Tech History

Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratchYou either loved it, or were using it wrong.

Matthew Guay traces how Lotus Notes — which launched in 1989 with encryption, rich text, file attachments, and a synced database before any of those features existed in standard email — was eventually defeated not by being worse than competitors but by being too unfamiliar. The essay is a history of a product so far ahead of its time that its interface became its downfall.

Essay · Tech History · Email · Software Design · Collaboration

Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

This newsletter post surfaces a 2003 internal email in which Bill Gates tried to download Windows Movie Maker from Microsoft's own website and found the process so broken, confusing, and slow that he could not complete it. Sent to senior engineering executives, the email became a point-by-point critique of Windows usability and Microsoft's web properties.

Newsletter · Tech History · Microsoft · Windows · Usability