Bill Gates: the exit interview
By Ryan Block 
posted Jan 7th 2008 7:34PM
posted Jan 7th 2008 7:34PM
Thanks so much for meeting with us. I appreciate it. So I was at the keynote last night and I saw the video that you did. Being that you're looking for a job, I just wanted to let you know we're always hiring--
Excellent --
... looking for editors anytime. I know you've written some stuff for the Guardian recently--
Well I love your stuff.
You know where to find me.
Ok.
[Laughter]
So I was at D this year and obviously you and Jobs were at it as well. And you guys got up on stage together, I think that was -- besides being a really historic moment -- very emotional for a lot of people in the audience. I want to know what it was like for you personally. I think a lot of people were confused as to whether or it was truly bittersweet, or just bitter. I felt it was really bittersweet.
Oh, I like Steve. And I've always been extremely complimentary of the impact he's had on the industry. Part of it, in terms of that whole crowd though, is that the personal computer industry was started by people who were very young and there was a set of people who believed in it and all kind of grew up together. So Steve and I are virtually the same age -- he's a little bit older, he got into it about three years after we had done the original personal computer stuff -- and he was my sixteenth customer for the BASIC interpreter. I had done the Commodore six months before, if you remember that, I had done the TRS-80 eight months before, and then they needed the floating point basic. I came out and I actually worked more with Woz -- Steve wasn't a hands-on engineer involved in that thing -- because Woz had been trying to do his own BASIC but just couldn't get it done.
So we've always worked together on various things. When Steve did the Mac, that was our closest relationship. That was about thirty people at Microsoft, twenty people at Apple betting on moving the graphical interface into the mainstream. That was a phenomenal experience because we did the only 3rd party software that was on that machine the day that it shipped. And when they went 512 [kilobytes of memory], we did some stuff. They thought [Lotus] Jazz was going to the breakthrough product, but we showed them that Excel was the breakthrough product. So there's always been good back and forth. I am very sincere that Steve has unique skills that I just don't have at all and it's been phenomenal to see how he has been able to make a difference with what he's done.
So when you got up there, what was it like for you emotionally? I mean, Steve quoted the Beatles; it felt like there was just this bizarre camaraderie / rivalry that is almost inexplicable.
Oh absolutely. We had a chance -- I think Steve and I are the two luckiest people in the industry in terms of the center seat we've had, and the involvement we've have been able to have. And we know that it's been a special thing and where we work together it's helped the industry, and even when we've competed it has probably been good for the industry.
So I read this GQ article, the profile that I guess they did of you around the time the new Zunes launched, and it was funny because the one thing they really focused on was that when they spoke to you, you seemed really checked out. In your last few months of tenure at Microsoft -- what is that like? Are you really spending all of your time on the Foundation right now? Or, are you still really focused on the technology?
I am totally full time Microsoft. As hardcore as ever -- you can ask anybody at the company. But come July 1st that will change. Maybe even the month of June will be goofy, not because I'll be focused on other things, but because, it being the last month, they'll be some special things and people that I'll go around and talk to. But in terms of lots of meetings of making our search better, the next version of Office, the next version of Windows -- I'm working harder now than any time in the last decade.
Well, the tablet is not mainstream. Reading off the screen is not mainstream. Getting your TV over the internet -- we talked here about how Mediaroom is up to a million users. But that's just on its way to mainstream, that's not mainstream yet. So when I think about all the different scenarios, there are some that we've have made a lot more progress than on than others. Productivity, for example, although there is still a lot to be done on that. Computing in the cloud is this whole new frontier of how you make software automatically manage the hardware resources, recover, and load balance -- there's some phenomenal things we are doing related to that, both for the consumer and business computing. So this is an amazing time. I believe that all these things will happen but it takes time. Just like the medical technology -- things I'll be working on in the future -- those will take more time than I'd like.
Speaking of productivity, I think that Microsoft has really, if anything, totally nailed productivity over the years and totally nailed business and the enterprise market -- and that's really been the backbone of Microsoft business. But do you ever feel like there has been any regrets about shortcomings in the consumer market? As in, not really focusing on the consumer front the way that Jobs and Apple does? Or do you feel like you have really covered all of those bases?
I think the key thing is the concept of the personal computer and the software industry. That's what we started in 1975 and the core of the company is that platform. There are third party applications that are on Windows to do consumer-like things -- I think as we get speech and touch and mainstream pen into them, you'll see a wave of those that are dramatically better. That's our key role. Yes, Microsoft itself will do photos and music and all that, but the thing that has always differentiated our platform is the breadth of third party solutions. The hardware variety and that software applications variety. And we need new frontiers, of which I think natural interface and service-connections (that I talked about last night) -- those are going to enable these new things. So we are proud of the games work that people are doing on Windows but these breakthroughs can take that to the new level. I think that emphasis on third parties is something we've always done better than anyone else and hopefully it will hold us in a good position.
On the Windows side. One hundred million licenses, obviously that's an enormous amount. But I think in the last few months, especially within from media and the blogosphere and all of these different places, Vista specifically is getting hit really hard with a lot of negative PR -- a pretty big backlash from users who are downgrading to XP. Or at least a lot of people talking about downgrading. Do you feel like right now you are leaving under a cloud? That the company's core product not meeting consumer expectations?
I wouldn't say that. Any version of Windows is going to have lots of great new things that people use and things that are tough. With Vista, a lot of it's the transition from XP to Vista. Did we get the device drivers ready in the right way and time? Did we make it easy to do the upgrades as well as we should? When people get up and running on Vista they are basically quite happy. Not perfect -- but quite happy. It is that transition where we definitely need to get a better job up on that piece.
Now, in time, more of those drivers are becoming available. It is definitely a product where we look back and say, okay, a lot of good things but we are going to change the things where it just didn't become trivial to step up to the new version. That's always been a hard with Windows and we're looking at some of those challenges and why we didn't think they'd be as hard as they were -- and making sure that we do better at it. The feedback is important to us, but it is a product that has lots of good features. I encourage people to use it! We are proud of the features in there!
Well, of course! But are you personally fully satisfied with it?
I'm never fully satisfied with any Microsoft product.
Like the saying, "Software is never complete, only abandoned"?
There are always the features that I wanted to get in, or the things that I wish were a little more polished. The people who are good in these companies are really sort of ridiculously demanding people. They have to sort of know when to back off so that thing can eventually ship. But I look at any product -- and I'm better at Microsoft products -- and say what I wished what was better about the product.
In terms of the Foundation [which focuses partly using technology to enhance health care in developing nations], is it your intention to run that as you would a software company, or as you would a technology company?
Of course not. The nature of the problem is very different. I do not think technology companies are not all of one ilk either. Here at the foundation you have researchers in academia, great scientists in drug companies, you've got rich-world governments, poor-world governments, non-profit organizations, you've got to activate the public. The biggest part of the Foundation is solving twenty diseases. Malaria, AIDS, TB -- some diseases, because they are only in the poorest countries, rich people have never even heard of, like visceral leishmaniasis. In the top ten, -- but not broad awareness.
So the way we are going to orchestrate more energy and more resources, where we'll get a lot more progress where there is some market failure -- there is no market incentive driving these things -- that is going to require invention. And I wouldn't enjoy it if it wasn't at very early stage. And I am going to have to learn lots of things going back. I've got a great library of science, biology type things. The second half of the year I will spend lots of the year boning up on them.
Well I've been part time on the Foundation and there is great full-time people there including Patty Stonesifer (the CEO), and my wife spends time. So I wouldn't say it's a huge discontinuity. We are going from $1.5 billion in grants a year in 2006 to $3 billion in 2009. So we are on a ramp, which means we are more ambitious. As we make breakthroughs, like new vaccines, then you actually need more money to get the manufacturer to fund the delivery systems. But fortunately the public's awareness of these things have gone up somewhat. The Global Fund and the work that Bono has done together with us has started to get a little bit of consensus about what needs to be done.
So I'm going to be reaching out to business leaders who I think can get their companies more involved and using their expertise, and hopefully my voice will help with that. I'll be talking with other philanthrophists telling them about how much fun I'm having doing it and suggesting that I'd love to see if we can get them involved. So there are some things that I think I'd bring to it that my [full-time position at the Foundation] will let me do that haven't been done. But the goal of the Foundation in terms of making the health of the poorest two billion as good as the richest two billion -- that has been there from the beginning and I'm just really doing things to accelerate it.
One last question: what kinds of pet technology products do you think you'll be keeping at Microsoft? You've got to have your fingers in the pie a little bit!
I love natural user interface and particularly the research groups to do that. I want to stay involved with that and make sure that when it's time to really put these things in the mainstream that Microsoft is jumping on it and taking that big risk. Search is obviously a huge thing for us that we put about a brilliant people on. Right now -- people don't know -- can do something really differentiated that could be fun to help drive that piece forward? Steve [Ballmer] will pick; my non-Microsoft time I'll be thinking about software for health systems and education. So I will probably be over at Microsoft seeing where their breakthroughs can help in those areas. But the day of the week that I'll be at Microsoft will be probably three projects, I'd guess.
Thank you so much for meeting with us.
You bet! Good talking to you.
Good luck!
now that he is gone.. some youngster can replace him!!
Bye Bill! We'll miss you.
Agreed.
ditto.
Gizmodo managed to get a video interview with him and you guys couldn't? You guys can't even grab the camera from Veronica for a sec?
The end of an Era...
I don't think anybody will have the same impact that he has had on technology in my lifetime.
Its sad to see you go Bill, but you'll go down in history deserving every credit and compliment you get.
you've paved the way for a very bright future in technology.
And i'd just like to say thanks for that.
Cheers Bill.
No matter what I think of Microsoft as a company, I think that Bill is one of the greats. In any industry.
Agreed. I love my Mac but it doesn't make me blind to a great man
I absolutely agree. This man has changed the face of the earth in so many ways for the better.
Most of everyone typing on a keyboard today owes a large debt of gratitude to Bill Gates. Even though I'm a mac user, I'll always remember my MS-DOS commands.
C:/YOU/LATER/GoodRetirement.BAT
You've forgotten your backslashes, though :-)
Dude... It's a PC. Backslash not Forwardslash!
Both slashes work just fine. Anyway, take care of thy self Bill.
Very good interview, kudos!
Great interview :) It was a pleasure reading
from July on Microsoft is going to miss bill....microsft will fail without gates..
You really do a discredit to Ray Ozzi and Craig Mundie who are replacing Bill, both of whom are rather brilliant in their own right. If Ozzie had had his way in 1996 MS would have been doing the software as a service web approach that google popularized more recently (the office team at the time was terrified it would kill their product and had more weight to pull than Ozzie). Ozzie is very much a technology visionary, much like Gates (when you listen to them talk about technology they don't spend much time thinking about what is being done, but instead what *can* be done), who I think will balance out Ballmer's drive for the bottom line fairly well.
Granted, it is taking 2 guys to fill Bill's shoes, but they are two highly competent guys. MS isn't in any danger.
Hoora!
So long, and thanks for all the fish, Bill!
nice
I bet he'll still have input after he leaves.
I hope Steve doesn't take over, that guy's a jerk
agreed
Bill and myself have a great relationship. Better than our wives sometimes!!
Just wait till MacWorld next Tuesday =]
DIFFERENT STEVE, STEVE!
That was a really good interview by the way. I read through and I didn't expect to see some of the daring questions that came.
I think Vista is a great product, but there are issues that I think are too big for a mainstream OS....1 such issue is the fact that they released 32 and 64 bit. Vista should have been primarily 64bit with only Basic coming in 32 bit flavors for lower end PCs (and funny enough even machines that basic run on have 32/64bit processors). It's not unreasonable to foresee most users on 32/64bit processors at the point that Vista was released, so why 32 bit?
Products like the Windows Live Experience and MS own' branded hardware like the Fingerprint Reader don't come in 64 bit flavors but 32 bit, yet 32 bit Vista has obvious limitations (and mind you, it's not a Vista but moreso 32 bit technology limitation) such as not being able to use more than 4gb of memory. I believe that had Vista been primarily 64 bit, hardware and software devs would have been nudged to do their R&D and release 64 bit drivers and software now. Unfortunately because of the choice of both, the majority (including MS, ironically) are 'lazy' to push 64 bit drivers/software which in the end hurts both sets of users, because those who want to go 64 are waiting in the wings for more hardware with driver support and software built for it, and those with 32 bit are not experiencing the full experience that a machine of today can offer.
I don't think you understand the market horribly well. Compatibility is what drives windows. It is installed on 95% of corporate desktops and they need to maintain as much compatibility with custom business applications as possible. The same reason no other OS stands a chance of offsetting Windows in the business world restricts what deviations new versions of Windows can make. Switching entirely 64bit would have been one more headache when convincing corporate customers to switch and would have forced a mixed OS environment (no blanket upgrades of departments) since the vast majority of corporate desktops are 32 bit (and despite their age and headlines otherwise, could run vista no problem without Aero turned on).
They would have also forced the vast majority of their consumer customers to buy new machines rather than upgrade (and those new machines better not be running Via processors or low power intel processors) AND had a headache when everyone went to install their old kernel mode software (A/V software and the such) to find that it was incompatible with patchguard. When Vista was released 90% of the world wasn't ready for 64bit, and frankly doesn't need it. 4 gigs of ram isn't needed by the average consumer (crap, I have an instance of photoshop, three copies of visual studio 2008, IE, acrobat, and outlook open right now and I am not paging noticably with my 3 gigs of ram).
I think you, like many of the tech enthusiasts, want 64bit for the sake of having it.
> "Products like the Windows Live Experience and MS own' branded hardware like the Fingerprint Reader don't come in 64 bit flavors"
Er, what? I guess some of the hardware might not have 64 bit DRIVERS, but there isn't such a thing as 64 bit flavored hardware.
When I mentioned 64 bit 'flavors', I meant in terms of the Live Experience which is software and the Fingerprint Readers' software and drivers. I didn't think I needed to be anal but I suppose I will clarify next time.
As far as understanding the market, perhaps I don't...but what I see currently is Vista not particularly being adopted as widely as it should be, and many customers complaining about non-issues. If Windows is as powerful as you yourself mention, then they should be able to drive the market with their software. It's possible but I highly doubt that there are corporations out there running workstations on a 32bit only processor and running Vista Business. Vista should have been used as a turning point for 64bit computing. Not only would this benefit 'enthusiasts' as you put it, but business applications would be able to take advantage of the technology to be able to access more memory and run faster, not to mention the added pad of security that exists when you're running 64bit code.
Change is good, believe me. 5 years ago noone needed 2gb of Ram or 500gb of hard drive space, 10 years ago noone needed 1gb of Ram and 100gb of hard drive space.
Currently, noone needs Quad Core 64bit CPUs or 4gb of Ram. But things can only evolve once we start using it.
This was a prime moment for MS to exact some form of change from 32 to 64bit in the consumer and business market. Convince companies to upgrade? Hardly. The majority of companies out there have IT people that understand that you do what you need to do to get everything running well, no matter what. Sure you're not going to run out and buy 50 quad core extremes for workstations, but slapping a new board and 64 bit processors will ensure compatibility of your enterprise system for a few years down the road, and so is worth it. Moreso than hanging on to those AthlonXP 2000 chips and 512mb of ram that you get complaints about at least 3 times a week.
Now, what we have are consumers crying to 'upgrade' their old machines and blaming MS for incompat. issues or Vista being slow as so and so on their 'almost new 3 year old machines'. We have companies selling customers machines with Vista 32 with 32/64bit chips and 4gb of Ram (which as I mentioned, can't be used in 32bit Vista). It's a waste.
I look at it like a computer and operating system in itself. We all know there's a time when upgrading is fine...but there's also that time when starting over (formatting) works out best, and I just believe that Vista would have been a great start-over point for us currently. The world is never 'ready' for any technology. But we evolve.
Did you mean to type "TRS-80"? We used to call them Trash-80s.
TRS-80 was the Tandy Color Computer, if I recall correctly. The people that called them "Trash-80s" typically never used them. There was a fully multitasking, multi-user (and full GUI with an additional package) operating system out for it called OS-9 Level 2 in the VERY early 80s. I miss my old CoCo 3... sigh.
Dunno why he's lowest ranked he's just stating a fact...when I visited the Microsoft campus several years ago and toured the museum there they had on the TRS-80's placard "Trash-80" subtitled. Even Microsoft referred to it in such a manner.
This interview made me shed some tears...
I have always looked up to Bill Gates ever since I read about him as a child.
His amazing work at Microsoft has enriched our computer experience.
Though Windows is not perfect, it does its job pretty well. It is productive.
I hope he will continue to work as a visionary at Microsoft, because PCs would not have been the same without Bill Gates.
Goodbye, Bill. We'll always have you in our hearts.
You mean you looked up to him while he was getting wasted and racing porches?!
Hopefully he was all that was holding m$ together, maybe it will fall through a a faster pace than it is already!
gates is not a good person, sure he may have been intelligent but giving loads of money towards planed parenting and abortion are huge no no's bill gates is an evil man as are a lot of very wealthy people.
microsoft is a stack of manure that can't be piled much higher.
Now all you m$ fanboys rate my comment down!! I dare you!
Open-Source all the way!
So I am going to feed you. Since you obviously have abundant courage to anonymously badmouth the greatest philanthropist of our time, I assume you must be either the second coming, or the Antichrist you choose.
As for Bill thanks for helping unify an industry that without one dominate OS would have struggled to bring things like the web to the mainstream. Please now try and unify the world to stop bickering about minor things and start solving major ones!
DOS and Windows (Both legal and illegal copies) lifted millions of people in developing countries out of poverty. You have no idea..
You don't have to be a Microsoft fanboy to rate you down, just a decent person with some respect for the enormous amount of effort this guy's put into philanthropy.
1. I hope Bill is more in touch with the Vista situation that the interview response.
2. abadtooth is a damned moron.
Are you honestly bringing abortion into this?
You can't call him a bad person for that since about half the US population agrees with him and most of the rest of the world. That's an ethical choice that really splits the population, some agree, some don't. Even though I support it I don't think of you as a bad person for not supporting it. I just think that you're misguided by religion or a lack of science.
So don't bad mouth someone who is donating a ridiculous amount of time and money to help cure diseases that kill millions more than abortions.
P.S. and try not to sound like a dumbass by using vocabulary that's a bit above the 2nd grade level. (wtf is a no-no).
When will you people stop using the "philanthropist" card. Holy crap. If the only thing that makes a person "good" is giving away tons of money to people, I fear for you. If I were a religious fanatic, I would probably lean on the idea that Bill was the Anti-Christ using his great wealth to trick an entire world into thinking he's a great person after single-handedly taking that money from people by ugly business practices and even uglier business deals. Bill Gates is one of the primary reasons that Digital Rights even exists. Bill was the figurehead of the electronic copyright restrictions we have today.. (I'm talking about the one where you don't own your software. You "rent" it.)
He lead a company whose policies involved stamping out competition at every corner. I'm sure as the Owner/CEO of Microsoft he had his hands in every tricky legal document signed over the years. I just can't begin to understand why, except to squeeze every penny they could out of the economy...
But sure, so he takes the billions of dollars swindled from the worldwide community and funnels it into some charity and all is forgiven? Hell, I have some land in Florida I'd like to sell you.
Oh there is hope :D
You made my day Andir3.0, thanks!
I'm not a religious fanatic, but I do have a small set of morals.
Sure millions die from diseases but is that any one mans fault?
Thats the product of countless centuries of corruption.
Answer me this, say Your in a town where there is only one phone company providing internet, what do You think the chances are that the service is going to be either crappy or very expensive?
I think it's safe to say most all of the time it will be both!
Microsoft did not work wonders or even do much of anything for the "greater good"(if you will) of the computer industry.
Stomping out competition does not encourage anything that would benefit the end-user (Yourself), say as much effort and money was put into open-source Unix rather than a proprietary operating systems like Dos/windows, how much farther would the whole industry be along?
Don't kid yourself, just take a look at some of the latest FREE Linux distributions, or maybe a web browser.
Any way you look at it the proof is everywhere, Open-Source is better for the end-user.
Stephan:
"So I am going to feed you. Since you obviously have abundant courage to anonymously badmouth the greatest philanthropist of our time, I assume you must be either the second coming, or the Antichrist you choose."
I am Me.
Blake Bowen:
"2. abadtooth is a ****** moron."
Aren't we all though, however I don't see how petty name calling is productive...
Commenter:
"DOS and Windows (Both legal and illegal copies) lifted millions of people in developing countries out of poverty. You have no idea.."
Do please enlighten me!
So far I'm seeing examples to open source and charity's like OLPC doing this, not any microsoft involvement there.
Wow.. had it not been for Mr. Gates and others.. you most likely wouldn't have been able to rant and rave on Engadget about this stuff!
@Tyler: That's a pretty sad misunderstanding. Microsoft had virtually nothing to do with HTML specifications (Except that they didn't follow them), so yes, you'd still be able to blog about whatever operating system you were on if Microsoft didn't exist. In fact, if MS didn't exist, we might have an internet that is one step further, no thanks to incompatible and hindering browsers from the MS camp and poorly performing IIS services.
While it's obvious that MS has done things they're probably not proud of (what for profit company hasn't?), I think that we should take the time to give credit where credit is due before looking at one 'set' of features vs. another. For instance, go investigate the man - see what he has done, check into his philosophies, read his bio. Take a look at things from different angles and then say something.
I am not fond of all of MS practices, but I understand that some of them are necessary when it comes to 1. making money and 2. protecting yourself as a company.
Personally, I think Mr. Gates is a good man. He's brilliant and his ideas for our future are just amazing. I won't defend all the negative press MS gets - they do what they need to do, but when all is said and done....I salute the MAN (not necessarily the company) for being who he is and can only hope that the company continues to follow the path that he has set and strives for the visions that he puts forward.
You can bad mouth MS all you want, but take it easy on Bill.
Bill Gates is a truely impressive man of many skills. Pioneering something as complex as writing programming languages in the very stone age of computers while you were still in high school is really quite impressive. Combine that talent with the talent he's got building and running the biggest most profitable (in most ways that you look at it, sure oil companies have insane profits too) company in the world is not something you see too often.
I really look forward to seeing what kind of good he will work towards building in the world a man with his kind of capabilities will bring.
So long Bill!
Don't forget that he isn't "leaving" us, he's just going to pursue much more important things.
This isn't the last time we'll hear from Bill Gates, that's for sure.
Indeed a great interview!
Bill (and his company) had the biggest impact on my life in technology so far and I don't think that there will be another outstanding personality in the near future, who will be able to get close to him.
Good luck, Bill!
For the amount of time you had, really thoughtful questions. Very nice interview. I'm impressed. When Engadget does interviews like this, it makes up for all of the other oddball stuff. IMNSHO.
Thanks, Bill. Good luck with the Foundation.
yeah, awesome interview. He truly created a new world with Microsoft.
Great interview. It's not "sir" bill though. bill's an american and cannot use the prefix.
sigh... puts a tear in my eye.
So with his love of the "natural user interface" does that mean he will still have his hands in Surface and try to push that more mainstream?
Surface FTW.
I hope he keeps pushing Surface at Microsoft. It has the potential to be the greatest innovation in computing after the mouse.
Gates, Can you make Vista Ultimate less expensive .. poor countries will pirate it if it costs less than $50. If Vista Ultimate is priced at $49.99 .. it will sell many times (india/china etc. will buy it) as much and generate double its current profit (how much do OEM's pay for teh best selling version nowadays).
Hopefully there will come a time when there is enough competition that operating systems will have to be inexpensive.
Also, why are controllers so ugly? I'd want to buy an Xbox with OLED keys /LCD controllers. Oh and that's how remote controls should be too (not just with a touchpad/screen but with OLED buttons).
I'm not sure if Bill is reading this thread... or is he?
"poor countries will pirate it if it costs less than $50. If Vista Ultimate is priced at $49.99 .. it will sell many times (india/china etc. will buy it) as much and generate double its current profit (how much do OEM's pay for teh best selling version nowadays)."
1) poor countries don't tend to be the higher end rigs that Vista ultimate is for. They mostly tend to gravitate towards the internet cafe model where bit locker and remote desktop (the two major differentiators from premium, which even that they don't need)aren't horribly important. I don't think the copy of windows that is targetted at developing markets (Windows starter edition) should be as stripped down as it is, but Vista ultimate is sort of like asking ford to drop the price of their old 454 engine because people who drive pintos can't afford it.
2) The high price of Vista ultimate is a pretty much a myth restricted to people who are buying a boxed, non-oem, non-upgrade copy, or to put another way, a disgustingly small fraction of total sales of Vista. As you point out, OEMs pay a hell of a lot less for it (which, incidentally, IS where microsoft wants developing countries to get their copy of windows from, because it sure as hell isn't going to be the software bouteques that sell upwards of 90% pirated software) and charge much less for it.
"I'd want to buy an Xbox with OLED keys /LCD controllers. Oh and that's how remote controls should be too (not just with a touchpad/screen but with OLED buttons). "
Yes well, seeing that the stupid 3 key OLED keyboard was $150 I personally am rather glad that the buttons on the 360 controllers are made of a bit cheaper technology.
I've always admired Bill Gates, even if his marketing techniques were considered shady, he obviously is a good-willed person. He's done the world good in technology and beyond, and will continue to even in retirement.
Good luck to you Gates.
He is a great man regardless of what some other people say.
Steve Jobs FTW!
Goodnight, Sweet Prince
I doubt steve J will give you guys a chance in hell to interview him.
this is an end of an era. i am only 13, but bill gates is my idol. he was initally a very poor man who lived in seattle just trying to get by. now , he is one of the richest men in the world, and is helping people less fortunate than him. I remember that he was late to a meeting with the seattle department of transportation because he didn't own a tie, so he had to go buy one.
I agree. I'm the same age as you and Bill Gates is a great guy. Sure, I may be a mac user but you can respect the guy.
Err, wow... no wonder the internet's going to shit these days... no offense to you, nice coherent post on your part, but I never imagined that 13 year olds were reading blogs and posting comments. I just assumed that people on digg had the maturity of 13 year olds. No offense to you again, not all 13 year olds are idiots.
Oh and protip: don't tell people on the internet your age, it's not a good idea...
Okay, here's the thing.
Bill Gates was NEVER poor. His parents were affluent people who lived (and still live) in Laurelhurst (Or maybe View Ridge, I can't remember now), a very expensive, great-view neighborhood here in Seattle.
They sent him to Lakeside, a private middle/high school, a great school (he /was/ smart) but upwards of 20k a year. All the super-rich kids where I live go to Lakeside. It's like a mini-college, very nice campus, a laptop required of every student. Bill Gates still gives them money.
He was never even close to too poor to afford a tie. He grew up affluently, very comfortably, and now...well.
My point, he's never been even close to poor.
And I'm not talking down to you because of your age (which is never a smart thing to post). Heck, I'm less than 5 years older than you (okay, breaking my own rules, whatever).
When I was your age, in the mid-1950's, I was very in love with science and technology and I read a lot of Science Fiction--what they then called "hard", heavy on the science. I can testify that at that age and time, some 50 years ago, I could barely imagine what I would be actually living in the year 2008, and my imagination fell short of today. Projecting 50 years in the future and considering the exponential increase in technology, I see you working within a bright future, the details of which are impossible for me to discern. Perhaps you will be the center of a mighty revolution, the sort of which Andrew (1/7 7:45 PM post) feels he will not live to see. Good luck, work hard and prosper. Leave the world better than it was when you entered.
Troll!...I got two Vista laptop and I am so happy with that Im ready to move my desktop to Vista.
Even though I'm a diehard Mac user, I indeed believe that Bill Gates is a great man that has built a great company.
If Gates can do for medicine and healthcare what he did for the technology industry, just think how great the world will be in thirty years.
Cheers Mr. Gates, and great luck in your new endeavors!
its easy to forget that he at one time got his hands dirty (so to speak) writing code.
Another comment to say what a nice interview...well done.
Well, a good man is going to retire. You know what that means, don't you?? It means that we need a good man, or someone almost as good (because nobody matches up to Gates) to take over his duties. I wonder who will be doing what at Microsoft after he's done there. (Hey Bill you can always hire me! If only...)
Haha, I bet what he said at the beginning was a way to laugh on Ryan.
But then engadget hates sony so maybe Bill is kinda grateful (specially after the "shocking" news)
But then there's the fact that people at engadget are apple fanboys...
wth!
Great interview! I love how you start by offering him a job and end by wishing him good luck. Funny stuff! You should have offered a five-spot and told him not to waste it on booze.
Bill is the man!
Lets see where M$ goes from here...
And I'll treasure my MCSD.net certificate with Bill's signature on it. He wont be doing any more of those, I guess.
It's good to see how he wants to get other excited in something other than just making more money but making the world a better place for others. I hope I'm around (I'm a month older) when he looks back on his life so that I can see how he evaluates the second half of his life vis a vis the first half.
Although I'm sure he'll still see drag racing bulldozers as a highlight. :-D
Thank you Sir Bill Gates, good Knight.
From those of us at MS (aka MicroSerfs),
Thank you billg for the many many .....
MANY long hours spent building this company. Your ideas and just simple personality has truly enriched this company.
You will be missed.
P.S. BTW steveb is not that bad... I mean he is a hard driver and has a bit of a strong personality... but he has in his own way helped this company become what it is today.
It must feel great creating a successful company and expanding it to the point where the company operates on it's own and you can step away.
Microsoft outgrew Bill, but it's still Bill's child and won't be the same without it's iconic leader.
I respect Microsoft for their ability to, well, take over the computing world. But now that Bill is seeing his market share start disappearing thanks to the good boys at Google, he's going somewhere else where people can consider him a God of something else. He's abandoning the ship before it sinks. He failed with Vista becasue even if it's refined MS will never have that forward rush of anxious momentum that they had upon release, and they failed to deliver HD over the internet because Blu-Ray has finally gotten some real traction.
Perhaps Microsoft won't sink all the way, but MS will definitely not be as big as it used to be. Leaving Steve Ballmer in charge? He's GOT TO know that guy's out of control, and when the company sinks Bill is going to blame Ballmer, while being the God of third world countries and flexing political power.
Very nice questions, Ryan. Excellent in fact. The thing is, when you really listen to what Bill says, he doesn't say much at all. I always expect a guy like him to say something really interesting or very engaging. He never does, in fact a lot of what he says doesn't make that much sense, regardless of typos here. He seems to believe that his new hobby is to save the world, but it seems to me there would be a whole lot of faster ways to get there than what he's doing with his Foundation. It's almost as if they can't find a really good way to use all the money. The approach he is taking seems so far fetched. I respect the guy (how can't you), but he leaves something to be desired for a guy who has done so much.
Good riddance.
He is a cancer in the computer world.
He sucks the ideas from revolutionaries like Steve Jobs and Bell Labs.
Hope you rot Bill!
Micro$uck will be following you!
Classy.
You should try to google the man and read about him. Stop with your ignorant rant.
You should try to google the man and read about him. Stop with your ignorant rant.
I'm not a Microsoft fan, never have been, probably never will be. I don't own or use any of their products.
Now, having said that, you have to acknowledge a man who has done what few other men have done: change the world. Bill Gates has done that, and like the best robber barons of old his second act will be his greatest achievement. Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation he'll have a chance to change the world a second time, and in the process improve the lives of billions of people. Not just people in the "poor" world but, indirectly, those of us in the rich world as well.
Bill, I wish you all success going forward. Thanks for showing us that when you've been blessed by good fortune sometimes the greatest reward comes from giving back to others.
Things wont feel the same without Bill...i mean im 18 years old, i only have a computer since 2001 and...what can i say.. im used to think Bill is in front of Microsoft, i cant imagine one without the other.
Like Apple without Steve...
Oh well...as the time goes by and i grow up im slowly starting to lean towards Apple (not because of this alone, this is just something to add to the pile of reasons), once i finish my degree (or if my parents buy me a laptop) my next computer will be sporting Mac OS.
when he said that he's never been satisfied with any Microsoft product, in one swift moment, I said "holy shit" "oh my god"...at the exact same time, I spit out my drink and started laughing furiously. Then in a moment of solitude, following that eventful series of actions(mention in the sentence before this one), i started to truly understand, and agree with Mr. Gates. For that split second, we were in sync. LOL!
sorry, but that really just shows how involved he is with the development of Windows and how much he cares for the products Microsoft puts out.
(sorry if this is cheesy)
Just like parents who love their children - and see flaws in them - bill loves Windows and constantly knows that microsoft cannot stagnate and be complacent with products. Bill is an amazing guy and has made so many positive contributions to the world!
Couldn't we ask Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to do a "i'm a Mac - I'm a PC" commercial
Love him or hate him, i respect his importance. as for steve ballmer.. my AAPL shares are locked and loaded.
Good luck in the future, Bill. You've brought us more than anyone can imagine and I hope Microsoft can continue to do great things while you are doing great things elsewhere.
Oh jeeze. If Gates is gone, will Balmer somehow have more say? He's well, um, unstable to say the least.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EHCRimwRGLs
Oh jeeze. If Gates is gone, will Balmer somehow have more say? He's well, um, unstable to say the least.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EHCRimwRGLs
Best of luck with the foundation Mr. Gates, you will be missed but the ship is in good hands. Also, just an excellent interview! One of the best I've seen in a while. Keep up the great work!!
Mr. Gates thank you for everything and I wish you the best. I have always admired you not only for what you have done at Microsoft but also outside of Microsoft.
-Thomas
Nice to hear he still enjoys boning up.
Next time you see bill, ask him why I have to upgrade my OS to Vista @$100+, just so I can sync my Notes on my WM6 device to my PC. Oh, and I will have to throw out my printer because there aren't Vista drivers for that....
Lame, my 5 yr old Sony Clie syncs notes, and I have to play the 'upgrade' game with Micro crap....
I am not particularly satisfied with MS products, but I strongly believe that without Bill Gates the technological world wouldn't be as it is today. Heck, the world wouldn't be as it is today!
I am a mac user but I do believe that without windows (legal or illegal) many in third-world countries will still be brimming in poverty.
We'll surely miss you Bill!!