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Gates Tries to Explain .Net

AdamBa writes "Speaking to financial analysts and reporters, Bill Gates admitted that .NET hadn't caught on as quickly as he had hoped. The headline ('Gates admits .NET a "misstep"') is a bit misleading; he doesn't think all of .NET was a misstep, just the My Services part (aka Hailstorm). He also said that labelling the current generation of enterprise products as .NET might have been 'premature.' Summary: Microsoft got too excited about locking in users via Hailstorm and botched the overall .NET message." There's also a Reuters report and a NYTimes story on the same subject, which includes the interesting line: "Microsoft also warned today that the era of "open computing," the free exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer industry, is ending." It isn't clear if Microsoft is talking about something happening beyond their control, or if they're boasting about ending it.

25 of 559 comments (clear)

  1. Gates doesn't do mistakes. by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 5, Funny

    When he does they become standards.

    --
    Je t'aime Stéphanie
  2. Cheap office labor! by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Funny
    when you said, 'These two systems have to connect. Bring in 200 consultants at $200 an hour,' are over."

    One dollar an hour per consultant? I guess I know how much a MCSE certificate is worth nowadays. Hell, cheaper than temps, though.

  3. heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Microsoft also warned today that the era of "open computing," the free exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer industry, is ending."

    uh-huh

    I'm warezing .NET right now.

    M$=0wn3r1z3d

  4. The seed of the .NET idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Wouldn't it be great if there were something exactly like the Internet, except that we owned it?"

    -- Paraphrased from Clay Shirkey

  5. CNN has a story by Wind_Walker · · Score: 4, Funny
    CNN also has a story about Gates' .NET evaulation, and it says he gives is a 'C'.

    I wonder how he grades the Xbox, with its horrific launch in Japan (still haven't sold through their initial 250,000 shipment), terrible software sales rate (less than 2 per console sold), and overall terrible showing at E3. He'd probably give it a 'C+', or maybe a 'C#'.

  6. MS's original intention. by MongooseCN · · Score: 5, Funny

    MS believed that the way to avoid the problem of .COM's going under was to name their product .NET. I mean who's ever heard of a .net going under? Or the .net bubble burst? Clearly by naming their product .net, they would avoid all the problems the .com's had.

  7. Re:What _IS_ .NET? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What is .NET?
    Why should we care about it?
    .NET is the future. It's so amazing you cannot live without it. It would be too difficult to explain .NET in common layman's terms so just understand that .NET is the key to the computing industry for the next thousand years. Microsoft is the gatekeeper and .NET gives YOU the power to expand your horizons and move into the next era of computing by unlocking the doorway for a small monthly fee. Don't delay, call your authorized Microsoft Solutions provider today and tell them that you must take advantage of .NET immediately at whatever cost. Don't be left behind or you may never catch up to this exciting new technology.

    Truthfully though, I have no idea what it is either. All I know is that I'll be switching all my computers to Microsoft XP Pro in the next few weeks so I can take advantage of it.. whatever it is. I love being on the leading edge of technology like this.

  8. Re:Open computing ending? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Your family is full of delusional weirdos.

  9. The end of "Open Computing" by fobbman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does anyone know whether Gates was wearing ruby slippers when he made the above statement?

  10. Code Name Game by Joel+Ironstone · · Score: 1, Funny

    Greenwich?
    Yukon?
    Longhorn?

    If you make an acronym out of MS' code names and order them based on release dat you get GYL

    or

    Gates
    You
    Lost

    Coincidence....?

    1. Re:Code Name Game by crivens · · Score: 2, Funny

      How about Get A Life? Oh wait, you had a Y in the middle. My mistake.

  11. Re:.NET my BUTT by slickwillie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just say ".NYET!".

  12. HE DOESN"T WANT TO FAGGOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
  13. Full of Holes... by akiy · · Score: 5, Funny

    A net, by defition, is full of holes...

    --

    --
    http://www.aikiweb.com - AikiWeb Aikido Information

  14. Bill: It's never happened to me before... by mtec · · Score: 2, Funny


    But it was a case of 'pre.net.ture ejaculation'

    I just got a little excited 'cause you customers are so sexy.

    Lemme help clean you up...

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  15. Re:Gates give company a "C" by pauls2272 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmm, I thought he gave them a C#...

  16. Re:Gates doesn't do mistakes. by unicron · · Score: 4, Funny

    "From my parent's home in Wyoming, I stab at thee."

    --
    Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
  17. Re:They understand one problem... by dpilot · · Score: 4, Funny

    How about "software to connect your income to our bottom line."

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  18. What is .NET? by quantaman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Reporter 1: What is .NET?

    Gates: No one can tell you what .NET is. You have to see it for yourself.

    Reporter 2: But I have sources telling me that .NET is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  19. Re:OS Report Card by mtec · · Score: 2, Funny

    Alien Spaceship OS in 'Independence Day': F

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  20. MS Toadie #001 by mojoNYC · · Score: 2, Funny

    Jim Allchin, one of the company's top vice presidents, acknowledged the shift in focus in the industry from personal computers to plumbing, and bemoaned the difficulty of getting Microsoft's traditional consumers to care about its new vision.

    "It's hard to get sexy about protocols," he said. "It really is about plumbing and concrete and protocols."

    translation: we want to come into your house and rip out your plumbing, install our private plumbing network, and you will pay us for the privelege. don't worry, we'll never shut the water off on you, because we're trustworthy--can't you damn fools see that?

  21. Re:.NET as a Data Utility by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    .... have my fridge interoperate with the grocery store and compare my cupboards with what's on special today ....

    I really really don't want to see my toilet have a Brown Screen of Death someday.

  22. Re:What is .NET?????? by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny
    Simple:

    .NET is something that .FISH get .TANGLED up in.

  23. More awful puns... by KC7GR · · Score: 3, Funny

    Perhaps the developers could dub one of the shared libraries .BUTTERFLY. Then, at least, the users of .NET would have something to chase.

    (There go my karma points...)

    --

    Bruce Lane, KC7GR,

    Blue Feather Technologies

  24. Re:It seems clear to me... by BgJonson79 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Microsoft and the entertainment industry are in bed together

    And they're making the ugliest kid I've ever seen

    --

    There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.