Newsmaker: Gates on Vista, Linux and more

newsmaker Bill Gates is pretty confident that when he spots an emerging technology, it will emerge. Exactly when that happens, though, is sometimes a question mark.

Tablet computing and interactive TV are just two examples where Gates has pushed Microsoft to get involved, though the markets have taken a long time to develop.

"My instincts, if they're wrong, it's usually not about what's right," the Microsoft chairman told CNET News.com during a swing through Silicon Valley on Wednesday. "It's about timing."

In the first part of an interview with News.com, Gates speaks about Zune and Office. In the second part, he reveals his favorite feature in Windows Vista, why he'll keep pushing for a new file system, and the role of open-source software.

Q: It's been five years since the last big Windows release. Windows Vista is coming out really soon for businesses, fairly soon for consumers. What's your favorite feature in Vista?
Gates: Well, it is such a broad release that it's hard to pick. (Desktop) search may be my favorite. You know, you immediately say to yourself, "Well, how did I live without it? Well, I bought add-ons and things like that." But the integrated user interface makes it quite different than even the add-ons were.

One project you have long championed is the idea of WinFS, an all-new file system for Windows. When you made the announcement that you'd be moving to part-time work eventually, you said that you were going to try and convince Ray Ozzie to keep championing the need for a new file system. How's that going?
Gates: Well, you definitely still want a structured look for certain kinds of rich query. And if we're going to bring all these things of e-mail and files and photos, bring it together fully, we need more than just the search indexing. Search indexing takes you further than people expect, I would say. But eventually you'll need more of a database-type look to these things.

There's some things that I'm closely associated with, like tablet (PCs) and WinFS, that people will expect me to shepherd.

And, you know, we're taking our SQL technology and using it in broader ways--that's our fundamental code base for all the rich storage things. I still think that the question is, is it the next major release or the one after that? I think that'll be a big breakthrough when we do it.

Are Ray and Steve on board? Or is that still something you've got to do before 2008?
Gates: Well, Steve--Steve Sinofsky, you mean, or Steve Ballmer?

Steve Ballmer.
Gates: Well, Steve knows that my instincts, if they're wrong, it's usually not about what's right, it's about timing. So he knows it's "when," not "if." But he'll rely on the teams to say, in terms of memory size and performance, is it right?

We have really clear criteria, now, for how we would choose. Before you pick the key features for release. Is it ready to be picked for that? So, yeah, I feel quite confident Ray will pick the right time.

And, you know, it's not like I disappear. I'm around even after mid-2008. There's some things that I'm closely associated with, like tablet (PCs) and WinFS, that people will expect me to shepherd. I want to do that.

Is that the big lesson coming out of Longhorn? To have a different process in place, to look at what's doable right now?
Gates: That's one thing. I mean, you learn so much when you do these releases. We had to do breakthroughs in terms of security. We had to do XP SP2, which was, from our point of view, a full release, even though it wasn't an end-user feature release.

But we feel that some of the things we've learned about layering and how you organize the feature teams will let us take this next five-year period and do a lot more than we did in the last five-year period. Do we wish we'd done more in some areas? Absolutely. I feel super-good that in these last eight months, even as we're getting the product done, we actually got organized for that next step forward.

Windows is nearly ubiquitous on computers, but computers aren't ubiquitous in the world. And you guys have been looking for a long time at different ways of bringing computing to more of the world's population. One of the approaches that has been talked about, inside of Microsoft, is the idea of cell phones and using them with nearby screens make them more of a PC-like device, as well as just bringing down the cost of PCs. Is one of those really more of the answer for more of the world?
Gates: Well, you always have a spectrum of capabilities. Today, there's people who buy $3,000 gaming PCs, and it's the most cool product they have in their life. And there's people who buy $200 PCs. So we have an amazing range.

By doing the right thing on the (cell) phones, we can take that down. It's not equivalent to that $3,000 thing, or even the $200 thing. We can take that down, say in the $50, $60 range. It's not a broadband network, but it's a network.

More Newsmakers

[Dachi]

PS3 vs 360

The main reason people are willing ot pay so much for PS3 is becasue there is this assumption that since it is a PlayStation it will become the standard.

The specs of the 360 and the PS3 are actually pretty similar despit the 360 being released last year.

The reason the PS3 costs so much more is because of the Blu-Ray drive which will come down in price long before you might actually need one. Besides, to actually use the PS3 on a high def system you have to pay $99 extra for the component cable.

I actually like the way the 360 handles the HD-DVD drive as an add-on, that way I am not stuck getting the drive now at a premium when I don't need it yet, and if Blu-Ray ever takes off, they can just make a Blu-Ray add-on.

I am not saying the PS3 won't pick up steam, but it does look like the 360 will be more competitave than the first xbox.

[Havin_it]

"Free software? We paid for that, you're welcome"

Hope you got that part, all FOSS developers out there. Bill's tax dollars made all your efforts possible. How can you be so inconsiderate as to use the GPL to weasel out of paying him back?

And how much do you make flogging Windows licences to educators, Bill? I'll bet if you combine the dollar-value and indoctrination ( = 'future loyal customer') value, it pretty much writes off your tax bill. **** you and the high-horse you rode in on.

[rslc]

tablet pc? wrong timing?

first, timing is almost everything.
second, tablet pc was a big joke.
what abt PDA?

Sad case of a geek who think he is a visionary.
That title is given to Steve Jobs and others
already.

[castingRod47]

Software and money

I'm a Home Desktop user..my very first PC was an AT&T PC[6300]in 1984 it cost $$2000.00 came with a SET of Books called George Washington-BASIC..it was a very baffleing piece of equipment..I read the Manuals of BASIC and subscribed to a Magazine and there were offers of $$10,000.00 or even $$20,000.00 for Programs to be written..from my first impression the Software looking for acceptance was very simple stuff/I never really went past some play-time w/the AT&T PC6300..in 1999 the COMPAQ Companion came along/the Internet RECIEVER-actually lasted about 1-year and died of[??who knows what??]..DELL started offering nice machines and Support Services/Microsoft OS/Office/and peripherals..I think along the way the(thing)that impresses the novice is the clear sense of moving into the Advanced PC-user..Microsoft has that offer "nailed" in my opinion..I think language has a very real place in the Support of PC's..if the language begins to drop off the SCOPE..so will the past success/soon diminish away like bad hardware..time will waste away and the PC-experiance will fall like a melting Ice Cream Cone at the Bazarr..I hope that Microsoft continues to be Microsoft..when Bill Gates loosens his grip on the day and the company works on the software in every space/we can always find every word at Microsoft about it.

[therealCSMR]

is that so

You are saying that microsoft "pretty much" doesn't pay any tax?

[Penguinisto]

Outright Ignorance on Gates' part

Seriously - even GPLv3 licensed software can be commercialized, no problem.

Gates' problems w/ all GPL versions is that:

1) it cannot be locked into a proprietary format, which means...
2) it cannot be stolen and called, say, the new TCP/IP networking stack for Windows
3) he cannot figure out a way to make money off of it, in spite of IBM, RedHat, etc etc. making quite a nice chunk of cash from Linux.

PS: Linux dominates in the server market - is the poor guy reading stats from 1996 or something?

/P

[Russell McOrmond]

Free Software != Non-commercial software

While I believe Bill Gates is very smart, he is on the "flat earth" side of a 200 year old debate and that is whether knowledge is like physical property. He equates charging a marginal cost for knowledge like software with commercial, when nature has made knowledge such that charging only fixed-costs is also possible.

Most Free/Libre and Open Source Software is commercial, it just doesn't charge royalty fees. Royalty fees are simply a business model choice, not the only way to make money with knowledge. Hopefully people will eventually realize the earth is round and stop making such silly mistakes.

Richest man in the world still admired, even if he believes the world is flat..
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/2793

[Russell McOrmond]

Microsoft makes money when it "donates" software

The marginal cost to Microsoft for a license is zero. That's the nature of knowledge, and you can't argue with nature.

Microsoft then gets a tax write-off for the retail value of the software, and the reduction in taxes is *real money*. Can't argue with real money.

I've always thought it was a scam to allow companies to get a tax write-off for other than their marginal cost, which for software is zero.

I can legally donate a million dollars worth of Free Software to a school -- can I get my government welfare cheque now, just like Microsoft does?

[Dachi]

Bill: Please do something about Ballmer

I just finished reading this article on computer world: http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;839593139;fp;16;fpid;1

In it, Ballmer says Linux "uses our intellectual property".

The antitrust case would never allow MS to sue Linux out of existence even if it does use MS IP, so why make the comment in the first place?

George Bush shows more tact and diplomacy.

Maybe people are not ready to adopt Linux in mass, but they like knowing they have the option if it comes down to it. If Ballmer forces people/companies to take sides in the matter people are going to stand behind Linux to make sure you don't take away their plan B and that could be bad for MS.

If they have code that infringes your IP it will be rewritten, if you sue Linux companies out of existence new ones will emerge in their place and it might land you back in front of judge Jackson.

You know you can't sue Linux, so all Ballmer is doing is lighting a fire under your opposition.

Kicking Ballmer out now would look bad, so maybe you should hire him an "advisor" that will help him make more informed decisions moving forward.

[Bob H in NPR]

Gates on Vista, Linux, more

If these same comments had come out of Steve Ballmer's mouth, my reply would have been pure acid. With the announcement of the non-aggression pact between MS & Novell, the first question in my mind was, "We are being shafted. How deeply, how soon, & in which orfice?"

Bill Gates created the money grubbing, lying, mean spirited, monopolistic culture at MS. His unselfish contributions to the poorest cultures of the poor & the recent overwhelming blessing from Warren Buffet have earned him some of my respect. I still look for the other fork of the tongue when he speaks. I finally believe that sometimes his motives are as he says they are. I still need to ask the question, "Which ones?"

Many for profit corporations have contributed enormously to the development & distribution of open source software. Sun, Google, Yahoo, Grisoft, Lavasoft all come to mind, adding to the efforts of non profits like Mozilla in offering an alternative to high priced programs & software. Without this competition, today's prices would seem like bargains. I hope MS & Apple will soon follow suit. I'm just not going to hold my breathe. I will wait & see . . .

[FimShady]

Wii little flaw

Even if all of the people lining up were selling their systems, there are people buying them. Can't sell something to no one. The system is still being bought, even if it ends up in different hands than the ones that initially bought it.

[x-nc]

Alternate Realities

"But, in general, Linux is not nearly as high-volume as Windows is on servers."

Billy-boy, what have you been smoking?

You know, sometimes I really wonder how Gates, Ballmer, et. al. are able to keep a straight face when they say things like this. These guys make politicians sound like the most honest people in the world.

Additionally...

"We're also letting Novell give something that you get in the commercial model, but you rarely get otherwise, which is the indemnification, just like we always do with every copy of Windows."

Since the EULA for every version of every piece of software states that Microsoft can not be held legally liable for anything and everything related to their software. This whole "indemnification" thing is just another big smokescreen. A last gasp effort to try and keep their domination.

[jchandler15]

Tablet PC

Will the tablet PC ever have a big enough market??

Josh Chandler
www.techilious.wordpress.com

[netbuddy01]

Bill & MS know nothing about Free & Open Source

Bill is no dummy but for some reason he fails to understand the FOSS world completely. FYI Billy most of the Internet is running FOSS of all sorts! Your cute characterization of this industry makes me laugh. Its a multi multi billion dollar industry that will continue to compete against you. The FOSS licensing spectrum is not at odds with Capitalism as you assert but you are at odds with understanding a thing about it.

[slim-1]

Bill says it's all about timing.

Very true.

It's about time they designed a brand new from scratch secure, not bloated OS preferably Unix based.

It's about time the stopped lying in every statement they make.

It's about time they quit attacking Linux and OpenSource software.

It's about time they quit screwing over their own business partners and PC vendors.

It's about time they quit pretending they don't do the above.

It's about timing all right. And it's time we all moved to anything but Microsoft.

Join the boycott Sony and Microsoft movement.