I wonder exactly what is Bill Gate's favorite version of Windows? Which one does he run personally? (And I don't want him to say Vista...b/c he has to).

Don't tell me he really hates the Mac, does he?

What about the iPhone? Does he have one? What's his REAL thoughts on Apple?

slingblade

I thought the interview ended yesterday! Cool Bonus.

Just ban the site linkers. Call it evolution in action.

strider_mt2k

@tehethan: Nail on the head.

I use and like Vista, but hell, at the same time I'm glad it got labeled the biggest tech disappointment of 2007. Big monopolistic entities need to get P.R. bitch-slapped when they overpromote and underperform.

digitalpoet

10 seconds later:
Interviewer: "Well what about Windows ME?"
Bill: "Wait, what? Holy cow! We SHIPPED that?"

youngfiles

Hey, do you think Lee Iacocca loved every one of the K-Cars Chrysler was churning out in the 80's? Do you think Martha Stewart loves the design of every one of her 100 thread count Kmart sheets? Do you actually think I remember where I was going with this?

kevjohn

@riflehunter:
So you suggest Gizmodo publish news and articles without having an opinion about it?? So they should write an article about something without writing what they think of the gadget or news??

We may agree or disagree with the opinion of a post writer, but it is his duty and privilage at the same time to have a say. Otherwise we'll just read press releases from the company itself!

The Arab Aquarius

aymarius

@kidwei: Thanks for holding my hand (slightly less thanks for being a dick about it), but my original point still stands - this is a totally ambiguous statement, and even though you THINK it means one thing, it actually doesn't have to mean that at all. You're reading what you want to hear into this statament.

Pope John Peeps II

--
Oh Billy boy. That was a blunt enough answer. LOL. By saying wait till we ship the next version of windows then ask me what product should have been better, it takes no math to see how he feels about Vista. I guess we should expect the next window version much faster than we had to wait for Vista.

Again, I am starting to like Bill. Maybe all it needed was for him to start being funny and likeable was to be retiring soon, LOL.

The Arab Aquarius

aymarius

Vista was labeled the biggest tech disappointment of 2007 by PC World not because it wasn't bad – hell, I love Vista – but because it didn't live up to the oil tanker worth of hype it got.

tehethan

@riflehunter: Bill didn't sound so confident in his product, sounded like he said it to me, in so many words. Should we stop putting headlines on everything?

BENNY THE INTERN

His comment doesn't necessarily imply that he thinks Vista is bad, but that the problems they had in getting it to the market and cutting things and constantly reshaping it while Apple walked out two major releases was a bit of a professional embarrassment, and he isn't proud of the process, rather than the product. In all fairness, Vista is a pretty great product that improves a lot of the things that are horrendous with XP, and that's pretty much what a company aims to do. The fact that Apple managed to ship features shown in Longhorn way before Microsoft could show consumers they existed before the Apple-ether took hold, and had to strip out things like WinFS probably was a bit of a marketing nightmare.

Topcat

What did everyone forget about windows ME? come on guys, everyone knows the worst OS EVER made by Microsoft was windows ME... I love Vista however, it works great for me! NEVER have any issues with it!

Zgradis

Thank you! Now do you people believe me?

Noobs-R-Us

He never said Windows sucks. You guys are such Apple fanboys.

xxdesmus

@skeeveAGAIN: Agreed. I've been waiting for the entire interview for the past few days! WTF?

Johnny Chimpo

@Pope John Peeps II: Wow, not only did you totally miss the point, but you had to spew out your vitriolic drivel, as well. But I suppose I will hold your hand and give you an explanation. Giz asked Bill what Microsoft product he's not particularly proud of. Bill responded by saying "When the next version of Windows releases, I'll give you a blunt answer". This is meant to imply that he's not proud of Windows Vista. The humor is that he won't admit it until the company has put the Vista fiasco behind it and moved on to greener pastures. I can't believe I just explained that.
--
I'll have to agree with everyone else. Though I'm not a great fan of everything Microsoft does, Bill does seem like a genuinely humble and cool guy.. and a genius, at that.

kidwei

I would like to have seen the video posted sans headline and see what Giz readers think of it. I believe it would be a non-issue without the front-loading of the headline.

This is the best non-news I've seen in a while.

riflehunter

Can I just ask why you've broken up an interview into several 20 second clips and released one each day?
Doesn't seem to make much sense to me. No other news to report?

skeeveAGAIN

That is an interesting question and from that quote it sounds like they are really aware of the flaws in Vista and plan to fix it with something whether it be through Service packs or a new version is up to debate...

Stocat

I am straight up Switzerland when it comes to electronics...HDDVD+BluRay, Mac+PC, OSX+Vista, PS3+Wii+360, I like them all...like the headline of the site says - "So much in love with shiny new toys, it's unnatural."

Seiven

@Stocat: Wait, does he mean that a new version of VISTA is being launched soon? It seems like he means ask him when the next version of the whole OS is launched.

Pope John Peeps II

The best thing about Bill Gates is that despite the fact that so many people revile his company as "evil", everybody loves him.

Bowler Hat

Pope John Peeps II - rewatch it...he's saying he won't comment on this current version of windows until its out of its production cycle, meaning he wishes it could be more polished, granted windowsME was a far far far worse release than Vista. Vista is actually a very nice piece of software once you turn off the UAC.

Stocat

I have to admit I can't believe Gates said what he said. He did not literally say it sucks but even so.
What he did say still was astounding. Truly, we are at the end of an era...or perhaps the beginning of a new one.

olternaut

@k33l0r: Ooh blatant site plugging. Haven't seen that in a while. That's a bannable offence, you know.

Pope John Peeps II

I'm sure Mr. Gates also hates Linux, OSX, Windows 3.11, Win98, WinMe, Win2000 and WinXP and anything that people are willing to have on their computers without paying Micro$oft more ca$h (you see that clever thing I did with the S's and dollar signs. Wow, what an original and subtle way of commenting on M$'s [You see? I did it again] greed).

And hopefully he will never forget his long lasting hatred of Linux and all FOSS.


--
Please visit my site at www.draco-vulgaris.com

k33l0r

Actually he's talking about the NEXT version of Windows, not the versions that are out currently, so really this comment means shit all. It's a comment about nothing, about vapour. Is he expecting it to be shit? Who knows? Ask him after the shit has been shipped out into the world.

This isn't an honest answer about anything. This is a bullshit answer about nothing. I would hope viewers can tell the difference.

Also, Gates has nothing left to gain from making statements about Microsoft. This takes no balls at all. He's basically retired. If he had stood up for product integrity while he was still head of the company, that would be a different story.

VERDICT: UNIMPRESSED.

Pope John Peeps II

lol, the Man probabily Owns 1/2 of apple on the down low. Billy is no fool, thats why he held the tittle for years as the richest man. now everybody knows his a iphone user too. heck why do you think windows support iphone, its cause of Billy

snitch29

@ajadoniz: It still sounds like he isnt very proud of Vista. He is saying he would like to wait until he ships the "next" version of windows to give you an honest answer.

That means saying "this kinda sucks" would be bad for business. Well, Vista is the new breadwinner, I doubt he would want to say it wasnt ready while trying to sell it.

XP > OSX > Vista

archercc

I seem to recall that Bill uses a Mac. No word of this either way on Snopes. Anyone else know if this is true?

mullingitover

You've got to give credit where credit is due. Jobs would not be able to do such a thing (would he?).

whiskey

Now according to my fanboyism I should say "See even the Leader of the Windotards says it sucks" but I gotta give it it to Gates for saying this on camera. That took balls Bill.

Bauer22

@jos: Awesome, ain't they?

I'm sure it's to cover themselves in case they can't post it right away.
Those guys are working very hard to entertain us so.

Soldier on, time traveling Bloggers, soldier on!

strider_mt2k

Why do you care Gizmodo? You guys use macs anyway...

I do too.. just saying.. I'm sure you guys found this funny.

What I'm seing is nothing all that great coming out of CES 2008.

genius74

@thechansen: interesting observation, i think i have to agree.

EMoShunz

great way of taking things out of context. how about you listen to it again.

ajadoniz

Man, for being an Apple fanboy and generally hating on Microsoft (I do love my 360 and Windows up until the release of 98), you gotta respect the man. Jobs seems like he would slit your throat if you were a programmer working for Apple and you brought him something like XP. Which I can respect, and love. Gates seems like generally nice guy. Granted there is a certain level of PR grooming that takes place, I buy his personality as it's presented here.

thechansen

damn , thats the only word that can be said but still alot of people hate the products that there companies make even ceo's

utube2007

hmmm its pretty awesome that Gizmodo wants to be MS fanboy now. Advertising revenue, anyone?

sameoldoctor

@christophski: lol, he just may be geeky enough to get it working too. but his wife will be an apple user :P

EMoShunz

He just BLAM have mastered the art of time travel.

bms

Dugg! Haha, Billy wants to use Linux, he just won't admit it

christophski

they're spread to thin, they aren't focusing very well on key products.

bobide

WILL, HOW DID YOU POST THIS THING IN THE FUTURE?

4:00 PM ON WED JAN 9 2008
BY WILSON ROTHMAN

jos

raddest fucking guy alive.

ronnsprocket

THE TRUTH FROM THE TOP!

jos

haha, Bill hates Vista, too.

skiterr

Yeah, I would say that Bill obviously thinks it sucks. I mean so does everyone else, even people at Microsoft. What is the big surprise here? Bill would have to be stupid not to think it sucks.

And no one thinks Bill Gates is Stupid.

dallasmay2

Jobs just squirt soy milk out his nose laughing at this.

jriga

To add to what I said... OS X, Photoshop 7 on a machine with 1 ghz G4, 2 gb of ram, and a 64 mb videocard, ran faster or at least seemed faster to me than a P4 2.66 ghz also with 2 gb of ram and a 128 mb videocard. In my eyes that was a proof enough for myself, to go with Apple. Others' milage may vary but it works for me and that's all I care about.

And why single me out when saying OS X is worthless? Seems kinda callous.

You obviously have little to no experience with the OS because most (read: everything) of what you said is false. I still use windows computers everyday at work because my school system uses it, plus everyone in my family uses it. I'm not IT professionally, but I'm the family IT guy, as I'm the only one who has used computers since the IIe. I've used 7 different distros of linux, freebsd and unix. every windows since 3.1 and up. I feel in my OPINION OS X is a standout OS because of its reliability and ease of use. Drink the Kool-aid some time give it a real shot and you will probably see where a lot of people are coming from. Fanboys do have some rational arguments. But I'm lowering the fanboy and finishing this rant up.

thechansen

@youngfiles: Wilson "Well what about Windows ME?"
Bill "Well... Some of our new developers are still unfamiliar with the concept of April Fools"

ripfire4

@alt.slack:
1) I've had one xbox 360. Microsoft has an extremely pro-consumer repair policy. It's a pretty nice system in terms of games offered and saying the controller is terrible, is subjective. Just like every other opinion. I really like the 360 controller. Moreso then wii or ps2/3.
2) OS X has right click. So if you've really ever used one, you must either have one finger or have had the other 9 someplace other then your mouse.
3) My iTunes folder is sitting at around 590 gb. It runs fine and loads in less then 6 seconds , this is on a 1st gen intel iMac.
4) How is clicking on a file name twice hard? Ready, CLICK. (pause) CLICK. rename the file then hit enter. Christ, you set up a Linux computer and can't rename a file or navigate files THE EXACT SAME WAYS AS A WINDOWS PC.
5) You want poweruserfriendlyness on Mac OS X? Learn some terminal commands then come talk to me. Also Applescript for that matter.

@SinistarX:
I bought my first Mac in '01 for one reason, Photoshop. I had a windows XP machine in my possession until 04 but I stopped using it a few weeks after I got the mac. I stopped playing PC games because I lacked the time/money to keep up with constant upgrades. Then since I wasn't gaming I decided it was cheaper to just go with one system since I could do all the same shit on Mac (except for the gaming). And the general stability, perceived speediness vs. windows, and ease of use of Mac made it so I spent more time getting work done and less time fucking off with constant maintenance.
Windows 95 and even 98 felt like it was just set it and forget it, I don't remember having to jump through hoops to get those two OSes running... 3.11 will still be my favorite.

thechansen

Thats actually a really good question. Does he mean the next new OS release (aka "windows 7") or the next service pack? By the sounds of it I would say he meant Windows 7. My money is on a late 2008 release.

Abnormal

Windows vista has way to many issues yes. I totally agree with that. XP is now a pretty solid OS and still one of the more intuitive out there. I still find XP to be far more intuitive than any release of OSX even leapord. To you THECHANSEN I say OSX is just worthless. Everytime I sit down at an apple machine and try to do simple procedures such as basic file management and other things such as simply renaming a file a complete hassle. Windows with it's right click made everything nice and doable one handed if I so choose. The default apple progies such as iTunes are just god awful when dealing with large collections. OSX just simply doesn't offer the power users enough freedom, it locks you out of the OS far to much. While I'm using ubuntu more and more these days, I still love windows over OSX as far as simple usuability. Hell, my grandma bought a mac first and returned it after a week due to the inability to figure out how to simply navigate her machine. I built her an XP machine and showed the simple tricks such as right click and the like and she was able to use her comp within an hour. As far as the 360, what a giant hunk of crap. Everyone I know that owns one is on atleast there 6th console since release. It dies all the time, has a terrible controller and awful dashboard interface. Yes, vista does suck, but the other commercial alternative for an OS is much worse.

alt.slack

@thechansen: You loved Windows up until the release of 98? Was it more cool and indie back in the 1.x days?

SinistarX

@Pope John Peeps II: It's not ambiguous at all. How can his statement be taken to mean that he thinks, that over the past five or so years, the product which which was most unpolished was the version of windows which wasn't released over the past five years, and isn't even close to being finished?

What else can it mean, other than saying the current Windows OS is unpolished? (if he were referring to XP or an earlier OS, he would say it openly; If it weren't an OS he was referring to, his statement makes no sense.

A past example - While the Zune 1 was available, it was an excellent product, officially. Once the Zune 2s came out (which are nice devices) MS's stance changed to saying that the Zune was unpolished (not total crap, but unpolished) You don't insult your products when they're on sale.

WalkerP

He already said there are things he wanted in the current OS that wasnt there, that couldnt be there because they were running out of time to ship.

I suggest everyone read the Engadget CES 2008 interview.

I think the next OS will be what he really wanted to release, afterall its touted to be the first windows for a while to built completely afresh with very few or no legacy dependencies. We will see.

alukard

yes!!! not banned.

djdare

test test 1, 2. Is this thing on? Jerry take some of highs out.

djdare

If you're still commenting you have not been banned.

blam

@Pope John Peeps II: Oh, well, in that case, if anyone wants to hear about who I think is the biggest tool in this commenting thread, they'll have to wait until Johnny's gone.

Reilaos, Putting the 'Fun' in Dysfunction!

What are they going to do, fire him?

rudeadly

@Pope John Peeps II: You not only miss the entire point he makes, but you have also wasted comment space with absolute idiotic garbage.

ImTheKing

@Aberracus:

"""BTW first, right click works on mac since OSX, second, press enter with any icon or file selected and you will be able to renma it (intelligently, the extension will be not highlighted, but you can higliht it manualy)."""

In Vista the same thing happens. Select a file, hit "F2", and bam, filename selected, without the extension.

And, lol, I really don't think that problem you described is Vista's fault. The first experience I had with a brand new ACER laptop was a bluescreen on the initial start up... It was a pretty cheap model though, but my other laptop which also came with Vista has had zero problems.

Kyang

(?)

whew

strider_mt2k

c'mon you guys. Vista isn't that bad... after the 1st 2 weeks of getting annoyed to hell, it kind of falls into place.
Now, if I wasn't running a quad core Core 2, with DDR3 and 4GB of readyboost flash, I might be singing a different tune.

I love the new mediacenter too. It rocks!

mkrygeri

BTW first, right click works on mac since OSX, second, press enter with any icon or file selected and you will be able to renma it (intelligently, the extension will be not highlighted, but you can higliht it manualy).

Leopard is really a jewel.

Vista is crap, the other day some friend of mine came with a new notebook with core 2 duo 2gbs ram and x3100 something liek a macbook but made from ACER, omg, brand new laptop, and when i started ie7 and typed gizmodo.com ie7 crahsed and closed, tried 3 times, after that the owner asked me to downgrade it to windows XP.... now she is happy running xp now. But downgrading it was a pain in the a**.

MS dont want you to download but go ahead and run a search in google for downgrade to xp/// lol its awesome, nearly everybody wants to downgrade.

im happy with my leopard upgrade it was effortless and sppeedy, so once Bill is right isnt him?

Aberracus

@NightElfMohawk:
I'm a total idiot, I completely forgot the whole root access.

@blam:
sorry about any drama, didn't mean to take part in flame wars. original post was merely meant as a complement for Mr. Gates. With that said, "One more thing...."

@Syndication:
With the same two computers I mentioned early, said G4 1 ghz blew away said P4 2.66 ghz when I played WoW. Not that this is a brag-able achievement but this was when I had the addiction and was looking all Cartman-ish on the World of Warcraft episode of South Park. I couldn't enter Molten Core on the PC but the Mac handled it just fine and I was even able to run it at higher graphics settings. I think of the G4 as the little chipset that could.

thechansen

@thechansen:

G4 Processors were absolute slow as crap. I would take a Pentium 4 computer over a G4 ANYDAY ANYTIME.

Syndication

@thechansen: You forgot to mention that if folks want to have greater freedom on their Mac, aside from AppleScript and Terminal commands, they can always just man up and use the root user as their main account. I tested it out on my little secondary Mini for a while and never ran across any issues. Then again, I know better than to toss certain files you have access to in root...

NightElfMohawk

i wonder how often manufacturers/designers feel rushed. if it was more polished, people would probably bitch that it took so long to come out, so it's lose-lose.
i have had practically zero problems with XP, and really it's pretty great. i got an hp laptop in september with vista on it that has also given me zero problems, and vista doesn't really bother me. (actually i thought it was pretty sweet until i got used to the graphics.) i will say that wifi works like a dream on it, better than it would in xp. i don't really get the vista hate (except that it uses more resources, but of course it does--people didn't like that windows wasn't pretty enough, and now that it uses extra resources to be prettier people complain that it uses extra resources.)
my attempts at using macs have resembled flailing around on the screen. for instance, double-clicking a title bar minimizes instead of maximizes, wth. so for me there's nothing "intuitive" about using these less-compatible machines that really have nothing more to offer than windows does.
but yeah, the man's got balls.

manguero

@dmphan: Yeah, I get that at work... I don't have a problem with it yet, but I only really run LightWave 9 and it works great. A lot of people I talk to have problems across the board with their applications and want to get rid of it.

absentblue

@thechansen: I mostly agree, as in, I love my 360, and until ME, then Vista, I had no beef. Win 98 was a step up for me because it enabled me to do slightly more and experiment and break more stuff. That was ten years ago when I was 12 and had only got a PC two years prior (Macs all before). 2000 and XP, I think most people can agree, were great platforms, the best for Microsoft.

And yeah, Gates seems to be a more honest and humble man than Jobs. I don't hate Jobs, but he's an elitist douche bag in my opinion, especially after seeing his interview with Gates where he just had a "holier than thou" attitude the whole time. Doesn't change my opinion about Apple, Inc. or Leopard though, to which I have a Mac at work and wish I had one here... but I like customization and building a computer... not paying twice as much for the same one with limitations... still, I will probably get one sometime. Nay, another one sometime since my Performa 550 back in 92 =D

absentblue

@Aberracus:
"MS dont want you to download but go ahead and run a search in google for downgrade to xp/// lol its awesome, nearly everybody wants to downgrade."

why don't you google "downgrade to tiger"...lol its awesome too!

dmphan

Where's that ban hammer? It couldn't have gotten too far, some douche was spamming their crappy website not that long ago!

s017jrs

Umm He never said it Sucked? idk.. whats is up with all these fanboys..
Seriously? I love both O.S LEOPARD&VISTA. You losers that Switched completely to Leopard Just dont know who to use Windows. or just seriously are fanboys . . Who cares.. People like what they want.. Get what they wan't : )

djjs

PEOPLE GIVE IN TO THE POWER OF THE LIGHT SIDE AND JOIN APPLE!

LEOPARD IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO!

Saeid

And, Oh My God!! Doesn't anyone remember Microsoft Bob????

GumbyJump

@Pope John Peeps II: Just because he's retired doesn't mean he's not still fully vested in the company via stock ownership, you moron!! If he starts badmouthing MS, he'll lose a huge chunk of his net worth literally overnight!

GumbyJump

@Saeid: Stop being such a fanboy, please, before your head explodes!

bbfreak

@djjs: Unless you need software on both sides, there isn't much point to using more than one, especially since you do generally have to pay to use both.

Kaiser-Machead

LMMacAO!

MINI Driver

@EMoShunz:
his wife worked for Micosoft. he met her at work. My money's on both of them running windows. Linux is great, especially UBUNTU, but if you want to play games, there really isn't much of a choice. Of course, you don't always have to pay for Vista.

catfish007aw

@bbfreak: lol. I think his head shrunk during that statement.

ImTheKing

@catfish007aw: mmm, kubuntu 8.04 with kde 4...
linux has an uphill battle to fight for the desktop. they need the compatibility of windows, the usability/stability of os x, and the awesomeness of openness to make a big dent. i love me some apple, but if i can get what i want out of my apple and not be vendor locked...buh-bye.
i say 6 years if ms/apple don't open their source code before linux is in a real "year of the linux desktop" situation. 4 years if gnome/kde/xfce/enlighten/etc. pool their resources.

EMoShunz

@gizmodo
Er, no, actually, he didn't "Just Say Windows Sucks". He just implied that it lacks polish.

Here is how I imagine a conversation with a Gizmodo interviewer must go.
gizmodo: "So, how've you been?"
interviewee: "Pretty good, I had this nasty head cold a few weeks ago, but I'm over it."
gizmodo: "OH MY GOD THIS GUY HAS CANCER!!1"

ElJefe

If you had asked Ballmer, he would have said "Nothing, ever! It's all super-fantastic and it will cure your CANCER!!! Windows is AWESOME!"

ChaoticLimbs

Well, if he had said that Windows sucks, he would have been correct for a change!

Three-Cent-Stamp

New to the site, not really acomputer geek.But I did just purchased a Vista L.T.What is a fanboy?

Rickster89