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Writing on the Windows Vista blog, the co-president of Microsoft's Platform and Services Division said that the comments, taken from an email he sent to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in 2004, were a rant intended to encourage a change in the way the company was developing Windows at the time.

'This

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email is nearly three years old, and I was being purposefully dramatic in order to drive home a point,' he wrote. 'The point being that we needed to change and change quickly. We did: We changed dramatically the development process that was being used and we reset the Windows Vista development project in mid-2004, essentially starting over.'

The result, he says, is that two and a half year later Vista has turned into a phenomenal product.

'The spirit of being self-critical continues to flourish at Microsoft,' he wrote. 'Within Microsoft everyone considers it their duty to always put their convictions and our product quality ahead of everything else. That was the intent of my mail to Bill and Steve, and I consider it a great example of how this company can focus and do what's right for customers.'

The contents of Allchin's 2004 email were revealed as evidence in an ongoing Iowa private class-action lawsuit against Microsoft.