Comments on: Microsoft fails, even for Bill Gates

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:46:29 +0000

Facts as of now:

# 21.78% My organisation has already moved over to Office 2007
# 23.76 % We are using Office 2007 on just some of our PCs
# 7.92 % We plan to implement Office 2007 within the next 6 months

Still not a great take up whichever way you cut it. My sense is the usability stuff they did wasn't thorough enough. The ribbon menus are horribly confusing for those with years of the other kind. Same old, same old problems when trying to make something better methinks.

Over to you Gary – or should I say #345128A/Q-UU ?

By: Gary Turner

Gary Turner — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:20:04 +0000

Dennis, not being picky but – according to the IT Counts survey, more than 45% have moved to Office 2007 (albeit half that number have only partially their org to it) with a further 8% planning to do so in the next 6 months.

I also think it would have been more alarming if an internal email from Gates praised the efforts on what (presumably) was a WIP project that failed to make the grade?

And I haven't been chipped yet, despite appearances.

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:00:44 +0000

@Steve – yes, absolutely. Only problem is: he still can't mobilize the troops. That should tell us something about the health of the company.

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:49:41 +0000

@steve: absolutely. Pity we don't see more of it. Pity the Blue Monster got caught in MSFT PR's clutches.

By: steve clayton

steve clayton — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:18:58 +0000

fun reading for sure but think of it this way – how many other executives in his position would have gone through this, documented and been so critical with the aim of improving? self criticism isn't a bad thing to have IMHO

kinda what Jeff is saying I guess

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:15:10 +0000

"You can’t pay writers to come up with this stuff!" – you can't – that's why the Irregulars are such a good bunch of people. Oh – you meant the story itself? Right.

By: Keith Brooks

Keith Brooks — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:07:30 +0000

You can't pay writers to come up with this stuff!
You can of course ask what system was Bill using that whole time that he never had seen windows updates or any of the other items.
Most likely he was using MS Mail from 15 years prior on his own special modified Jet mail system because he could never be bothered to get trained on how to use this Outlook program someone dreamed up.