Bill Gates article 'utter b*ll*cks'

FOTW Re. Bill Gates spells out the future

Prepare yourselves, it's a long one....

Michele "Xenomorph" Gaggia writes:

Dear Sir,

I usually like to read the Register for its intelligent, witty and objective insight in the IT world, but this article is hitting so many common places it really rates as "utter bollocks" in my book.

Sure, Bill Gate's speeches are usually very boring, and he says nothing new. We already knew that. But your article is way more boring.

You write: "It's about as likely that Bill actually wrote the piece as it is that Microsoft will release bug-free software"

Sure. In the meantime I work on a daily basis with my Windows ME and Win2K boxes crash free, something my Apple friends cannot really claim, and the Reg (which does NOT run on windows) is more often offline than my PC. Bugfree? Sure not.

But then, WHAT is bugfree nowadays? Why do people have to regard Microsoft as the Big Satan of Software, are Sun or Apple better? Steve McNealy is simply schizophrenic, and Steve Jobs told people so much crap at the Macworld that I even stopped listening. He insists measuring the performance of a G4 against a P4 using ONE Photoshop 6 filter, which turnes out to be not only UNoptimized but even PENALIZED for the P4 (hence the release of Photoshop 6.01, or whatever it was ... which "fixes" the "problem").

You write: "He neatly brushes over his own inability to see the Internet's importance"

Sure. Why is Windows the ONLY operating system which seamlessly integrates Internet with local drives and folders, where you can "navigate" with just one click through your files like you do with hyperlinks in Internet? Come on, Microsoft has even been SUED for integrating the IE in Windows. Other platforms have a long, long way to go to be so Internet friendly as the Windows PC. On Linux/UNIX you don't even have a decent browser (I wouldn't call Netscape Navigator or Opera one), on Mac there are ALWAYS compatibility problems with JAVA and stuff that just doesn't work (and they are SLOW).

And the Windows CE machines are the only Pocket PCs including a full featured browser, with which you can really see websites the way they are (with the obvious restriction of the display size - even Flash is available). Have you tried to browse the Internet with Palm OS? Or with WAP browsers? So, is Microsoft really SO stupid?

You write: "The other thing is that PCs have fascinated us for 20 years precisely because they have continually come up with completely new things that they can do. But this rate of innovation has slowed enormously. When was the last time you saw an application and thought "Wow! I never thought computers would be able to do that"?"

If you are not aware of the new amazing programs that have been popping around lately in the audio, video, graphics, 3D graphics etc. departments, then you must have been sleeping very deeply under a rock.

Just to name one, Logic Audio for Windows and MacOS: it integrates 24-bit Audio recording & editing, MIDI sequencing, advanced DSP plugins with a selection of hundreds of effects making most of your studio gear obsolete, soft synthesizers that sound better than the hardware counterparts, soft samplers like the GigaStudio with Gigabyte audio recording capacity, virtual modeling instruments reproducing electric pianos, Hammond organs, etc. ... and all this can fit in a fast Laptop which weights just about 3 kg.

There are a lot of new products like this that were simply unthinkable just 1 or 2 years ago, as the PCs were simply not fast enough for these tasks.

The same goes for new areas like Virtual Reality and the such. You probably should get some news about what kind of development is happening already now in these areas, instead of writing such a nonsensical article.

Sorry for the rant.

Wow, some people really do have a lot of spare time on their hands. But thanks for setting Kieren McCarthy straight.

By the way, this flame almost works, but falls into the Lame Flame category due to the apology at the end.

Please consult the How to write a Flame of the Week Guide for guidance. ®