BG: "...no significant bugs in our software..."

[vortexau]

Bill Gates says There are no significant bugs in our released software that any significant number of users want fixed. In an interview for German weekly magazine FOCUS, Microsoft`s Mr. Bill Gates III has made some statements about software quality of MS products. BG:"If you really think there's a bug you should report a bug. Maybe you're not using it properly." He says that any problems are through ".... Luddites don't know how to use software properly," BG:"We don't do a new version to fix bugs. We don't."

[vortexau]

umisef asked:

Is this the interview they did in 1995? If so, it's somewhat old news.......

Yes- its from 1995! But can you concer that Win3.11 would have had "no significant bugs ... ect"; and what about that Encarta-Encyclopaedia?

Moving on to 1997...

Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 06:03:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Olin Shivers
To: sunday-lunch-list
Subject: Losing $35
Reply-to: shivers@ai.mit.edu

No lunch on Sunday, I am afraid.

Having just concluded a continuous 14-hour conversation with technical support people at Microsoft, my weekend plans have been altered to simply sleep.

The original topic was, "Why am I able to use my floppy drive in DOS, but not in Windows on the (brand new) Pentium box Hillary just bought, with the (brand new) Win95 installation?" Microsoft promised to resolve the issue, or refund my up-front consultation fee. Thirty-five bucks. (You're way ahead of me, I'm sure.) Did I mention this box had plug 'n play hardware and BIOS? Takes care of installation and configuration *automatically*.

Fourteen hours later, however, the issues had become much deeper and more richly textured. Hillary, who Just Doesn't Get It, wanted to break off the phone call and go return the system around hour five. And hour ten. I told her to shut the #### up and go home. Things had gotten beyond "fixing" the "computer."

I did get to know three technical support staff rather well; I was certainly impressed by their perseverance and courteousness. They were a little frightened by my focus, I think -- senior technical consultant #3 kept checking the logs he'd gotten from junior technical consultants #1 and #2, and asking me if I'd really been having a continuous conversation since 2 pm. He also kept getting concerned that I was running up a painful phone bill. I told him it was OK, not to worry about it. I didn't tell him I'd managed to get in on an 800 number (which entitles me to chalk up the $35 I paid them as a "pyrrhic failure," I guess).

In the end, Win95 had been reinstalled 3 times, from scratch. Individual drivers had been downloaded off the net and installed dozens of times. The system had been rebooted on average once every 3 minutes, I would estimate, for well over half a day. At some point, each of my floppy, cd rom, serial ports, modem, and display had all worked. For one golden moment, they had all worked. But upon the next reboot, it all vanished, a fleeting, evanescent moment of forever-after unattainable satori.

Needless to say, neither the system nor the floppy drive now work. But I certainly learned a very valuable lesson from the experience, and one would have to be mean-spirited and churlish not to consider the $35 fee that currently remains on my credit card anything but a welcome reminder of such hard-earned wisdom. A cash mnemonic, as it were.

My current plans, beyond abandoning my friends for the weekend, center around going to Lechemere, and returning their Pentium system (which was really cheap, by the way -- it's truly remarkable what a bargain I got on the thing) by the simple expedient of hurling the box from the sun-roof of my car through some convenient plate-glass window, en passant.

I might add that when the revolution comes, and the mob at the factory gates drags Bill Gates screaming from behind the wheel of his Porsche 959, I, for one, will not be there to urge clemency.

Good night.
-Olin

Think BG's mindset has changed any?

[vortexau]

Paul_Gadd advised:

Lets talk about Amiga companies bullshit promises in 1995 aswell.

(emphasis V)vortexau you really need to set your calendar to 2003 instead of posting links to 8 year old articles.

History is history, pal. What's that about "he who disregards history is doomed to repeat it"?

BTW- What're your thoughts on WinCE as a product?, and how supervisor access to WinXP can be gained by using a Win2000 CD..... something not possible with Win2000 as the OS?

BTW2- What's your reaction to that '14 hour service phone call' story I posted just above?

Amiga companies in 1995 were involved with a no-longer-produced platform ... MS supplies to 95% of the market! Or, do you dispute this also?

[vortexau]

@Paul_Gadd-

Last I looked WinXP is a "2003+" software product.

Its not just "the past" ..... Who would dispute that MS products (contary to BG's words) still contain  a 'significant' amount of bugs?

The year is 2003 and it is time to look forward instead of finding faults with years old comments.

You don't find his/MS's atitude to users bug concerns relivant .. (even in "2003+")?

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-949018.html

Consumers unhappy with PC support
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
August 8, 2002, 1:08 PM PT

While consumers are paying less for their computers, a new survey shows they are also increasingly unhappy with the level of customer support they are getting with those PCs.

Consumer Reports magazine, which recently polled subscribers to its Web site, said this week that the results show customer satisfaction with technical support is down across the PC industry.

"It's significantly down," said Mark Kotkin, assistant director of survey research for Consumer Reports. Consumers are particularly concerned with increased time spent on hold as well as dropped calls to technical support, Kotkin said.



The lone bright spot in the survey was Apple Computer, which grabbed the top spot in the survey with a score of 74 out of 100 and was the only company to earn higher marks this year than it did last year.

( Can it be that, inspite of staying on the subject myself, you are not noticing this fact and thus keep trying to introduce subjects-of-concern in Amiga history? Why not start your own thread on "What I, Paul_Gadd, find alarming in the course of Amiga History"? )

[vortexau]

mips_proc joined Paul_Gadd, in wanting to change this discussion from BG to Amiga, jointly not starting his/their own forum thread:

...if you want to dig up ancient history why dont you dig up 'amiga'....

Like this?

Artari sues Amiga

or this?

Personal Computer World Show

But then I'd be straying from the topic! I'll leave that to you but please start your own forum thread/s. "bottom line is" BG's comments and attitude to his customers is an on-going event that effects users of that software still today.

Why is this something that you are incapable of comprehending?

.......................

(vortexau posting from a "nonviable platform" - "ancient history" computer running AWeb-II)