Vista and Antitrust: Gates Is Still Gates
I thought after all those dinners with Bono and all those hours spent doing good
that we'd have a new, nicer, softer Bill Gates.
We don't. Gates has as much spunk and moxie as ever, as he showed his Bill-ish
bluster when defending
Vista in Europe. Don't forget, it was the Europeans who stalked Vista every
step of the way, pushing for this feature to be yanked, that item to be pulled
and APIs to be opened wider than Bill O'Reilly's mouth. According to Gates,
the European authorities wanted to "castrate" Windows.
I hate it when columnists digress by actually saying "I digress,"
so I'll just briefly and slightly change the subject. The Gates quote reminds
me of the day in November 1989 when IBM and Microsoft announced that OS/2 would
serve as the high-end multitasking enterprise OS, and Windows would remain a
low-end product, leading then-Lotus chief Jim Manzi to remark to anyone within
earshot and with press credentials that Windows had been "neutered."
Who knew that desktop operating systems were all male?
Meanwhile, back in Europe, Gates argued that Vista came through the regulatory
process with all of its parts still attached.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 15, 2006