amazing.

That is one of my biggest problems with PCs (and Macs) - they require the user to learn arcane, intricate steps to perform seemingly simple actions. Personally I'm amazed we don't see more Internet Appliances on the market - a basic machine with a recent browser and support for local USB/Firewire/eSATA storage, Postscript and PCL printer support, and a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port would suffice for many, many sites. Base it on a commodity platform, and browser plug-ins become trivial. My gut tells me that people want to wring out maximal perfoemance from their machines, so they want to make them as configurable as possible, but with gigahertz and gigabytes coming out of our ears, I think we can forgo some optomizations and focus on usability.

Yes, the Mac is close to what I describe, but there is way too much OS on that machine, with too many settings/sensitivities to cause user trouble (IMHO). My folks used to use an iOpener appliance, and that was great, but it's downfall was that the browser wasn't upgradeable after the comapny went belly-up. You could update the software, but since it was proprietary, no one else could update it, and their business model relied on monthly revenue from ISP fees.

The thing that made it great, was not the famous "pizza" button, it was that if it got stuck, you could simply power-cycle it and get it running again in about a minute.

The frustration comes from the fact that to make a capable appliance, you have to charge about as much as a comprable PC/Mac[0], which limits the market to people that will pay a premium for reduced functionality...

Oh well...

Lionel

[0] By this I mean a "modern" CPU, 2 Gigs of RAM, small-ish HD, no optical drive, fairly modern graphics subsystem, PS, case, keyboard and mouse. You could use the latest Intel "Atom" mini-ITX MB for such a box, but you're pushing $200 retail for the above system, and comprable desktops with Windows Vista are just $50-75 more, making them "real" PCs...