Sarah, 15, from Lincolnshire, got to interview Bill Gates. Aside from some relatively self-serving statements, there were some amusing interchanges.
Sarah: What do you think it is that they [Microsoft competitors] particularly dislike?
Bill: People in the marketplace buy exactly what they want and they buy Windows machines because of the things that we’ve done there, the investments we’ve made there, if a company’s successful it’s mainly the competitors that speak out, you know.
They fear being in competition and we have a lot of competitors but mostly what we’ve got is people who never would have experienced computing if it hadn’t been for the PC approach that we brought to the market.
That’s right. The “PC approach” all derives from Micro$oft’s efforts.
And, of course, the point of being identified as a monopoly is that people can’t buy “exactly what they want,” since what they can buy is limited by the monopoly. People “buy Windows machines” because M$ has managed to drive nearly all of its competitors out of business, and to hold onto that business with unfair business practices.
Sarah: And finally, does your computer ever crash?
Bill: Oh definitely, believe me I get to the bottom of it every time and that’s part of the passion that I and a lot of Microsoft people have is we want to make a tool that we want to use ourselves and we know from our own use we can make it a lot better and a lot more reliable.
Funny, that’s never quite the spin Bill et al. put on the latest-greatest M$ offering when they’re talking with the press. “We can make it a lot better and a lot more reliable.” Probably everyone would agree with that.
Of course, if I were Bill Gates, I imagine I’d get pretty quick support from Micro$oft, too.
(Via Brad Choate)