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BBC Bill Gates Interview
securitas writes "The BBC's Stephen Cole interviews Bill Gates in the first of a two-part interview. In the first half of the interview with the technology show Click Online, Gates discusses his view of the 'digital lifestyle' that Microsoft has been pushing for some time, lately with its Windows Media Center PCs.
Sample quote: 'People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices.... The PC has more software, more competition, more richness than anything else. So making it simple and rich, that means the PC will be the key device.' Streaming media in Real format is also available. [Video: Broadband | Narrowband]"
"The PC has more software, more competition, more richness than anything else...."
Excuse me, are we sure this is the real Bill Gates?
And here's the second part of the interview.
aterr - an open source threaded discussion board.
The second part of the article is here
It just seems like more marketing spin to me. Regardless of your view of MS products, security is a major problem and all Gates seems to do here is to calm the fears of the less knowledgable technology users who haven't the in-depth knowledge to worry about these security flaws.
I'm not stressed. I'm just terribly, terribly alert.
Um, some people do. Having one multi-purpose device running everything means there is a single point of failure. You could build in tons of redundancy on everything (essentially multiple PC's) but then that's not much different (and more expensive) than multple devices to begin with.
People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices....
...? Most of these devices are still selling very very well, despite the fact that PCs can do all they do and much more.
Then why do people keep using TVs, DVD players, stereos, watches, telephones,
Admitedly, some devices show a lot of feature-convergence, like cellphones or PDA, but people want to keep separate devices, be it because they're less of a pain to set up and use (no boot time, no crashes, dedicated remotes, no windowing environment to detract from the real use) or because people just don't want complex devices with menus, settings and double or triple-function buttons all over the place.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
DVB card. apt-get install vdr. shove skype on it if you _really_ want to. job done.
total cost: £270 plus a monitor of your choice (£200 for the computer, £70 for the terrestrial DVB card).
£200 if you want a DVB-S satellite card.
vdr also supports a modified (soon to come out of development) version of xine which allows you to no longer need a hardware MPEG decoder on the DVB card.
>'People don't want lots and lots of single purpose
>devices.... The PC has more software, more
>competition, more richness than anything else. So
>making it simple and rich, that means the PC will be the key device.'
So we can forget Xbox 2, right.
What Gates doesn't appear to get is that my "single-purpose device" called a VCR works accurately and precisely like a VCR every time that I attempt to use it. Same thing for my DVD player. Same thing for my TV. Turning all these things into a multi-function device running on Microsoft Windows wouldn't be my idea of an ideal future.
Especially once the adware/spyware starts to appear on my kid's DVD player. "Daddy, there's boobies on the TV and they want me to click on them."
I'm a big tall mofo.
In ten years, we will probably be using that quote the way we use the "640k of ram ought to be enough for anyone" quote.
Gates is wrong on this one. A well designed dedicated device beats the multi-purpose device when it comes to regular every day use. You don't see an auto mechanic with only an adjustable crescent wrench in his tool kit. He'd be laughed out of the shop.
People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices. They do not want to have to learn how to set up something for photos, another thing for music, another thing for video.
I can relate. It was a real pain to learn how to set up my iPod. I mean, gosh, had to crawl behind my computer and plug in this little white cable!
But it was worth all that trouble. I sure am glad that this is not a single purpose device. I mean, my friends and I all use it to keep our contact info, calendars, and to keep entertained in class with its nifty little built-in pong game. I think that having all of these daily use features in a single device is my favorite part about it!
No, seriously though, I think the success of the iPod is evidence that Gates is totally wrong here.
Right now, this PC is running Firefox, SETI, radio, apache, firewall, anti-virus and email.
The AV and firewall are because my kids want MS for the games. Them aside, I get this PC to do plenty of different things. Does your PC only do 1 thing then?
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
It sounded a nervous interview to me. How many times did he use the word: 'certainly'? It's a word you use if you're trying to convince a skeptic...
Did he inhale?
Many moons ago, I thought I would give a combo TV/VCR unit a try. I thought it would be cool to have all the features of my VCR built directly into my TV. And for a year or two, it was great.......
Then, the VCR stopped working.
Whereas before I could have simple unplugged the VCR and carted it to a store for servicing, I had to lug the entire damn TV around. In addition, when I did get around to bringing it to a store, the price they quoted me for repairing it was more than the cost of some new, uncoupled VCRs!
While the Windows Media Center isn't necessarily heavy, the idea is still the same -- having all of these different functions integrated into a single unit present the possibility of a single point of failure. Never mind that the Windows OS is nowhere near as stable as what I would traditionally expect from electronics manufacturers. And when you consider the frequency with which Windows OS's require patching...... it just doesn't make sense.
Isn't the BBC great??! This show explains complex new technology in simple, easy to grasp language without dumbing it down. It's refreshing to witness good computer journalism since there's such a lack of it. I'll definitely put this in my bookmarks.
The Bill Gates interview wasn't great. Gates just ducked and dived out of every question and promoted his company all the while. I suppose, what would you expect him to say, "Yeah, you're right. MS does have a really bad history with security and Longhorn is constantly being delayed. We're a crap company, sorry!"?
The Blue Ray vs. HD-DVD section was much more interesting. It seems like Blue Ray is the better technology but with HD-DVD having a years head start and being much cheaper to produce, it looks like HD-DVD has the upper hand. Only time'll tell I suppose...
Interviewer : Are rich are you ?
Bill Gates: Rich
Interviewer : You mean very rich ?
Bill Gates: Yeah, very rich
Interviewer : You mean very very rich ?
Bill Gates: Yeah, very very rich
Interviewer : You mean very very very rich ?
Bill Gates: Yeah, very very very rich
Interviewer : Can you give me some money then ?
Bill Gates : No
Interviewer : Why not ?
Bill Gates : Because I want your money
Bill says the case was ironic, because 'The idea of low cost computing, letting people have a choice of the very best PC, making sure the prices are constantly coming down ...'.
Yeah, but what about Software?
...that it's a computer.
I know plenty of people who use computers provided they don't look like computers and they don't know they're computers. They are happy with their games consoles, their digital TV set top boxes, their DVD players and their mobile phones. But if you took them all away and replaced it with a computer that did exactly the same they would look at you in horror.
Then there are people like me who like their technology to be bleeding edge but invisible. I would much rather have the ability to stream media from my LAN via my set top box, than watch TV on my computer.
>If I could control the PC from the living room and have the sound card output to the speakers there, then I wouldn't need the stereo.
if this is what you want, just get a Mac and Airport with Airtunes.
Microsoft: Yesterday's Mac, Tomorrow
Is it me or is he telling people that they shouldn't want an Xbox?
'People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices.... The PC has more software, more competition, more richness than anything else. So making it simple and rich, that means the PC will be the key device.'
We noticed that with the firewall in SP2 and the fewer services default services running on 2k3 server, that Microsoft has finally started to take notice to "the first rule" of computer security. But what was Microsoft thinking when they shipped XP RTM to non technical users with things like RPC and UPnP listening to connections from the internet?
We know hind site is 20/20, but there were many people who warned MS about the insecurities of XP long before it was shipped, what was the general response at MS to these warnings and would you say that you were "wrong" to ignore the early warnings?
Why are these services still running but now behind XP SP2's firewall, why not turn them off? Some people believe this is a ploy to add more "bloat" to windows to increase hardware (and by extention windows) sales, what is your response?
I could come up with about a 100 more, maybe Slashdot should try to get an interview with Bill Gates? :)
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
But, there are others, quite a few, in fact, that don't want to be weighted down with a half-dozen gadgets, when a pocketable, multi-purpose, cell-phone, will do. The PDA in particular seems to be headed for extinction.
And we feel very good about the dialogue we have had for many years with the content industries. How we have struck the right balance there and that is why you see an explosion in digital music.
Uh... Microsoft and the content industries (RIAA in this case) are responsible for the explosion in digital music?
Back in my reality, the RIAA were dragged there kicking and screaming while Napster started the illegal method and iTunes started the legal one.
Microsoft never managed to do anything save follow the competition... Ripping from CD got added to media player only after third party MP3 ripping software became popular. Even then, Microsoft initially crippled it with DRM and no one was interested. They finally removed compulsory DRM when they realised no one was using thier product because of it, due to there being dozens of more free options out there. Then Microsoft added CD burning - and even there used an already well established third party. They created an online music store to follow iTunes. Finally there were the portable players - where a bunch of not very useable solutions came out, then Apple created its [over priced but very damn cool so we payed it anyway] iPod - and Microsoft followed up by releasing its standard a while later.
During all of this time, the RIAA tried to bury its head in the sand and hope that suing twelve year old girls and grandmothers would make it go away. When that didn't work, they tried the most restrictive methods they could come up with, fighting the hardware and software industries every time they suggested giving people something free enough that it might be used over the less legal competition. Eventually, when provided with no other option, they accepted iTunes but only at prices where most 15 or 16 track albums were more expensive than buying the hard copy and ripping it yourself.
So, forgive me for not seeing, in my universe, quite how Microsoft and the content industry created that explosion. At best, Microsoft chased the explosion while the content industry were dragged there fighting every step of the way.
It's somewhat like a construction firm turning up to the tsunami hit areas and talking about how they worked with the locals to really start an explosion in land clearance and new construction.
Please - read a little before modding me to oblivion :-)
I don't want lots of single purpose devices - but, and here's the kicker, I don't want fully fledged convergent devices either.
I want my mobile phone to be a brilliant phone - but I also expect it to be a good enough web browser to read Slashdot. I don't want it to run flash / Javascript etc - but I want it to function well.
I want my amp to decode AC3, DTS and Pro-Logic - I don't want to be able to play Pong on it.
Xbox Media Center plays my DVDs, DivX and Oggs just fine - I've no need for it to tune my car's engine.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Appropriate convergence is a great thing. Appropriate convergence where the device is good in all its intended roles is bloody brilliant!
T
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
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