Derek, I'd hate to disappoint you, though I fear my time is running out here. Bill seems to be taking this all so . . . personally. Somebody around here once told me you got to develop a thick skin. Think Ghenghis Khan went around worrying about what the press was saying about him?
(quotes from news.com )
Pointing his finger squarely at the press, Gates said sharply: "I'd be glad to explain to you how disappointed I was at the way we were portrayed."
And which finger was that?
We went as far as to say what version of Windows that you could delete these files from and it will still run. It turns out it's the retail version that sells hundreds of thousands of copies a month. And what did people say about that?"
I said it was the best seller! It's what the customers want! I have no idea what the deal with those dumb OEMs is, and all this OSR2/2.5 business. Just not giving the customers what they want, I guess.
"Well, the command we have that does confuse people, I will admit, the one that says [add/remove Internet Explorer] removes none of the IE functionality. None of it."
It's that duality of man thing again, the yin and yang of it. Add/Remove, who's to say what it means?
They're trying to get us not to support the Internet in Microsoft Windows. It's pretty straightforward. Yes, it's surprising, but it's pretty straightforward."
Oh, right Bill. They said "take out TCP/IP, or we're sending in the troops." The internet would do just fine without IE.
"And so, I'll tell my lawyers to defend our ability to do Windows 95, to do Windows NT, to do speech recognition.
And finally, the eternal preemptive strike on speech recognition. There are products out there, but Microsoft's going to build it into the OS, so everybody's wasting their time and money on the problem. Bill's been saying this for years, it must be the TRUTH!
I've mostly left the "is Microsoft innovative" question to others of the ilk. But I gotta say, the company lines haven't been very innovative of late. Of course, it's all my fault. Here I've been ridiculing poor Bill in a public forum all this time, and his feelings are hurt. Sheesh, buck up Microsofties. The world is at your feet, and snide comments get you down? Lay off the PR and get the software out, that'll impress everyone. Emulate your Wintel peer, leave legal matters to the lawyers, and try out the "Microsoft does not comment on unannounced products" line for size. That'd shut me up.
Cheers, Dan
P.S. Bill, that "man of wealth and taste" thing? It was a joke. A joke, I tell you. Can't anybody take a joke? Do I have to explain it again? Business is war, war is hell? Did you hear the one about the dyslexic, agnostic insomniac? Sheesh. |
