Allchin wants a Mac

I've been a pretty harsh critic of Jim Allchin, a senior executive at Microsoft, in the past, but Pam @ Groklaw has this tasty piece today from Allchin that mostly redeems him:

Almost three years ago, on January 7, 2004, Jim Allchin, the senior executive at Microsoft, sent an E-mail to Microsoft's top two executives, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, and the subject was losing our way.

Mr. Allchin says,

I'm 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 our customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products.

He goes on to say,

I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.”

Of course you would, Jim, but now you can! Not only because you're retiring, but also because you can run Windows on the new Intel-based Macs. Lucky you! You didn't even have to quit Microsoft to have the pleasure of using a Mac. If only you'd known.... :-)