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Bill Gates Interview w/ Spiegel

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the straight-up-answers dept.

DaVinciXL writes "Bill Gates just gave the German magazine "Spiegel" an interview which can be read (in English) on the magazine's website. Gates speaks about issues of computer security, competition, software bundling and how he lives with the downsides of his wealth and fame." He does a pretty good job of answering a lot of hard questions.

4 of 376 comments (clear)

  1. He's one of the richest, most powerful men by RLiegh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't imagine that there is too much of anything that does bother him; least of all search engine trivia.

  2. obviously, a lot of what he says is... by jxyama · · Score: 5, Insightful
    marketing speak and aren't always 100% "correct." however, there's some "substance" to it because he is *heard* and his opinions/ideas/thoughts are *valued* and *sought after* by others.

    it's like the blog madness - most of them aren't worth crap, in terms of content. but if you can command an audience, even if the contents are crap, it's "worth" something...arguably worth "more" than other blogs with better contents but no audience.

    i'm not saying open source has no voice. rather, i'm saying that just because what he says isn't all correct, doesn't mean what he says is worthless. he does command some "worth" just because people listen to what he has to say.

  3. Re:Interesting quotes from the interview by NonSequor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is some truth in some of what he says.

    It's worth noting that an aircraft with multiple engines is more likely to have some sort of engine failure than an aircraft with one engine of similar design. In general, increasing the number of components in a system increases the chance that at some point one of the components will fail.

    Basically if you put your eggs in several different baskets the number of eggs you can expect to lose will be greater than the number of eggs you can expect to lose by putting them in a single well designed basket.

    However, putting your eggs in one basket means that any failure is a total failure, even if it is unlikely. Systems with redundancies can be designed so that the chance of an absolute failure is unlikely and so that the damage of partial failures can be limited (i.e. a plane with multiple engines can be designed to still be able to land safely with some of its engines damaged). This is the reason that many people advocate against a so-called monoculture. There aren't any general purpose operating systems with adequate features that we are good enough to be our single basket. Gates thinks that Windows is good enough to be this single basket though there are many who disagree with him.

    --
    My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
  4. Microsoft's secret interview prep-guide. by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    #1. There isn't any problem.

    #2. There really isn't any problem.

    #3. Well, there is kind of a problem, but it's the same problem that everyone has.

    #4. It just looks that way because we're the biggest.

    #5. Everyone gets spam.

    #6. The alternatives would cost you more.

    #7. Innovation. We've got it, they don't.

    #8. We have more people paid to deal with that.

    #9. They don't have the features we do.

    #10. Lawsuits! Did I scare you?

    Whenever you're asked a question that isn't disguised praise, all you have to do is reply with one of the above phrases. It doesn't matter which one.

    In a recent interview, Bill Himself told the interviewer "Simply because one must spend billions of dollars to ensure the security of each individual system."

    Remember, we will never send you into an interview where the other person knows enough about technology to call you on ANY lie you feel like telling.