Gates defends PC in Comdex speech
By: Ian Fried and Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com
11/12/00 8:17:00 PM
Source: News.com
LAS VEGAS--With no major software debuts imminent, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates used his
state-of-the-computing-world address Sunday to call for a greater role for desktop PCs, showing off
some of the technologies that will lead the PC’s resurrection.
In his Comdex address, Gates took aim at the approach of rivals such
as Sun Microsystems, outlining future hardware and software that
take advantage of the full power of today’s desktop computers,
arguing that even sleek portables need the power of a PC. In essence,
Gates painted a future of the Internet that did not bypass Microsoft’s
franchise Windows operating system.
Sun and other companies have outlined a more varied future, with
most of the Internet’s complexity placed on central servers and
everything from pagers to cell phones being used to access the
Internet.
“Some people have had the mistaken notion that in order to make the
server smarter, you need to make the client dumber,” Gates said.
Gates noted that the browser-based world in which most of the
Internet’s information resides on servers is waning.
“The browser model, which has been the focus for the last five years,
really is showing its age,” Gates said, speaking to a packed stadium
at the MGM Grand Hotel. |
