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Bill Gates launched his new search engine service today. On the front
page of MSN.com, he strikes a Peter Norton-esque pose and offers us
personal assurances that MSN search is more precise and more powerful
than before. He also wants us to try his new desktop file search
program designed to compete with Google's Desktop Search. What Bill
does not mention in his letter is that if you want to use his new
desktop search, install his search bar, or even try his video search,
you must first be running his Internet Explorer. Sorry, Bill.

In the days when Microsoft was young and Bill was King, he could ask us
to use his software and we would. Bill brought us standards, and Bill
crushed his competitors by delivering software that served our needs.
He gave us better spreadsheets, easier word-processing, and
successively friendlier and more powerful operating systems. Sure, he
didn't always succeed, but he was always trying. He kept working at it
until we were delighted. Somewhere along the way, however, Bill lost
interest in us. Bill got a little older. He became hard of hearing. His
software started gaining weight. Bill became complacent and stopped
trying to delight us. He started trying to figure out how he might
satisfy us with the absolute least amount of effort. He lost interest
in us and we in him.


01 February 2005

Dear Bill,

I am so happy for you and your new search engine. I hope it does
well for you. I can't tell you how it pains me to write this, but I
won't be able to use it. I have decided that I am not going to run
Internet Explorer anymore. It doesn't feel safe.

Every day I hear more stories of how people have given up Internet
Explorer for Firefox, so I know I am not alone in this decision. While
others may have been jealous of your success or afraid of your market
dominance, I have never been troubled by them. You have helped create
an industry, and I have always appreciated your contributions.

I shifted to Firefox in a moment of frustration. After spending two
days wrestling with your biggest OS update ever and finally getting it
installed, I loaded a news website and found out that yet another
critical security warning had been issued for IE. That was the last
straw. I switched.

I have been happy with my new browser. I like its speed. I like the
tabbed interface. I like that it stopped blocked popups the day I
loaded it without having to load yet another piece of software. I am
once again delighted to use my computer.

Again, I hope you do well with your new offering. I just wanted you
to know that you will have to do it without me.
-PY


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