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An Open Letter to Bill Gates

A missive to the emperor of bloatware.


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Hi Bill!

How are things? We're not running your Windows 2000. We stopped our subscription to the MSDN. We're getting out of your OSes. So it's ironic that we take the time.

Bill, the best thing about the PC is the PC itself - it is not your systemware and software. We were not impressed with MBASIC, we were not impressed with DOS 1, we were rather impressed with 2.11 and your purchase of the UNIX source and Lattice, but we'd be hard put to say we've been a big fan of yours. Yet we've never been your enemy and never will be either.

Still, your way of doing business and taking over the world has left us feeling rather annoyed. It is one thing that your cries of 'a PC in every home' sound like Adolf Hitler's 'a chicken in every kettle' but it's quite another to see how you and your company have systematically destroyed what many of us take great pride in: software engineering.

Your products are bloated and bugged, very often bugged beyond belief. Your engineers can churn out the amazing code when your company is put to it, but you personally engender a mentality that brings out the worst in software engineers.

For a while you had the assistance of a real software engineer, but your corporate mentality drove him away. The very people that drove him up and through the wall took over his product and ruined it. And the worst of it is, they - perhaps with your express consent - seemed determined to silence all opposition to what they were doing.

The Explorers, the shell namespace, and the sabotage of Windows NT File Manager are a case in point. Your systems do not educate, they numb. You are not interested in getting users up to speed, but in keeping them as slow as possible. And as long as you can induce your competition to release bugware and bloatware, you can keep it up too.

Not everyone lives to dominate the world or amass enough capital to buy it outright. Some people can still remember what the art of programming is all about. Some people can still want to produce good software. Some people can still care about their users and respect them.

We invite you to try our product. We'd prefer if you pay cash.

Rick Downes
John C Cattelin

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