

Bill Gates on iTunes Store: another interesting memo - sanj
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/06/25/gates-itunes

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brandonkm
I am really enjoying these Bill Gates memos. He is actually spot on with his
evaluation of the subscription. Unfortunately, his call for a "windows
download service" is just another knee jerk reaction from msft as they got
beat in yet another crucial consumer sector.

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henning
I wonder if the way he phrased it -- the idea of a "windows download service"
-- indicates he was thinking about what it would do for Microsoft (especially
versus Apple) rather than what it could do for potential customers. I can
sympathize as I certainly find it baffling to empathize with average users,
especially the ones with warped mental models who think Yahoo or Google is the
Internet.

Anyway, Bill Gates knows Apple has better design (as indicated in this memo)
and that Steve Jobs has better taste than he does (he's said publicly he'd
give a lot to have it).

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stcredzero
We should think of the average joe's mental model as being warped, but be
honest about why it's warped. Those who have engineered the UIs haven't given
Joe Average the right feedback and information to form the correct models.

The Inmates are Running the Asylum

[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=04cFCVXC_AUC&...](http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=04cFCVXC_AUC&dq=the+inmates+asylum&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=jfufX8u6pR&sig=ntfmkfa2PEFE9RxvfD9Ajmvvllk&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result)

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josefresco
From the article: "Five years later, the iTunes Store has sold five billion
songs, and Microsoft still doesn’t have an answer."

Not quite accurate, the Zune and it's "marketplace" were launched November 19,
2006. It's an answer, not a great one but an answer none the less.

~~~
LPTS
The Zune isn't an answer to anything but "What would an iPod look like 8 years
ago, if the morons who designed your crappy washer and dryer from 1986 worked
on it?"

~~~
aston
<https://zuneoriginals.net/>

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LPTS
Is this supposed to refute me or prove my point? Because of the taste of Zune
fans, I can't be sure.

The best thing I can say about zuneoriginals.net might be lipstick on a pig.
If you caught me on a generous day.

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simplegeek
We've all been blaming Bill Gates for ages (yes, he's not perfect)but, now,
I'm starting to think that culprit is someone else at Microsoft.

~~~
LPTS
I don't know. Who is "We all?" I think people who know have been saying Bill
Gates is smart for ages. I really do truly hate Microsoft, from the bottom of
my heart, because how bad and ugly most of their stuff is weighs deeply on my
sensitive aesthetic sense. Just knowing I have to share a planet and 99.9% of
my genome with people who are happy with that crap causes me deep existential
anxiety. So there aren't many people who hate Microsoft more then me. But, I
always thought Bill Gates was really smart. As much as I hate Microsoft, that
kind of evil is a smart evil.

The problem is, first of all, that all this evaluation doesn't mean shit if
you don't fire the people responsible for your crap sucking, and second of
all, that no one is really responsible for things not sucking. The problem
with MS is the MBA's, and that anyone with a strong enough vision to make
stuff not suck will have to bump heads with very powerful institutional forces
that pull MS towards suckage.

The problem isn't quite someone at microsoft as the fact there is no one there
with power AND taste who can make a big difference. (there are maybe a few at
low levels, there are some of microsoft things that don't suck, and that even
evidence taste, but it's the rare exception not the rule.)

~~~
LPTS
I gotta add something to this. Bill Gates is also not evil. I reread this and
it sounds like I think he's evil. No. Not at all. The system is evil, but not
Gates himself. He's doing a lot of awesome work right now. The world needs
him.

But microsoft does mostly evil and is mostly the suck.

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jmatt
I find it ironic and quite unlikely that these memos show up in PDF format.
I'm pretty sure Gates uses Office. I don't really know how to judge whether
these are legitimate memos or not. I also can't imagine Microsoft sitting
there while confidential memos are released in their backyard. That doesn't
sound like M$.

Either way the memo is interesting and Gates is surprisingly insightful. It's
easy for us looking back with 20/20 hindsight and say "Of course!" ... but in
2003 it wasn't so obvious.

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aneesh
insightful? yes. surprising that he's insightful? no.

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jmatt
It's surprising to me that he's insightful when it comes to music. An area
that M$ has struggled. I agree it's not surprising that he is insightful in
general.

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jonknee
Thanks for linking to a quote instead of the whole memo.

[http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/PDF/Gates/gatesmail15.p...](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/PDF/Gates/gatesmail15.pdf)

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mkull
I'd rather see a daring fireball link with some commentary then a direct link
to a pdf

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patrickg-zill
I get the feeling this rash of Bill Gates memos allows Gates to place all
blame for MSFT failings on others; meanwhile Gates takes his money and goes to
work on charitable projects.

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Zev
I don't think that many would argue that Bill Gates is clueless or lacks
insight into technology. Just that they disagree with the way his company
applied his insights and attempted to turn them into reality.

