Todd Bishop has published a 2003 e-mail from Bill Gates to some Microsoft developers. It’s basically Bill complaining about certain Windows features not working, and others being so convoluted that it’s irrational to expect a rational person to go through this hell to get an update or a piece of free software.

Read Bill’s entire e-mail here, it’s worth it.

The e-mail is fascinating for two reasons. First one is the fact that it’s such a genuine complaint, although it’s coming from Bill Gates. Had I or anyone else written the same thing, I bet there would be commenters who would proclaim us ignorant, lazy, or both. When it comes from Bill, well, it’s hard to pull that argument because he’s obviously not biased against Microsoft, he’s not lazy, and he’s not ignorant: he’s biased in favor of Microsoft, and he’s trying hard to do something with one of their products, but he cannot because - simply put - it sucks.