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Windows' Worst Mistakes: From Clippy To Vista

10Comments | Ellis Booker | October 25, 2012 09:09 AM

Microsoft Windows has hit more than a few bumps in its 27-year history. As Windows 8 launches, let's review some of the low points.

Windows' Worst Mistakes: From Clippy To Vista

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Gates' TV Spot

During the dark days of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust investigation against Microsoft in 2000, tone-deaf forces within Microsoft's corporate marketing organization apparently thought it would be helpful to put the company's founder and chairman, Bill Gates, on the airwaves to speak directly to the American people.

The resulting "fireside chat" TV commercial, featuring Gates wearing a blue sweater and seated at a table while an acoustic guitar played, was meant to soften the prevailing image of Microsoft as a monopolistic bully. In what some would call a cringe-worthy statement, Gates says at one point: "We've been writing great software for the past 25 years."

Anyhow, few people remember the ad. Much more memorable was the Internet meme a few years later that envisioned Gates as a Borg, declaring, "Resistance is futile."

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