The BBC's Bill Gates interview summary
Posted: 1999-10-08
To start with they talked about Bill and his Wealth saying that if he dropped a $10,000 bill it would not be worth his time to pick it up. Bill simply replied with, no. Then came up the obvious question of since you are the $1,000,000,000 man, there must come a time when there is not really any point in earning any more. Bill did respond by saying that it was not really motivated by some level of wealth (yeah right!).
Bill Gates also said that he would not give most of his Money to his children. He would give them enough to allow them to live comfortably, also for Health & Education, etc. He did say that most of it would be used for Foundation he and His wife has set up to provide Health and Education all over the World and things we all Take for granted.
The interview went on to talk about Microsoft and how everyone says that It is pressuring people to purchase its products and that every product has in built missing components. To which Bill replied with that Microsoft makes as complete a product as it can make and that every time they go to work they try to give as much to the user as they can so the user can do with it what they need and express thier ideas. Not like the head of a newspaper that can pick an Editor that will print only the material that the Owner wants the paper to print.
For the most part they talked about Bill as the 'Gatekeeper' of the Information Age to which he answered that no one is really the gatekeeper and that the software they produce does not control how they use it, its just there so people find it easy for people to do things.
Jeremy Paxman did point out that since Micrisift earns so much money they could afford to give its software away free now, much like Linus Torvell (dunno if thats spelt right). Bill Gates did say that the whole point of charging for all Microsoft Projects is the great support that they offer and that they have to pay all of the Microsoft Employees somehow and that the advances in those product is all down to the chraging of exisiting products.
After that Lengthy Disussion Jeremy Paxman stated that one day some Company will do to Microsoft what they did to IBM, Bill Gates said that every company eventually gets replaced and that his job was to try to keep them in business. While on that Note they touched upon the fact that the Department of Justice (US) is suing Microsoft for Monopolistic Practices to which they disagree with and are waiting the outcome. And bill Gates did say that being sued is Surprising!
They did spend a while taling about Bills past and his dropout of Harvard and the opportunity he took, but I wont stop on that since it was not that Interesting and I dont want to give it all away. but I can say that Bill Gates has not EVER heard a Bill Gates Joke!!!
Skipping on a Few minutes of the Interview they talk about The internet, Speech recognition Programs and how in the future you could actively talk to your computer aksing it to do something instead of using a mouse and keyboard. Bill Gates said that he does not think that the keyboard will be replaced but that it will be the Alternative means of Input to the Computer.
They also said about the Internet that the main traffic is Pronography. Bill Gates said that is isnt the main traffic but it is about 10% of what goes on. Jeremy paxman said that there is a lot of Things on the internet that we should be worried about. Bill Gates said that the Internet is a break from the norm and that The Internet is a great communications tool and so every human thought that you like or don't like is going to be out there.
Other topics covered in the interview include how uncomfortable Gates feels about being the central focus of his company's remarkable success, and IBM's missed opportunity to acquire 40% of Microsoft for next to nothing.
A Run down version of this is available on the BBC website, this page covers a small part of the interview and is not affiliated by the BBC. If you want to know more then please watch the Interview or Ask me, Ive seen it.
Bill Gates also said that he would not give most of his Money to his children. He would give them enough to allow them to live comfortably, also for Health & Education, etc. He did say that most of it would be used for Foundation he and His wife has set up to provide Health and Education all over the World and things we all Take for granted.
The interview went on to talk about Microsoft and how everyone says that It is pressuring people to purchase its products and that every product has in built missing components. To which Bill replied with that Microsoft makes as complete a product as it can make and that every time they go to work they try to give as much to the user as they can so the user can do with it what they need and express thier ideas. Not like the head of a newspaper that can pick an Editor that will print only the material that the Owner wants the paper to print.
For the most part they talked about Bill as the 'Gatekeeper' of the Information Age to which he answered that no one is really the gatekeeper and that the software they produce does not control how they use it, its just there so people find it easy for people to do things.
Jeremy Paxman did point out that since Micrisift earns so much money they could afford to give its software away free now, much like Linus Torvell (dunno if thats spelt right). Bill Gates did say that the whole point of charging for all Microsoft Projects is the great support that they offer and that they have to pay all of the Microsoft Employees somehow and that the advances in those product is all down to the chraging of exisiting products.
After that Lengthy Disussion Jeremy Paxman stated that one day some Company will do to Microsoft what they did to IBM, Bill Gates said that every company eventually gets replaced and that his job was to try to keep them in business. While on that Note they touched upon the fact that the Department of Justice (US) is suing Microsoft for Monopolistic Practices to which they disagree with and are waiting the outcome. And bill Gates did say that being sued is Surprising!
They did spend a while taling about Bills past and his dropout of Harvard and the opportunity he took, but I wont stop on that since it was not that Interesting and I dont want to give it all away. but I can say that Bill Gates has not EVER heard a Bill Gates Joke!!!
Skipping on a Few minutes of the Interview they talk about The internet, Speech recognition Programs and how in the future you could actively talk to your computer aksing it to do something instead of using a mouse and keyboard. Bill Gates said that he does not think that the keyboard will be replaced but that it will be the Alternative means of Input to the Computer.
They also said about the Internet that the main traffic is Pronography. Bill Gates said that is isnt the main traffic but it is about 10% of what goes on. Jeremy paxman said that there is a lot of Things on the internet that we should be worried about. Bill Gates said that the Internet is a break from the norm and that The Internet is a great communications tool and so every human thought that you like or don't like is going to be out there.
Other topics covered in the interview include how uncomfortable Gates feels about being the central focus of his company's remarkable success, and IBM's missed opportunity to acquire 40% of Microsoft for next to nothing.
