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
The Howard Hughes reference in the MDN take was hilarious.
MDN has lost its mind
How does he (MDN) knows that Gates has seen the commercial, Billionaires have people to wipe their ass for them, Gates would not dignigy Apple by wasting his precious time watching derogatory ads.
I’m a Mac user since 84 and would love to see the demise of MS but MDN has lost its mind in their pursuit of gossip
zerO,
Is that your IQ?
Don’t forget to contact MDN for your engraved bridge in Brooklyn.
Give Gates and rilfe and a bell tower and watch out.
He is totally totally out of mind.
People who babble like that are usually put away somewhere.
So Macs are being completely taken over every single day are they? I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and not call him a liar, I’ll assume it’s true. Why has this not been in the news at all? Why are people not yelling it from the rooftops that Macs are in no way secure, that if you want security to use a windows machine? It’s just crap. We all expect people to talk up their own products, to talk down about the opposition, but that’s just absolute crap.
If that was happening why would the month of apple bugs have to report such, lets face it, minor problems?
@zer0, get real. Any CEO, COO, CFO, or the like that does NOT stay informed about what the competition is saying/doing re: his product is NEGLIGENT in his duties and should (must?) be removed from said position immediately!
GOT IT?
Or are you saying that BillyBoy G is just that: NOT IN CONTROL OF HIS OWN SHIP!? Keep in mind, oh ill-informed one, that the Swinging Gates does (do?) not relinquish control of his vast empire until this summer. Ipso facto, HE’S STILL IN A POSITION OF AUTHORITY, and being (supposedly) ignorant of ANY affront to his business’s reputation or product quality is DERELICTION OF DUTY! Got it?
Consider yourself educated.
Bill “…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”
Is it me or is Bill the Dill living in an alternate time-space-continuum, dimension, world, universe thingy-ma-bob?
——
Men in white coats please report to Redmond.
That guy is a turd-munching, snake-licking, ball-sucking, ass-clown.
‘Nuff said.
Wouldn’t you just love to see a debate between Steve and Bill. On the one side is Steve, calm, cool and collected, and on the other is Bill, squirming in his seat, flailing his hands about, trying desperately to convince you that a single word he is saying is true?
someone dared, mr gates. if you make your computer talk to itself in a nasty way, it’ll delete files off your hard drive.
and i love the way he used the january month of apple bugs to demonstrate his non-point. of course os x has flaws. have they been exploited in such a fashion that MY computer is at risk? NO. and the same goes for everyone who uses a mac that has even the SLIGHTEST bit of common sense. “oh look! leopard screenshots obtained from a completely unknown source! wait, it’s an executable file? hmm, maybe it’s a self-extracting zip or rar. oh wait, now it’s asking for my password? RED FLAG!”
vista MAY have stepped up security (time will tell) but it did so at a great cost in usability. just ask anyone who’s had those dialog boxes pop up several times just to move files from one place to another.
i’m not an apologist for either camp. i really wanted vista to kick ass so i could use my high-performance PC for gaming, without all the headaches that XP brought with it. i was honestly looking forward to vista. their might be hope yet, but i’m not holding my breath.
gates is pissed, and it’s because he sees that people are finally starting to realize something. it was illustrated pretty good in pirates of silicon valley, when jobs told gates that apple’s stuff was better, and gates said it didn’t matter.
IT DOES NOW, WANKER. people are starting to finally realize what shit they’ve been putting up with, and lots of people are switching. just yesterday i convinced a friend of mine who had been holding off from trying macs because he didn’t think he’d be able to do everything he can on a windows pc. i showed him that yeah, you can, and often times it’s less frustrating and confusing.
and an aside: if it’s any testament to apple’s style and long-lasting appeal, both my friend and others have wowed at how attractive my laptop is, and thought it was a new laptop. it’s an 867mhz tibook.
mw: normal. gates ain’t normal in the head if he believes even one word of the tripe he said in that interview.
>pog wrote: 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.
So it’s Apple’s fault for limiting choice then? They’ve made it illegal to install OSX on non-Apple hardware, even though the ability to do so is there.
Thanks for the clarification.
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Windows tries to tell you not to install anything but windows. But I don’t see you trying to call that immoral. With this new secureboot in windows 8, Microsoft is trying desperately to lock customers out of any choice but windows altogether. Apple doesn’t want their software on non-apple hardware because it doesn’t work as well. But M$ just wants to lock you in completely. Apple makes money off of hardware, not so much software. So if they’re letting you install osx on other people’s hardware, they’re not making money.
OSX on your non-apple pc is not just illegal, it’s finicky. It doesn’t work most of the time. It never performs as well as macintosh on it’s own hardware. And again, apple openly says you can still run windows on their machine. So while windows is trying to lock you in, macintosh is open to you using other OS’s on their machines.
razer – i’d love to see that. i’d PAY to see that. =)
mw future – hopefully we’ll see that sometime in the future!
MDN’s take is extreme and filled with hatred of Gates and the company he created. I agree with every word of it.
MW: late, as in: It’s too late now Billy boy. Apple is wolfing down your lunch.
“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.”
That deserves a wow. It’s not like he can’t afford anti-psychotic medication.
The first war was won by MS. OS War II starts now just in time for Bill to learn shuffleboard.
Who cares what he says, the Windows’ actions speak for themselves. Virus, malware, long startup times because of viruses and malware, 50 dialogue boxes just to set the clock, etc.
I’ve NEVER had my Mac compromised. Gates is delusional.
Strikes me that it is Apple doing Microsoft an enormous favour! Everyone just about knows that OS X is a far superior system. Everyone just about knows that all Microsoft can do is badly copy what OS X did years ago. Microsoft must be eternally grateful that Apple doesn’t enter the real field of combat by refusing to release OS X for use on PC boxes. It’s astonishing that the company who are internationally recognised as the true leaders in ‘quality’ operating systems declines to play ball in the major league – where they’d very likely clean up over night. The argument that PC box design would force OS X down to working at Windows level is an historic one which no longer holds water. Dells boxes may look aesthetically crap, but their guts can’t be so very different from the Macs these days – especially since Apple migrated to Intel chips.
Is Apple the warrior who refuses to fight, preferring to be a big fish in a small pond?… or just waiting for the right moment to strike?
Come on Apple!
Unbelievable…
and the sad fact is, many people that hear it will believe it, not knowing any better.
I’ve got to agree though, he’s really feeling the pressure from Apple to talk the way he’s talking…
Do you feel in 2010-2011 Microsoft will be back with the next big one?
Absolutely. We’ll tell you how Vista just wasn’t good enough, and we’ll know why, too. We need to wait and hear what consumers have to tell us. We don’t know that, otherwise, of course, we would have done it this time.
As Steve Jobs said: You can’t just go out and ask people what they want, by the time you’ve build it, they want something else.
Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.
Gates: “We made it way harder for guys to do exploits.”
Yeah, right. Now when you can tell your computer to screw itself it will be harder for all of those non-English speaking hackers to take control over MS OS. Oh, geez, that’s a hurdle.
I bet that you can make Vista use it’s voice synthesiser to say few words and it’s done. That means that you can send an email to Vista to tell Vista to screw Vista. Wow.
“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.”
“Do you want to go back to the original Mac and think about where those interface concepts came from?”
Perhaps we should all <i>politely<i> email Steven Levy steven.levy@newsweek.com and ask him to do a follow up article that fully explores these points.
Gates has obvously been pushed over the brink, but in all fairness with respect to his Apple advertising comment, he was asked if he had seen the Mac ad about installing Vista. To this he replied that he not seen IT. He never stated that he’d not seen ANY of the Get A Mac ads. I don’t think MDN parsed his words accurately and their take is off base. No need to reach so far for reasons to criticize Gates interview. You could write a book analyzing the psychosis exhibited in Gate’s replies.
“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 Gates’ every button 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.”
Whew, you need to seriously get a life, and some major therapy, as soon as you extract your head from Steve Job’s intestines.
dude wasn’t kidding when he said the Wow Starts Now.
Wow …
MPC Guy, you are wrong! You can run Linux, Windows, and/or OS X on a Mac. Just because an OS is pre-installed does not necessarily mean that it is the OS one must use. All that needs to be done is add your OS of choice to the Mac and delete the other if you want a mono-OS Mac. With a PC you have a choice of two OSs, Windows and/or Linux. It is obvious that a Mac provides uers greater flexibility.
This guy has mastered revisionist history. In what universe did MS innovate anything? The interface, the search, the 3d flip thingie. The upside down and backwards interface, the transparency and drop shadows. Widgets.
They are too busy copying to do anything original. Too bad the majority of people will not know that these technologies have been around for years with a better execution.
Apple: visionary
MS: groping in the dark