Bill Gates says Ctrl-Alt-Del was a mistake. But it wasn’t his fault.
He was speaking at Harvard recently, and said that David Bradley, who designed the IBM PC, wouldn’t put a single logon button on the computer. Bradley had designed the three-button combination for rebooting the PC.
[YouTube]
Microsoft used the Ctrl-Alt-Del combination for logging in to the operating system. Gates says that was a mistake.
I’m thinking that’s not the only mistake Microsoft made along the way. I’m thinking Windows ME. And Windows Vista. And Windows 8. And…
Now, to be fair, Microsoft did some good things along the way. Without Microsoft, who knows what technology would be like. Heck, they saved Apple along the way, which makes Microsoft kinda responsible for iPods, iPhones, iPads, and that smug feeling Apple users exude.
Told you Microsoft was evil.
Years ago I dug into the bowels of Windows 3.1 and found derogatory comments put there by the programmers. I have to wonder if Steve Balmer was already throwing chairs by then. The guys has been a managerial disaster.
How can you make a list of MS-disasters without naming Bob:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
Which, among other things, was responsible for the plague of the Comic Sans font.
I have a finger for Microsoft.
As a man I despise any thing that uses micro and soft in the same sentence.
Bill Gates is the result of silky pony not revealing his stylist sources.
It was a mistake but it wasn’t my fault…the man should be in politics.
Microsoft ‘saved’ Apple by fulfilling some of the contracts they had agreed to with Apple. Apple in turn, having given Microsoft the tech and guidance for creating a proper GUI, then went to bat to save MS from the DOJ’s anti-trust prosecutions.
Cheers
@5 – You remember what the DOJ’s anti-trust case revolved around, right?
MS bundled Internet Explorer with Windows.
That was the entirety of their crime.
Seems like a rather quaint accusation today, doesn’t it?