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Full text of Microsoft exec's "I'd buy a Mac" e-mail

Remember that incident where a Microsoft Executive said that if he didn't work for Microsoft that he'd personally buy a Mac? Today's Seattle Pi has uncovered the full text of that e-mail. You can download a copy of it here (PDF). "I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way," he wrote. "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. If you run the equivalent of VPC on a MAC you get access to basically all Windows application software (although not the hardware). Apple did not lose their way."

Allchin points Gates and Ballmer to an Apple video, highlighting their philosophy. "They think simple. They think fast...If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux and Apple, we need to start taking the lessons of 'scenario, simple, fast' to heart."

In the end, it's not about who wins--Apple or Microsoft--but delivering the best possible product to the consumer, which is why I personally buy Mac. I'd be thrilled, however, to see Microsoft step up its game and take the lessons of Apple to heart.

[via Microsoft-Watch]

Thanks Rich and Mike



 

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Pascal Majon

Not surprising. Jim Allchin was the lead PM on many versions of Windows. iLife blows any of the embedded Microsoft tools away. iLife is the reason to switch a home user from Windows to Mac. And LH (Vista) IS a pig. They say it will run on 512 MB RAM but when have Microsoft's sys requirement estimates been accurate? Windows XP's minimum RAM requirements are 128 MB. It can barely boot up, much less run applications with that amount of RAM. We won't move to Vista until the hardware requirements are cheap enough to run it WELL, not just barely. Useability is also an issue. Hopefully that will get better with Vista and the redesigned Office '07 interface. Hopefully it's not too little, too late. The Apple snowball is rolling. Fast.

January 14 2007 at 4:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
marcus

In PPC days, there is Virtual PC from Connectix. So it is still plausible.

January 13 2007 at 10:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Aaron

#20: You are a dumbass. Of course you can run Windows on a non-Intel Mac! It's a program called "VirtualPC", made by Connectix and purchased by MICROSOFT. It emulated the Intel processor and all supporting circuitry, allowing nearly 100% compatibility with any x86 software (albeit through slow emulation).

January 13 2007 at 1:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shawn

It was Allchin who convinced Gates and Ballmer to start Longhorn over. Allchin was also the Microsoft exec who *led* the Windows Vista team. If this note is authentic, it was probably part of the case he made to make Windows Vista the operating system it is today, even though it's very late.

From a Wall Street Journal article in 2005:

"Windows is broken and Microsoft has admitted it. In an unprecedented attempt to explain its Longhorn problems and how it abandoned its traditional way of working, the normally secretive software giant has given unparalleled access to The Wall Street Journal, even revealing how Vice President Jim Allchin, personally broke the bad news to Bill Gates.

"Allchin is co-head of the Platform Products and Services Division. 'It's not going to work,' he told Gates in the chairman's office, the paper reports. '[Longhorn] is so complex its writers will never be able to make it run properly.' The reason: Microsoft engineers were building it just as they had always built software. Thousands of programmers each produced their own piece of computer code, to be stitched together into one sprawling program. But Longhorn/Vista was too complex: Microsoft needed to begin again, Allchin told Gates. Allchin's warning recognised a growing threat from Google, Apple Computer, makers of Linux and corporate buyers - the latter horrified about security problems. Allchin and a small team demanded a revolution in how Microsoft works."


January 13 2007 at 12:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mike erickson

To Mr. Joe who wrote:
20. What the heck? This has to be a fake...

Didn't Apple switch to Intel in 2006, and that the e-mail was sent in Jan of 2004?

How could you run a MS OS on an Apple before they switched to Intel?

the answer- you can't... this is a fake..

Are YOU that stupid? You've always been able to run WINDOWS on a MAC whether it be software or hardware who cares? The FACT is you can and WINDOWS can't..... It really does hurt now doesn't it? As far as being "fake" not hardly - It is like a Ford vs Chevy - It really does not matter - It is more of a case of a machine that works and one that does not.....GO MAC :-)

January 13 2007 at 12:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Pixelmutt

VPC for Mac has been around for many years. Maybe you're fake.

January 12 2007 at 10:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shane Lloyd

Actually, you could run Windows on the Mac for years and years before they switched to Intel processors. You used a product called Virtual PC, later bought out by Microsoft, that emulated and x86 platform on PowerPC. Now, with intel processors you can run the Windows OS natively through Intel virtualization, which means it essentially runs at full speed. Emulation of Virtual PC was rather slow. Sorry to burst your bubble.

January 12 2007 at 6:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David McElroy

This is NOT a fake. It's a document on file in a current court case. And if you don't understand what VPC is, this isn't the place to try to explain it to you. (And it's also a good bet that it's why VPC for the Mac was discontinued.)

January 12 2007 at 6:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adam

Joe Mama, virtual PC existed long before intel macs, emulating an x86 processor on which you could run Windows or another OS.

January 12 2007 at 6:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Doe

Joe Mama,

It's called Virtual PC. That's how you run MS OS on a Mac prior to the Intel transition.

January 12 2007 at 6:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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