Your Chance to Meet Bill Gates 529
tcak writes "From the CNET article: "You could meet the chairman of Microsoft, but you'll have to profess a passion for Windows first. Microsoft is looking for true stories about people using Windows computers to pursue a passion or hobby. The company plans to use them in a marketing blitz tied to the 20th anniversary of Windows' debut. ""
Apple's Switch (Score:3, Interesting)
It does drive my passion: (Score:2, Interesting)
Do I win?
Linux users need not apply. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Passion (Score:3, Interesting)
Too late Bill (Score:2, Interesting)
Boy, I regret bashing Macintosh in elementary school years...
And oh, there is alot of Windows fans. I know, becuse I seen them. And most of the time, they're really aren't a nerd, or they're a hardcore gamer. Which is a type of nerd too infact...
I would gladly meet Bill gates thought, even if Steve Ballmer would be a more funny guy.
Re:Apple's Switch (Score:5, Interesting)
*I'd never block Microsoft's ads, sometimes I even click them in order to give the site some free money from Microsoft.
Re:Passion (Score:5, Interesting)
So yup, I have had the chance to work with two or three MS and Windows fanboys/zealots, whatever
Passion = yes, gratefull = yes, Annoyed = HELL YES (Score:5, Interesting)
If it wasn't for MS, IBM would prolly still be stong-arming the MainFrame Only sales pitch. Yes Apple was first, but it just didn't catch on the way that Windows did.
I don't like his products (although Outlook2003 is damn spiffy), I don't like his embrace/engulf style, but I do love the fact that without him I wouldn't have the career that I do today. I owe him thanks.
C64 -> WFWG 3.11 -> OS/2 v3 & v4 -> Linux
I believe that MS-DOS 6.22 was the best OS that Microsoft has ever made.
Without the millions of home PC's running Windows, we would still be using 486's running at 100MHz.
Thank-you Bill. Now please just go away.
Re:Passion (Score:3, Interesting)
I realise this guy is an aberration but whenever I read a complaint about "Open Source Zealots" or whomever, I remember this guy.
Re:Passion (Score:4, Interesting)
So, here I am, forced to develop dynamic web content in (hackcoughspit) ASP.NET, re-inventing the wheel each time because you Just Don't Get the equivalent of CPAN for proprietary MS-culture languages, on my local machine, to be deployed on servers currently too old to run the
Typical Quote: Our "Director of Innovation" (that's "innovation" in the Microsoft sense, too) once noticed FileZilla on my machine. His reaction? "Get that dirty free software off my machines right now". Oh yes, and every project anyone undertakes has to be done in a language he can speak, just in case they ever decide to leave and he decides to start managing it directly himself.
He only can only code in VB.
Apparently he once tried to learn C for three weeks, but gave up "because it was too hard".
Oh yeah, and this is a multi-million-GPB company.
True stories (Score:2, Interesting)
Windows Zelots push the fact that they put in a lot of time and effort into it, and they just can't turn back now.
I think you're right:
Me at Work: I just installed Messenger Plus on 6.2 instead of installing 7.0, now I can turn off the ads. ...
Actual MS Zealot at Work: That's full of spyware, why not make a request to MS for that feature in the next version of MSN and wait for that?
Me:
At least zealots will try to defend their position, or kill you when you argue with them. I was provided no such relief.
Steve Jobs? (Score:2, Interesting)
I actually would enjoy talking with Bill, but I can't generate the same amount of enthusiasm when talking about Office or the TabletPC I use at work.
Sigh.