Musings from The Software Underground

Reading the web exclusive interview posted on Newsweek's site, Finally, Vista Makes Its Debut. Now What? you'd think so. His comments are so ridiculous and off the mark, you have to wonder what he was smoking during the interview.

When asked about the new security in Vista, he kind of goes off on a tangent about how exploits found are fixed and that's why they have software update, ending with "Apple hasn't done any of those things."

You also talk about improved security in Vista.
Yes, although security is a [complicated concept]. You're [referring to] the fact that there have been some security updates already for Windows Vista. This is exactly the way it should work. When somebody comes to us [after discovering a vulnerability] we've got [a fix] before there is any exploit. So it's totally according to plan, and that's why we have the whole Windows Update thing. We made it way harder for guys to do exploits. The number [of violations] will be way less because we've done some dramatic things [to improve security] in the code base. Apple hasn't done any of those things.

Huh, Apple hasn't? Apple doesn't fix the few things found immediately, with a built in software updater? Wrong Bill. And what's with the quote? "Way harder" and "way less?" That'd be like, so cool. Like, wow.

But wait, it gets better. When asked about the "Get a Mac" commercials specifically the one where PC has to undergo surgery for the upgrade, Gates responds:

Well, certainly we've done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it's superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the slightest shred of truth to it.

What is he? Twelve? What kind of an answer is that? And I dunno, unless you recently bought a new PC, or had a high end one to begin with, most reports I've seen say that you can run Vista, but you don't get the whole experience.

He also goes on to sort of claim ownership of all of Apple's ideas:

You can go through and look at who showed any of these things first, if you care about the facts. If you just want to say, "Steve Jobs invented the world, and then the rest of us came along," that's fine. If you're interested, [Vista development chief] Jim Allchin will be glad to educate you feature by feature what the truth is. I mean, it's fascinating, maybe we shouldn't have showed so publicly the stuff we were doing, because we knew how long the new security base was going to take us to get done.

I'd LOVE to see this list. but here's the thing: it doesn't exist. This is just a ridiculous claim. Exactly what, has Apple taken from anything previewed in Vista. This is clearly a tit for tat re: Jobs not unveiling all of the new Leopard features until after Vista ships. Honestly, I'm thinking they interviewed Bill Gates, but it's not Bill Gates the founder of MSFT, it's a 14 year old kid named Bill Gates from Muncie, Indiana. Because the claims go further downhill from even this point:

Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine

I'm speechless. There isn't a shred of proof that exists that could back up this claim, and plenty that runs counter to it.

Let's be realistic, who came up with [the] file, edit, view, help [menu bar]? Do you want to go back to the original Mac and think about where those interface concepts came from?

Xerox Parc?

There's more ridiculousness in this piece, you really have to read it. I truly hope that it's a joke that was published accidently, because I'd hope that Bill Gates can't be that stupid, or that blatant a liar.