In a 2004 email, Microsoft resignee Jim Allchin said to Bill Gates and Steve Balmer that he would "buy a Mac today" if he was not working at Microsoft. It's not hard to guess what one of his purchases was after he quit. Allchin went on to say that "Apple did not lose their way. They think scenario. They think simple. They think fast. There is nothing hugely deep about this."

Head on over here to see the email, but be warned, for it is a PDF.

Jim criticised Microsoft for its crummy handling in the media player department, too: in this memo - which is also a sodding PDF - Allchin said that the top Windows-based media player at the time, the Creative ZEN Ultra, is "not even close to iPod standards."

He didn't stop there, saying that his experience with the software and the device is "really terrible."

Jim's not the only Volish bloke with embarrassing statements out of the blue: the now-head of Windows Kevin Johnson bantered with Peter Houston about perhaps removing the Microsoft name from Vole-paid IDC study about the costs of Linux against Windows. "I don't like it to be public on the document that we sponsored the study because I don't think the outcome is as favourable as we hoped," Johnson said in 2002. Houston replied a few days later, saying that Vole had been unable to get any major firm other than IDC to do a similar study.

Lastly but certainly not least, co-founder of Deutschland's one time big computer maker Vobis, Theo Lieven, said that Vole used nasty little tricks to stop rival software firms from flogging kit to his company. Apparently, Lieven entered a contract on behalf of Vobis to ship the OS/2 Warp instead of MS DOS with his 'puters. Microsoft allegedly struck back by demanding an audit of all of the Vobis accounts. Oh, Vole, what will we do with Thee. µ