The full text of the article quoted Gates saying he sent emails like that all the time - that was his job. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821...

I do think the confusion was real. And it kind of makes sense when you think about it.

Bill Gates was very involved in Microsoft code, to the point where he used to review all code, even after Microsoft was no longer a tiny startup. He was a programmer, after all.

But that kind of thing doesn't scale. Especially when you have thousands of programmers, dozens of divisions all with "product managers", and many many products..

He obviously tried to stay in touch with Microsoft products as best as he could. But his role changed over time in his company - he could no longer be the chief code writer.