Peter Rojas has published an interview with Microsoft’s “Chief Software Architect” Bill Gates for Engadget. Among other topics, Gates doesn’t seem to think that Apple’s switch to Intel chips makes a difference for Microsoft:
Rojas: A few months ago Apple announced that it was switching to Intel for its processors. How does this affect Microsoft?
Gates: It doesn’t really change anything for us. Apple has always leveraged technologies that the PC industry has driven to critical mass, the bus structures, the graphics cards, the peripherals, the connection networks, things like that, so they’re kind of in the PC ecosystem and kind of not. Now they’re taking advantage of the Intel chip. The users don’t really care what’s inside the machine in terms of the processor. There is a certain irony that we’ve got a game box that uses the same processor Apple used to use, and now they don’t use that. We have compilers that can take Intel code and make PowerPC code or take PowerPC code and make Intel code, we’ve got emulators. The flexibilities back and forth between the CPU environments is actually pretty high nowadays.
Rojas: Do you worry that they might decide to make the operating system available to anybody?
Gates: No, that’s fine. In a sense whenever you buy a new machine you’ve always had the choice of buying a Mac OS machine versus a Windows OS machine, so it’s the same flexibility. We even had on the PowerPC this thing called Virtual PC that lets you get Windows capability over on their hardware.
Rojas: So you don’t worry about Apple opening things up so an OEM like Sony could offer OS X?
Gates: Well, the last time Apple went out and licensed their operating system to people they changed their minds and they bankrupted all the people who had been involved in that, and I don’t know if we’ll see another round of Apple tantalizing people with that or not.
Full interview with much more here.
MacDailyNews Take: Either Gates can’t see the possibilities or, much more likely, he can, but won’t dare acknowledge them (although he did miss a little thing called the Internet so badly that Microsoft decided they had to illegally abuse their monopoly in order to correct that minor oversight). Note: Virtual PC for Mac still seems to be available via Microsoft’s “Mactopia” website.
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Did anyone else see this “We even HAD on the PowerPC this thing called Virtual PC” Had, as in past tense….. Any importance there?
what’s up with the past tense here:
“We even HAD on the PowerPC this thing called Virtual PC that lets you get Windows capability over on their hardware”
mw – hell….hahahahahahahahahahaha
hey wanderer! brilliant minds…
Gate’s VIEW is interesting…first I like his spin on how Microsoft “had” VirtualPC for the PPC – as if they did anything other than buy that software.
Second, I like his subtle comparison of a Mac to the XBox because they both had PPC chips.
Realistically, Gates is probably not at all worried about Windows OS licenses because Apple is small potatoes in the business PC market place…what this probably is worrying him about is the DRM war that Microsoft is not winning.
This is great. Either he is wearing a huge poker and face and deep down he’s wetting his pants, OR he really really doesn’t see the true genius of what Apple is doing and they will get caught completely blindsighted.
Given Gates prior ability to completely miss the boat on technologies until after other people have implemented them, I suggest the latter.
hammer – Gates was an avid poker player so you never know. He might be wetting his pants and be able to keep a straight face.
As for telling what to come, Gates was actually more interested in his poker nights when Paul Allen formerly pulled him out of it and forced him to see that now was the time to act – that they should get down to making software because the microcomputer was on its way.
I think innovation at MS disappeared with Allen. Gates might be an intelligent enough person, but intellectually probably more of a lazy slob who just wanted to find a way to get rich fast…
I love the title Chief Software Architect. Like BG has ever written anything on his own before, or like he does now. I believe the article had a misspelling, and it should have actually been Chief Software Arch-Enemy.
Maybe I’m alone here, but I think, if anything, MS is probably happy about Apple switching to Intel. Apple has said they have no plans to let other box makers use OS X, but that Windows will work on the new Macs. If that holds true, this switch only means more sales of Windows to put on Macs. They have nothing to fear with this switch.
Even if Apple does decide to license OS X to other box makers, they probably don’t have anything to fear because Windows is too deeply ingrained in business and society. Most people are never going just up and switch because most PC users don’t even know they use Windows let alone know that there are other options. Even if they did, they’re scared to try something new.
The comment about Virtual PC may have been very telling though. Interesting.
Sounds like a big river in Egypt…
Metryq: that is great i love funny takes.
ndelc wrote:
“Most people are never going just up and switch because most PC users don’t even know they use Windows let alone know that there are other options.”
Thats fine becasue guess what, most people really raen’t Mac types anyway. Joe Nascar is not Apple’s market. Apple makes a premium product and people in that demographic don’t get nuance, which is what makes the platform work well. They are just interested in just good enough. There is such a thing as a quality customer and there are plenty out there using PC’s that would be great Mac users. Thats what Apple needs to go for, not the masses. Besides, Apple doesnt have the current capacity in manufacuring or support to see a dramatic shift in market share
Keep in mind that even a 1/2% increase in market share is worth BILLIONS in revenues to Apple, so it’s not like they have to double overnight to make progress.
See – Apple is smarter than you think.. Sell a Mac to the Home user that runs OSX and runs windows – People can boot windows to do that little project from work and then switch to OSX for all the home stuff, Media stuff Internet etc – Eventually all of these home users will start bucking the system at their workplaces to have Macs installed to actually get work done.
ndelc,
Gates has nothing to fear immediately unless, of course, Macs will run Windows software without needing Windows itself:
Is Steve Jobs prepping ‘The Cupertino Project’ – Intel-based Macs that will run Windows apps, too?
Longer term, everyone I know who has used a Mac for longer than a week understands that Windows is crap. So, if Macs will run both Mac and Windows, but a Dell or HP can only run Windows, a lot more people will be choosing a Mac for their next PC. Then they’ll be able to see Mac OS X vs. Windows for themselves. That simply can’t be beneficial for Microsoft.
Memo to Gates (cribbed from an earlier MDN Take): Karma’s a bitch.
i agree with ndelc’s comments. I also believe Microsoft will be relevant for years. What’s the operating system that people in China and India are using. Where’s Apple in those markets? Everyone uses MS Office.
So what will make people switch? OS agnostic apps?
Beautiful hardware? A killer app? A killer virus? iPods? Even if i could run both OS’s on my computer, as a Windows user, why should i care? Viruses? if i get a virus when i’m running Windows on my Mac and it still screws my harddrive then there’s still no benefit.
a real post (wow)…
people have hinted that one could run Windows AND Mac OS X on one of the new Mac Intel boxes, but i would love to see Virtual PC running at full-speed in a window inside Mac OS X. just think; you could conceivably do it, since there would be no more need for emulation, really….and you wouldn’t need to reboot.
Gates doesn’t care about PC hardware, he doesn’t make it. If Windows is allowed to run on an Intel/Mac, he still has the same opportunity to sell Windows and software. His only real worry (poker faced) is that people will prefer OSX and it’s native apps to Windows software. And, he’s probably too enamored with Vista to see a problem in that regard.
It’s the CEOs of Dell and Gateway that should be worried.
Good point Fred. I forgot about that. It will be interesting to see if that comes to fruition. Although, isn’t it possible that MS could alter the APIs to break that functionality if used? I’m not a programmer, so I don’t know but I do know that MS would do whatever is necessary to protect themselves.
Hammer, you’re absolutely right.
I’m sure M$ are pretty worried about the steps Apple has been taking for several years now. Here’s their problem though:
1. Windows has so many problems there is nothing they can do to patch them all. They’re losing the OS war, but are hanging on cos the investment businesses and individuals have made on PCs and software.
2. M$ are badly losing the MP3 player war. Apple have a virtual lock on the market because their design is so far superior. Whilst this may change, the fact that with all the advantages of getting every other manufacturer to use their sofware, M$ still can’t beat Apple.
3. M$ haven’t sussed out how to do the Media Center thing yet. The lack of style and design will mean that any M$ solution will be far inferior to Apple. If Apple do come out with a Media center tomorrow it will be the industry leader within the year. How that plays out in the whole entertainment business is another thing. There are a lot more players involved that just Apple and M$.
4. If Apple provide an extremely competitive solution to cheap PCs and laptops, then M$ will start to seriously lose market share. At some point, Apple will have to open up Mac OS X to other PC makers and make their money thorugh licensing and OS sales. I guess that will happen when market share reaches 10-20 %.
5. The only thing left is Office. I’m sure Apple has plans in place to provide Office solutions that will enable any business reliant on Office to migrate if M$ pulls the plug on the OS X version.
The big question is, can Bill Gates be bother to fight all of this? He’s made his billions, proved his point. Now he’s mired in his bullying attitude. Sooner or later that won’t work. There are enough businesses, manufacturers and individuals tired of Windows, that collectively will stand up and refuse to play the game anymore.
“Bill Gates: Apple’s Intel switch doesn’t really change anything for Microsoft”
No, really?
Peter Rojas said: “PlaysForSure works on a variety of different audio-centric devices, regardless of what sort of operating system, so to speak, they run on”
Since when does “PlaysForSure” work on OS X?
Microsoft has seen the future and it is developing the Xbox. That is their key to everything via the internet for them.
Microsoft is more worried about Google and Yahoo and IBM than Apple.
Apple just has some kind of jinx it can´t get out of to convince the public to buy Apple computers.
I think in ten years time we will see a new dominance in the market place and it wont be Microsoft.
If I were them, I’d worry…
Christopher Powers
I think Billy Boy truly sees no threat. When you tell a lie long enough, such as “people like Windoze,” you begin to believe it yourself after a while. He probably truly thinks nothing has changed.
As regards his use of the past tense with Virtual PC, there’s no hidden meaning there. He used past tense to describe Apple’s use of the PPC, even though – up through today anyhow – that’s the only thing Apple is shipping (and even after tomorrow, Apple will still be shipping PPC’s). Billy Boy probably wasn’t an English major… nor is it likely he ever got an “A” in grammar.
ndelc writes: “Apple has said they have no plans to let other box makers use OS X, but that Windows will work on the new Macs.”
No, Apple said they would do nothing to preclude Windoze from running; they did not say it would run without modifications.
Microsoft are’nt just virtually PC (pronounced pissy), the are in reality
Neil writes: “At some point, Apple will have to open up Mac OS X to other PC makers”
No, they won’t have to do any such thing, and it would be a mistake to do so. But i agree with your other points.
Evert r. writes: “ Apple just has some kind of jinx it can´t get out of to convince the public to buy Apple computers”
That “jinx” is called lack of advertising.
[I]Gates: It doesn’t really change anything for us. Apple has always leveraged technologies that the PC industry has driven to critical mass, the bus structures, the graphics cards, the peripherals, the connection networks, things like that, so they’re kind of in the PC ecosystem and kind of not.[/I]
What a lying, deluded sack of s**t this man is.
The 1.44MB floppy (or so-called micro-floppy), used by Apple whilst the rest of industry were using 5.25″ pieces of almost completely flexible card.
TCP/IP was in use by the mainstream (i.e minicomputing) industry long before the PC industry got its hands on it. And for years, MSFT continued to promote such delights as NetBIOS and Netbeui, whilst simultaneously promoting the utter fscking nightmare that was the WINS (Windows Internet Naming System) resource location service.
Apple had seamless usage of more than 640K long before Windows – ah, the delights of HIMEM.SYS and EMM386 under DOS and Windows all the way to Windows 95.
Plug and Play – available under NuBus back in the late Eighties. Finally available in Windows (after a fashion) in August 1995.
I could go on…