Bill Gates Interview Re: [ILUG] cute program of the week

[Shane Dempsey]

Comments enclosed in the body of your message.

    ...shane

----- Original Message -----
From: <Twomey_Mark at emc.com>
To: <sdempsey at tssg.wit.ie>
Cc: <ilug at linux.ie>
Sent: 25 October 1999 16:18
Subject: RE: Bill Gates Interview Re: [ILUG] cute program of the week


> >I'll wait until I'm CEO of the world's largest corporation in
> > the most competitive and variable business sector before I
> > say that I'm smarter than Bill Gates.  ( nobody hold their breath,
> Ok )
>
> But he isn't CEO of the worlds largest corporation in the computer
> industry (IBM is 10 times MS's size and has nearly 15 times it's
resources).
> Also it is not the most competitive and variable business sector.
Microsoft
> only represent a major presence in the Desktop OS (75% of the companies
> total revenue and it's had very little real competition in that space. In
> total there were only ever 4 real competitors to MS in the OS space in the
> industries history. That's not competition that's an invitation to create
a
> monopoly), and industry Office suite sector. The reason that they are
doing
> so well in the browser market is that only Mozilla and Opera oppose them.
> Netscape have botched Mozilla <I hope to see it ship before the year rolls
> out>,  and apart from the one built into KDE I've not heard of another
GPL'd
> browser so we are handing them that market segment on a platter. The fact
is
> that people allowed MS to create De Facto standards
>
Yes but as to your assertion about IBM's power a quick look at
quote.yahoo.com is very revealing. The fact is that Mictrosoft was 80
Million dollars
more profitable than IBM ( 7.79 BIllion after tax ) last year and that its
market capital
is double that of IBM. Now the market valuation is plain stupid but
Microsoft will be more
profitable than IBM this year as well and by a greater margin.
When I said 'sector' I meant IT. I know that this statement was of little
relevance.
Like saying that I like apples because apples and oranges are fruit and I
like oranges
but you get the idea. >:-) It was a flippant statement.

I have said in the past that I think it would be an excellent idea for
McSoft's competition to come together and develop some open sources
additions
for linux that would make it easier to use  and give it all the
functionality that windows users expect without the crashes. This isn't an
easy task but it is starting. I propose that they would pretty much give the
result away.
The damage that they could do to Microsoft's market position is worth the
cost of doing it.
This is happening in a limited sense at the moment. Corel and SUN are
putting their money where their mouths are but more needs to be done.


> If it was so competitive, how the hell would MS have had a
> hammerlock on the desktop industry for the past 20 years? And if you had
> read any of those books you'd realise that Jon Shirley (Ex CEO of the
Radio
> Shack franchise), built Microsoft. Bill being the be all end all of
Hi-Tech
> is what PR firm Wagner-Eddstrom want you to believe.
> Gates is nothing more than the Colonel Sanders of the computer
> industry, a mascot for how cleverer than you they all are. And just like
> Sanders he's going to lose control of his particular industry when the
> business model flips. Gates is the Windows Tux, fat arsed and with a
stupid
> smile

Nice but bear in mind David Ogilvy's  ( look him up if you don't know of
him)
recipe for businees success. " First develop a reputation as creative genius
, then employ
people who are smarter than you are and leave them to get on with it."
I don't doubt that Gates is very smart though. Boring yes but smart also.

>
> There is real competition in the ISP business.
> MSN got hammered by AOL.
> 1.5 million subscribers and falling V's 18Million subscribers and
> rising

Yes but Microsoft's ISP strategy was non-commital. They didn't have to
succeed and
they will get another chance when all those MSEnabled appliances go online.
BTW I intensely dislike universal plug and play but that is beside the
point.

> There is real competition in the mobile computing industry.
> WinCE support is being dropped by handheld vendors while Palm &
> Symbian represent nearly 85% of the total market and are now moving
towards
> interoperability in order to complement each others strengths.
>
> There is competition in the server space.
> WinNT has about 22% of the market, it fluctuates +/- 2% per
> year...that's it.
> That is not growth that's stagnation.
> Linux has grown to that level in two years and is projected to grow
> at 33% increase per year over previous years
>
> There is monster competition in the TV market
> Do Americans get their news from MSNBC or CNN?
> It's hard to even find a cable service that carries MSNBC in the
> states.

Can't dispute this as I don't live in the states and don't watch cable.

> There is currently no viable competition in the x86 consumer desktop
> space.
> Period.
> Linux is great for techies but still is not as "comfortable" to
> ordinary customers as Win9x is (Comfortable being relative). If you think
> otherwise then your not looking at the customer and any business that does
> not look at its potential customer base fails, no matter how good it's
> technology is.

I have said this numerous times on this list. Stop reading into what I
haven't said.


> People gave control of the desktop to Microsoft because they were
> not as ameturish as the other canidates, this "smarter-than-thou nonsense"
> is simply horse-shit.
> When given a choice between the no nothing meglomania of Gates, the
> Sociopathic manipulation + pure Arrogance of Steve Jobs, the distinct lack
> of clarity of Gary Kindell or the dim choices Ray Norrda/IBM/VisiCorp made
> no wonder Microsoft climbed to the top.
> Cream floats, but so does shite.

Perhaps but is it really as simplistic as that? It might just be. I can
still remember
all those silly ads that Jobs commissioned depicting the IBM buying masses
as
mindless zombies. Insult people and they will definitely buy your products.
Was Microsoft's inactivity maturity or lack of ideas or both ?
They are excellent at mastely inactivity.
Take your pick I suppose.

> None of that really matters however as people we are at the end of
> growth in the desktop market. Nearly everyone who wants and can afford a
> computer has a computer.
> Growth is over, no new customers only upgrades to previous
> customers.
> Have you ever wondered why the hell MS is throwing it's money at any
> wacko market idea lately?
> It's because they need to continue to grow in order to keep the
> stock price healthy, the desktop space is maxed out.
>

Agreed and not disputed in anything that I previously said. If you read it
again.

> The big new industry....INFORMATION APPLIANCES

I agree , that is the area that I am concentrating on at the moment.

> > How smart is he ?
> > Smart enough that we end up using his products whether we want to
> or
> > not.
>
> Not true, you still have a choice. Someone wants you to also buy
> something else with a purchase, you don't have to buy from them. Chances
are
> another guy will sell you what you want and how you want it. That's what a
> free market economy is all about. If more people practised that
methodology
> no-one would be paying the Microsoft tax, unless they choose to. By buying
> from a vendor who thrust's Windows on you when you don't want it you
justify
> the vendor doing it to someone else.

Er no. As you said he has a hammerlock on the industry for the past 20
years.
Bearing in mind that there are numerous other companies who have tried to
compete with
Microsoft on the desktop and failed. Microsoft are good enough at business
to ensure that it is very hard to compete with them . That's why I reckon
Gates is smart. If you disagree
then take him on yourself.

Another point that I really have to make is that I don't want to use Windows
as I don t think that it is particularly fair that they have this monopoly
on the desktop. I do Java development however and the simple truth is that
despite some bugs windows has some wonderful IDEs
that make the whole thing a lot easier. Yes I am so stupid that I need to
use an IDE a long
wtih a whole load of windows programmers who genuinely aren't willing to
move to
LINUX and lose Visual Cafe , MSVC++, CBUilder etc...
I don't think that you are disagreeing with this but I have to make the
point anyway.
I'm sorry for ranting on but I don't think that there is much wrong with
McSoft's tactics from a business point of view.  They won't be around
forever but they are very much here now.