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Bill Gates Says He's Sorry About Control-Alt-Delete (qz.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the awkward-maneuvers dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: At the Bloomberg Global Business Forum today, Carlyle Group co-founder and CEO David Rubenstein asked Microsoft founder Bill Gates to account for one of the most baffling questions of the digital era: Why does it take three fingers to lock or log in to a PC, and why did Gates ever think that was a good idea? Grimacing slightly, Gates deflected responsibility for the crtl-alt-delete key command, saying, "clearly, the people involved should have put another key on to make that work." Rubenstein pressed him: does he regret the decision? "You can't go back and change the small things in your life without putting the other things at risk," Gates said. But: "Sure. If I could make one small edit I would make that a single key operation." Gates has made the confession before. In 2013, he blamed IBM for the issue, saying, "The guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button."

5 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. If I ever meet you by maxrate · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll control-alt-delete you (Weird Al)

    1. Re:If I ever meet you by jandrese · · Score: 5, Funny

      Of course it also gave MS-DOS users pause the first time they were asked to log into a WinNT machine. "Is this a prank?"

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
  2. Re:I don't understand. by FrankHaynes · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's a terrible thing to say about the President!!

    --
    slashdot: A failed experiment.
  3. Re:That's the one?! by default+luser · · Score: 4, Funny

    You know, like that stupid Reset button on the Apple II. Located conveniently above the RETURN key.

    Can't tell you how many times I fucking hit that thing.

    --

    Man is the animal that laughs.
    And occasionally whores for Karma.

  4. Re:That's the one?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Control keys are for mere "users". Just in case I ever have a little "emergency", my computer is configured to automatically wipe all memory and format its hard drive when pressing the "