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
Twenty Benson…
While current Macs may have similar guts to a DellBox™, the reason why Macs are Macs and that they work smoothly and seamlessly, is that Apple controls everything in them from mother board design to OS X.
If Apple made OS X available to the Pee Sea swamp, the Mac experience on generic PC hardware would simply NOT be the same. Apple has 5 basic models with only minor hardware variations within each, so it’s easier to write and optimize the OS for specific Mac hardware configurations. Try that with the millions of possible hardware variations out there in generic DOSBox land. I won’t even mention the nightmare that tech support would undoubtedly be in that scenario.
Apple has historically and aggressively abandoned obsolete technologies in favor of newer, simpler, faster and better solutions… ADB, Serial Ports, SCSI, floppies… to name a few. Windows still supports separate mouse and keyboard ports and parallel ports! Not to mention old software. This is one reason why Vista rots because it’s stuck trying to support all these ancient “standards”. Vista still has the Registry (if that’s what it’s called)!Backward compatibility is fine in order to have a relatively painless transition to newer technologies, like 32-bit mode or Classic or Rosetta in Mac OS X, but when it hobbles development and detracts from the final product, it’s a huge problem.
Revisionist history? Au contraire my Apple lemming friends. The “Wow” certainly is now, and Apple has been set back years, if not decades with Redmond’s latest masterpiece. I don’t know why Apple even tries anymore.
Once and for all lets get this upgrade thing straightened out. I’m running Vista on a Compaq LTE 286 with 640 kb RAM, 40 Mb hard disk & 1.44 Mb floppy drive. Works great, thank you—I had a wicked World of Warcraft session on it last night. Awesome!
Apple’s advertising is pure lies, fabrications & falsehoods. Hey Apple, why don’t you worry about yourselves instead of picking on Microsoft. Last I checked envy was one of the seven deadly sins.
Thank you, Mr. Gates for having the courage to tell it like it is. Who the hell does this Steven Levy character think he is questioning one of our time’s great technology visionaries? How does Levy live with himself throwing Mac OS X in Bill Gates’ face like that? It’s like comparing a bicycle to a car. Ridiculous. Upward and onward, Bill. Thank you again for your bravery in the face of these attacks, and thank you for staying above the lies.
Your potential. Our passion.
Wow. You honestly expect us to believe your running vista on that piece of crap? It doesn’t even have a megabyte of memory, and at any given time, Vista OS alone takes 200mb to keep itself running. It requires at least 1GB to run, 2GB if you want it to run smoothly, and 4 gigabytes if you want to run any programs on it. 40MB hard disk? Vista takes 15 gigabytes to install it’s 32-bit version. It’s 16 gigabyte version takes even more. And the floppy drive doesn’t even matter.
Good luck making it in the world when you’re fending for Microsoft the same way they fend for themselves: with lies. How can you run your vista with that low os specs while people with 4GB of RAM, 500GB of HDD space, 2.2Ghz processors, and highend graphic chipsets are still having trouble with it? The obvious truth is that what you told is lies.
Unless you’re running it from an external hard disk drive using the ready boost to give it more ram, then you could run it, but in turn, you’d still be lying, since you implied your running it on the specs you mentioned while in the mean time it’s running off of different hardware.
It makes me sick how people like you can try to advocate what doesn’t work with lies so outrageous. You deserve to use Vista. You deserve to use bad software.
Be honest, the only thing that will run on that dinosaur is an ancient version of a super light linux distro. Even then it might not run that well.
“Apple “copied” the Widget from Konfabulator so Bill is sort of right, but Widgets were not first developed by Microsoft. Anyhow, Apple has made significant improvements in Widgets. As history shows, when Microsoft copies Apple, the result is typically unimpressive.”
I liked Konfabulator widget better. I liked how they stayed on the desktop instead of Exposé-ing out. But in any case, yes, MS came 3rd on this one, not even second.
Wow is right. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a line of delusional bullsh*t in my life. I don’t even know where to start. Bill seriously needs to go to a doctor and get some medication.
Wow, he’s really defensive. Hit a nerve much? He hasn’t had Apple thrown in his face very much for the past decade, now he can’t avoid it.
Innovation to him means his programmers wrote their own code. But like with pdf and Adobe, that’s even in question.
Sorry, Bill– there’s more to it than just saying you’re great. You have to show it.
Repeat after me.
Eric Willard is moron.
Bill Gates is a liar (and a moron).
Sorry, Windows World. The Termina Moon is crashing down before you know it.
And there isn’t a sole out here that would buy them either.
What a rant of lie’s!!
great comment:
“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.”
made my friday.
Wow! Just wow! I’m completely speechless…
This sounds like cornered, on the attack Bill Gates. Wow, I didn’t expect this from him this early.
I suppose this is one of those smug Mac fanboi things, but I can’t help it…
I just love how obsessed this little dweeb is with the 5% market share company down the coast! The gnat on the elephant’s ass is just too much for this pachyderm.
I remember when Windows 95 came out and us Mac users knew the Mac was still superior, but Microsoft’s momentum was unstoppable. It was somewhat depressing. This time with Vista, that ain’t the case. Even in the areas where Microsoft can control the message like these interviews they’re getting killed. The media was smitten with Windows 95, but this time, not so much.
End users! end users! end users! end users!…
Bill is obviously sweating bullets, it’s down right ugly, yet humorous. The future is web based apps anyway, both Apple and MS are gonna be competing with Google and perhaps someone who doesn’t exist yet. Luckily Google and Apple are teaming up now. I’d love to see Apple take some of Bill’s sound bites (lies) and tear them to shreds with truth. When Leopard is released, along with new breathtaking hardware, Apple must drive home three main points… 1.) Price differences are negligible. 2.) Security is light years ahead on a Mac. 3.) The learning curve is much easier using OSX versus Vista.
John Gruber has something to say about Widgets being “ripped off” of Konfabulator, here: http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/dashboard_vs_konfabulator
Love the MDN ‘take-downs’, so infotaining and true.
mw:trying, BG is trying too hard, however desperation is always ugly.
Bill Gates loses his mind, and so MDN in turn loses its mind and starts hurling ad hominem attacks back. The fanboys commenting on this site just echo that stupid behavior.
MDN, correct and dispute Bill Gates all you want. But personal invective and moronic arguments are childish behavior, and are uncalled for.
There is plenty of room to disagree forcefully with someone’s position, without attacking them in a childish way.
And no, two wrongs don’t make a right. If Gates was wrong, don’t YOU be wrong too.
Show some class, and retain your dignity.
I’ve seen several interviews with Gates lately. They all get on his case, i think he’s getting a bit defensive. I wonder how long it’ll take before he cracks completely!
>Macaday wrote: You are so obviously a Windows troll that the pretense of being a Mac user is farcical. You were called out on this about 2 years ago… you’re fighting a losing battle!
Friend… I actually do enjoy using Macs. I think you’d be surprised how much so if you knew me in the real world as opposed to judging me by a few lines on the Internet.
If we go by Macs owned, the current count is 4 – ranging from a G5 iMac to a 17″ C2 Duo MBP. My ownership of Apple gear dates back to the days of the Apple IIGS… although my computing experience started with the ][e. At work, I managed a host of Macs – G4s, G5s, iMacs, PowerMacs, etc…
As for fighting this losing battle, you’re probably right. But, then again, I’m not fighting any particular battles. On this board, I’ll sometimes present alternate views or perhaps interpret things atypically to that of the general MDN’er.
But in the end you’re right… If a MDN’er cannot engage in another with reason the next step is to name-call. Some even skip the reason part and get to the part their good at – name-calling.
I guess you probably did the name-cal… ahrm… calling me out as a troll 2 years ago.
Anyway… lighten up friend. If everyone bashed MS and adored Apple unconditionally, this board would be boring and dull. As it is, we have all sorts of commentary – some of which is actually fun, ‘cept for the constant name-calling.
No hard feelings though… and g’day to you. Happy Friday!
@ Uncalled for…
NUH UH!!!
This is all out war… diginity… flignity, who needs it? When you’ve been the underdog for so long, it’s hard not to get worked up over the dominant player’s nasty lies. This site is for the Mac Faithful, not fence sitters. MDN, keep doing what your doing, and when Mac gains its deserved respect again, perhaps you can tone it down a bit, but not a day before.
“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.”
WTF is he talking about?!? Macs are exploited daily to the point of being taken over totally?? When the f*ck has that EVER happened, much less daily?!? My God, Gates has totally gone off the deep end…
Bill Gates has obviously been smoking bad crack.
MDN, if you’re going to comment on the interview, at least stick to using facts.
“We call bullshit on that one: Gates has seen the Apple ads.”
– Reread what Gates said. He never said he hadn’t seen the Apple ads, just not the one that was particularly mentioned.
“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.”
– The link doesn’t mention at all that “Bill Atkinson came up with “the file, edit, view, help menu bar” on the Mac.” So either use a different link or exclude that point altogether.
I hate, hate, HATE to say it but there’s truth in his words. My PowerBook gets exploited every single day and is made to do work, update our website, edit movies and browse the ‘net efficiently and intuitively. I have no idea how those hacking bastards do it, but damn it every SINGLE day I have a stable platform and an enjoyable computing experience.
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I’ve seen several interviews with Gates lately. They all get on his case, i think he’s getting a bit defensive. I wonder how long it’ll take before he cracks completely!
–
And they always tease him about OS X… what’s the Mac mindshare these days.. wow
>ibookfast wrote: diginity… flignity, who needs it?
If you have to ask…
>ibookfast wrote: and when Mac gains its deserved respect again
The Mac is a machine. It neither needs nor asks for respect.
I can totally take over a Mac the same way I’ve totally taken over this Windozer. It’s easy. All I do is log in, and I can do pretty much anything I want. So I don’t know why anybody is so upset about what Bill Gates said. He was completely accurate, millions (!) of people totally take over their Macs every day.
My ass is the Window® of my mind.