Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a little fun during his Macworld keynote with a quote from Jim Allchin, who is co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division. Basically, the guy that was running the Windows Vista development, that was then code-named Longhorn.

Jim Allchin’s “I would buy a Mac” statement was an opportunity for Jobs, to quote a Windows executive saying he would “buy a Mac if he did not work for Microsoft” making the crowd applause. As I think this was all in fun and to get a “rise” out of the Mac faithful, I thought it might be interesting to get some context to Allchin’s statement from the now famous internal email that has became public. Especially since Windows Vista looks so much like a blatant copy of OS X and Microsoft’s Zune was a badly attempted copy of Apple’s iPod.

Mr. Allchin, a longtime Microsoft executive had sent internal emails to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer on January 7, 2004 complaining about the state of development of Microsoft Windows. He apparently spends some time checking out Apple’s products, website, and MacWorld keynotes. One particular video on the Apple site for iLife ’04 must of connected with Jim and he wished he was working for Steve Jobs and Apple instead of Microsoft after seeing Longhorn (LH), or Late-Horn as many were then calling it, spiral nowhere.

Microsoft actually is said to employ a technical assistant dedicated to deleting Mr. Gates’ email. “It is a corporate policy not to make a permanent record of Bill’s works…The job duties of the technical assistant require him to delete email files from Mr Gates’ computer weekly.” Apparently this directive appeared after the recent US Government antitrust case, where many emails showed Microsoft’s anticompetitive policy.

Turns out that in a (non-deleted) 2004 email, Jim Allchin, a senior executive, told Gates that if he didn’t work for Microsoft, he’d buy a Mac. The email was submitted as evidence by attorney Richard Hagstrom in an Iowa court, on the second day of Comes vs. Microsoft, an class action lawsuit against the software maker that alleges unfair business practices harmed consumers. This internal email Allchin had sent, of course was never meant to be seen by the general public, especially Microsoft’s customers.

The internal e-mail sent to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer on January 7, 2004:

This is a rant. I’m sorry.

“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. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems are customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn’t translate into great products.

“I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. If you run the equivalent of VPC [Virtual PC] on a Mac you get access to basically all Windows application software (although not the hardware). Apple did not lose their way. You must watch this new video below. I know this doesn’t show anything for businesses, but my point is about the philosophy that Apple uses. They think scenario. They think simple. They think fast. I know there is nothing hugely deep in this.

“http: //www.apple.com/ilife/video/ilifeO432C.html [Note: Link is now dead]

“I must tell you everything in my soul tells me that we should do what I called plan (b) yesterday. We need a simple fast storage system. LH [Longhorn] is a pig and I don’t see any solution to this problem. 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. Jim”

Court transcripts also show in submitted evidence that Allchin and Brian Valentine, senior vice president Windows division, encouraged employees to delete messages. In fact, Valentine’s order requires employees to get rid of all email after 30 days no matter where it is. And it is unequivocal.’

Allchin had sent this email to Ballmer and Gates the day following Steve Jobs’ 2004 Macworld keynote. Apple had just announced the iPod mini and an updated iLife suite, adding the new application, GarageBand. The iLife `04 video Allchin seemed to enjoy so much is no longer linked to on Apple’s Web site, but you can view what I believe is the correct video here. You can download a copy of Jim Allchin’s email in PDF.

A few months after this email, Microsoft was said to start over with Windows Longhorn (now Vista) development using the Windows Server code base. The Plan B that Allchin referred to in his email to Ballmer and Gates I suppose. Allchin called Longhorn “a pig,” probably because of WinFS, a new file system Microsoft has been promising for many years. Microsoft pulled it from the Windows operating system.

Jim Allchin wrote on his blog on December 12, 2006, in a post called Setting The Record Straight, that the email was written 3 years ago, and that he was “being purposefully dramatic to drive home a point,” that the development process was subsequently overhauled, and that, as a result, Windows Vista is “far better than any other software available today.”

I agree with Dave Pogue from the New York Times that Microsoft probably put OS X on an easel in from of the Windows development team and said, “Copy this.”

It is true that Microsoft and Apple have both copied each other. Microsoft being the much bigger copy-cat. In fact, for years Steve Jobs has joked that Apple has been Microsoft’s best and cheapest R&D project. The recently released Zune and Windows Vista takes the Redmond copy machine to an entirely new level.

Anyway, Allchin’s email is no smoking gun, but it does give you a sense of what was going on at Microsoft at the time. I wonder how many emails have floated around the Microsoft campus comparing the Zune to the iPod!

As Steve Jobs said in his keynote, “Jim is retiring soon, so I’ve alerted our Seattle stores to keep an eye out for him and give him really good service.”

We in the Mac community would welcome Mr Allchin as we have all the other Windows switchers. Hey, Jim read my blog, it can not only help you “Think Different” and be more productive, you can have fun doing it without any “blue screens of death.” We can welcome you to the “blue screen of life.” Get that Mac we ALL know you really want!

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