On the morning of the launch of the Vista operating system earlier this week, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates talked with Newsweek’s Steven Levy about the new version of Windows.
He also shared his views on the Apple “Get a Mac” television campaign and more.
Steven Levy: You also talk about improved security in Vista.
Bill Gates: Yes, although security is a [complicated concept]. You’re [referring to] the fact that there have been some security updates already for Windows Vista. This is exactly the way it should work. When somebody comes to us [after discovering a vulnerability] we’ve got [a fix] before there is any exploit. So it’s totally according to plan, and that’s why we have the whole Windows Update thing. We made it way harder for guys to do exploits. The number [of violations] will be way less because we’ve done some dramatic things [to improve security] in the code base. Apple hasn’t done any of those things.
Levy: Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?
Gates: I’ve never seen it. I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.
MacDailyNews Take: We call bullshit on that one: Gates has seen the Apple ads. Every single one and multiple times at that. If not, he’s not doing his job, which seems to be to spread FUD about Apple products, lie to interviewers, and pretend that Microsoft and innovation go hand-in-hand. If you believe Gates, we’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn with your name on it. If Gates had never seen a “Get a Mac” ad, he would not be able to state his next sentence about dullards and klutzes (riiight, someone just told him about the ads, instead of simply showing them to him). Most Windows PC users don’t think of themselves as dullards, but Gates sure does.
Levy: How about the implication that you need surgery to upgrade?
Gates: Well, certainly we’ve done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don’t know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don’t even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.
MacDailyNews Take: Gates is in rare form. Lying through his teeth while calling everyone else a liar. This guy’s gonna die in a hotel room in Vegas with 36-inch long fingernails if he keeps up with this level of delusion. Virtually every independent review that compares the two OSes says that Apple’s Mac OS X is clearly superior to Windows Vista. This with Mac OS X Leopard coming out in a few months. No wonder Gates has lost it. Most independent reviews discourage doing an upgrade from XP to Vista; “buy a new machine for Vista” is what they recommend when they’re not saying “switch to a Mac” outright.
Levy: In many of the Vista reviews, even the positive ones, people note that some Vista features are already in the Mac operating system.
Gates: You can go through and look at who showed any of these things first, if you care about the facts. If you just want to say, “Steve Jobs invented the world, and then the rest of us came along,” that’s fine. If you’re interested, [Vista development chief] Jim Allchin will be glad to educate you feature by feature what the truth is. I mean, it’s fascinating, maybe we shouldn’t have showed so publicly the stuff we were doing, because we knew how long the new security base was going to take us to get done. Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine. So, yes, it took us longer, and they had what we were doing, user interface-wise. Let’s be realistic, who came up with [the] file, edit, view, help [menu bar]? Do you want to go back to the original Mac and think about where those interface concepts came from?
MacDailyNews Take: Bill Gates is a liar currently trying to buy his way into heaven with ill-gotten gains. He’s also a vile, weasely dweeb with a massive, yet never-so-richly-deserved, inferiority complex. Steve Jobs has masterfully pushed all of Gates’ buttons and set the stage for interviewers to do the same which has obviously driven the nasty little bastard completely, utterly, and totally out of his mind. Tell us again how you brought Parental Controls to an OS for the first time with Vista, Billy boy. By the way, Bill Atkinson came up with “the file, edit, view, help menu bar” on the Mac. More about the history of where and how the Mac’s user interface originated, from the actual people who did the work, here. Oh, and thanks for the offer, Bill, we would love to be educated by Microsoft’s (former) Windows Chief Jim Allchin:
I’m not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers, both business and home, the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products… I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. – Excerpt from a 2004 email from Jim Allchin to Steve Balmer and Bill Gates
Full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: The reviews of Windows Vista speak for themselves. “Chrome-plated turd” is not ambiguous. Gates sees the end. His free ride on the back of ignorance is over. Gates sees his legacy, especially in comparison to the one Steve Jobs will leave, and it’s not pretty. Does he really think that he can buy – or lie – his way out of it? Not likely, Karma’s a bitch not easily escaped.
Related articles:
TIME Magazine: Microsoft’s Windows Vista ‘an embarassment to the good name of American innovation’ – February 02, 2007
Microsoft: Vista’s ‘speech recognition’ can be hijacked so that PC tells itself to delete files – February 01, 2007
Windows honcho Allchin retires from Microsoft on Vista launch day; now free to buy his Mac – February 01, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 2007
Those unfamiliar with Apple’s Mac OS X may be impressed with Windows Vista – January 29, 2007
Digit: ‘Microsoft’s Windows Vista may be the best reason yet to buy an Apple Mac’ – January 29, 2007
Pioneer Press: Windows Vista shows ‘Apple is an innovation engine; Microsoft, not so much’ – January 29, 2007
Windows Vista disappoints, so get a Mac – January 29, 2007
Microsoft emails reveal serious Mac OS X Tiger envy – January 26, 2007
Analyst: Microsoft’s Windows Vista could be an opportunity for Apple – January 26, 2007
CNET Reviews Windows Vista: Is that all? Clunky and not very intuitive vs. Mac OS X; warmed-over XP – January 24, 2007
Security firm: 38-percent of malware already Windows Vista-compatible – January 22, 2007
Mossberg: Microsoft’s Windows Vista offers lesser imitations of Apple’s Mac OS X features – January 18, 2007
Windows Vista disappointment drives longtime ‘Microsoft apologist’ to Apple’s Mac OS X – January 17, 2007
InformationWeek Review: Apple’s Mac OS X shines in comparison with Microsoft’s Windows Vista – January 06, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Microsoft’s Windows Vista: ‘Looks, Locks, Lacks’ – December 14, 2006
Forbes: Microsoft Windows Vista boss suffers from Mac envy – December 12, 2006
Windows chief Allchin 2004 email: I’d buy a Mac if I didn’t work for Microsoft – December 11, 2006
Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista, Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard will create no new jobs – December 12, 2006
15-year Windows vet tries Apple Mac: ‘My God! This is amazing!’ – December 04, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: obsolete on arrival? – December 04, 2006
InformationWeek: Now that Vista is the past, let’s look at the future: Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard – December 02, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Office 2007 releases generate yawns – December 02, 2006
Dave Winer: ‘Microsoft isn’t an innovator, and never was – they are always playing catch-up’ – December 01, 2006
Harvard Medical School CIO picks Mac OS X over Linux and Windows – November 30, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista vulnerable to malware from 2004 – November 30, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista developers used Apple Macs for inspiration – November 27, 2006
Apple Macs can run more software than Windows PCs – October 30, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista is basically Microsoft’s version of Mac OS 9.3 – October 11, 2006
Top Windows developer dumps Microsoft’s ‘pile of crap’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2006
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista: If you can’t innovate… try to impersonate Apple’s Mac OS X – August 10, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Microsoft botches another copy job: Windows Vista Flip3D vs. Apple Mac OS X Exposé – June 26, 2006
Windows Vista rips-off Mac OS X at great hardware cost (and Apple gains in the end) – June 13, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft going to get eaten alive over Windows Vista’s resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – March 09, 2006
NY Times’ Pogue on Gates’ CES demo: Most of Vista features unadulterated ripoffs from Apple Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Thurrott: many of Windows Vista’s upcoming features appeared first in Apple’s Mac OS X – September 26, 2005
PC World: Microsoft innovation – an oxymoron – September 14, 2005
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
A lifetime inferiority complex is finally coming to a head. Bill is gonna go postal.
Wow! Gates has lost it completely. The end is nigh.
Gates has truly lost his mind, my friends.
Microsoft needs to put out a patch for that bug up Bill’s ass…
What a retard. Gates, concentrate on giving away your ill-gotten gains to Africa. You don’t belong in this business.
The Emporer has no clothes.
Great take MDN! Lying bastard.
I love this guy. He talks about the 90% of the Windows users as if they CHOSE Windows!!!! He claims Windows has the market share it does people because people CHOOSE
to have Windows!!!
If you have a Dell or HP computer, you have NO choice but to get it with Windows.
Does Dell offer Linux? ( Redhat or Ubuntu? ) People are scared stiff to change from what they know, Windows. I think this is why MAcs are slowly edging in on the market. Because some people are confident enough to make that switch.
This guy needs to be challenged much more often in interviews.
MDN please set up an interview with this clown.
Too late to shut the gates… the Jobs is done
Gate: “We made it way harder for guys to do exploits.”
Umm, sure, so hard all I have to do is talk to my computer. Great!!!
“Gates: You can go through and look at who showed any of these things first,”
Please newsweek DO IT in a follow up story.
Please!!
Would love to have seen the interview. And the irony of Bill bringing up Allchin, who probably just bought his Mac for retirement.
Karma may be a bitch, but it’s something that only Mac users appreciate, as our OS truly has Karma.
I once dated a shitzu who had this same inferiority / persecution complex.
Like Gates, that bitch was always taking credit for things she didn’t really do.
Ehhh . . . maybe it was de viruses talking.
When I first read the Bill Gates quotes, my initial response was a desire to debate and debunk his statements. But as I read further I gained a new perspective. I’ll admit that I’m not objective because I am an Apple fan. But tell me, doesn’t Gates sound openly bitter? He’s supposed to be responding to comments comparing his produt to the Mac, but instead his unreasoning hatred for all things Mac is the message he’s sending.
I’d be interested in the thoughts of those who are not Mac fans (which I’m unlikely to find on this forum): Are Bill Gates comments so openly hostile that he loses all credibility?
This guy hasn’t lost his mind…his responses totally show just how really affected he is by the Mac and Steve Jobs and all the questions regarding Apple. This really bothers him, seeing him ramble on instead of just answer with a professional prepared answer. It used to burn me up seeing M$
ignore the fact that Apple even existed at all, but now it is obvious…and Billy knows the numbers…that Apple is really strong.
“Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally.”
Wow. Dude is at the breaking point.
They’re coming to take me away, ha ha!
They’re coming to take me away, ho ho!
…you know the rest
Poor old Billy Gates seem to suffering from old age and severe memory loss – poor boy…
Maybe he should go back to his padded cell and start counting all his billions again, just to make him feel better again.
Boy – is he seriously screwed. Just goes to show, all the money in the world and he still cant afford a decent shrink!
>bizarro balmer wrote: If you have a Dell or HP computer, you have NO choice but to get it with Windows.
Uhhh… if you buy a Mac you have NO choice but to get OSX.
So…. what’s your point?
The point is there are 10 companies selling computer with an OS that they didn’t create, and they are not offering any choices like Ubuntu, Mint, or Redhat (even though they’re free). Microsoft locked them out of offering anything else. Apple sells computers with an Operating system they made, and they openly say that you can run windows or any other OS on it at any time if need be. Apple clearly has no trouble letting their computers be used for other operating systems, but Microsoft has a problem with anybody using anything other than microsoft’s software. It’s completely immoral what Microsoft does to lock customers into Windows, and it all started with Bill’s aristocratic mommy paying for his company to be founded and then connecting it to IBM. Meanwhile, Apple started in their garage lead by a man who’s parents struggled to get him through school.
Bill, if he was a real pro, could have sold lots of copies of Vista and increased his sheep loyalty by simple saying…”Apple? Yeah, those guys occasionally come up with some good stuff…we like those guys”, but at the same time refer to them as if they are small potatoes. That would be smart. Instead, he let his bitter passion out of the bag…big mistake…pooping doesn’t sell more copies, it steps on people’s pride, comfort zone, and investment.
Quite funny to watch him squirm while being pressed about AAPL.
Bill, the game is up. You’re just a nerd who got lucky, and your luck is about to run out.
R.I.P. Bill Gates.
MPC Guy: Neither statement is true.
If you buy a Mac you can install Linux, Windows or Mac OS X on it (plus others). With PCs you can’t install OS X, so you have less choice.
Bill Gates has been in a state of denial since 1984.
Talk about superiority of the Vista is confirmed by the cartoon in the Ottawa Citizen dated February 2, 2007. ottawacitizen.com (this won’t bring up the cartoon)
It’s set in the store with a poster on the wall that says Windows Vista Has Arrived! The customer is looking at the iMac in the computers section, and says: Boy, Bill Gates and Microsoft are so innovative! That new Vista Interface on that Computer is Georgeous.
Salesman: Um, That’s a Macintosh Running OS X.
So: if even the Citizen is running cartoons like this, right after Vista has hit the shelves, even the masses are going to get the message that maybe they should a would a could a bought one of them there Apple thingmes, eh?
P.S. Ottawa is the Capital of Canada. That’s near the Nation of Quebec.
P.P.S. Bill Gates, who has never seen the ubiquitous Apple advertising, must be finding them there teevee interviews are becoming tiresome for sure.
Simply pathetic. Microsoft’s usual practice in full light. Is it the state or mind at Redmond nowadays? Vista’s not doing well? Does it hurt Bill? Now imagine what Steve «monkerdance» Ballmer might have to say…