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Here's the quote from Bill Gates:

"(Google has) this slogan that they are going to organize the world's information. Our slogan is that we are going to give people tools to let them organize the world's information."

I really don't think it was that hard to find, it was in big red letters.

Please, for the good of everyone, do not blithely troll against Bill Gates without reason. Hear him out and see what he has to say. Don't put words in his mouth.

Poor Bill Gates. He's always told the truth, never done anything wrong, never strongarmed and threatened computer vendors, and we all love him.

yeah.. to bad he doesnt know what he's talking about..
Its like asking a democrat or a republican to voice an opinion that isnt political.

Well, at least that quotes shows us that Mr. Bill is not above making strawman arguments.

OSS advocates are not saying that programmers shouldn't be earning a living for coding...rather, that working for a company that makes packaged software isn't the only way for a programmer to make money.

For a definition of what a strawman argument is:

"The straw-man rhetorical technique is the practice of refuting weaker arguments than one's opponents actually offer. To "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is to create a position that is easy to refute, then attribute that position to your opponent."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawman#Rhetorical_use

From a transcript of a speech RMS gave at NYU
http://www.gnu.org/events/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt

So I looked for another alternative, and there was an obvious one. I
could leave the software field and do something else. Now I had no other
special noteworthy skills, but I'm sure I could have become a
waiter. [Laughter] Not at a fancy restaurant; they wouldn't hire
me, [Laughter] but I could be a waiter somewhere. And many programmers,
they say to me, "The people who hire programmers demand this, this and
this. If I don't do those things, I'll starve." It's literally the word
they use. Well, you know, as a waiter, you're not going to
starve. [Laughter] So, really, they're in no danger. But -- and this is
important, you see -- because sometimes you can justify doing something
that hurts other people by saying otherwise something worse is going to
happen to me. You know, if you were *really* going to starve, you'd be
justified in writing proprietary software. [Laughter] If somebody's
pointing a gun at you, then I would say, it's forgivable. [Laughter]



This is just a repeat of a sentiment that is largely construed as "programmers should get day jobs as waiters." I'm too lazy to find earlier references, but people can look through Google or Usenet if they care where this originates from.

@archiesteel: Well said.

@Bill:
Free software has nothing to do with software programmers not getting paid.
Free software is not about getting software at no cost. It's about code reuse, learning and extreme customisation.


I'd say there are more programmers doing cutomisations of Microsoft Office using VBA than there are programmers that were needed to create Microsoft Office.
So I'm guessing Bill knows this and is just being executive.
He doesn't seem to mind Free software when it's BSD licenced. I suppose he likes the freedom of BSD.

-Jesse McNelis

Bill's remark about cutting hair in the day etc clearly indicates his approach to software world... that of an upper-class despotic moron.

So, what he's trying to say is that if you are a barber you have no right to be able to write software. That is only for the suited-booted arrogant imbeciles like Steve Ballmer and Gates himself. Sheesh,this from a man who started much the same way as those barbers!

Shows either he's going senile or anxious about Windows' future or both!

Huh, you do know that Google's server farms run on Linux, right?

And the market Google is threatening MS in is not the Desktop market (though I would love if - as I just mentioned - Google was to release its own branded Linux distro).

So, in fact, Linux is STILL a threat to MS, it's just that now Microsoft is being assailed on two fronts (three if you count Sony in the console market, etc.)

What you probably meant to say is that Gnome or KDE aren't a threat to Microsoft on the desktop which is true.

If Google was to ever want to be a competitor to Microsoft then their best bet is to use Mozilla as a base for their desktop.

Actually I tend to think that Microsoft's enemy is Microsoft itself. It's not from new competition of others that you fail, but mostly from your own inability to adapt.

I mean I dont want to flame the guy or anything, But I believe we are far beyond the point where users can organize the world's information.

They wouldn't ned to organize the worlds information, just their own. That could then be offered to others in a networked environment.

Google does have the right ideology, its simple, presentable, and makes sense.

I agree, google makes sense NOW, although even now it's less relevant than it was a year ago due to ranking fraud and such making finding content more difficult. This has opened up opportunities for projects such as wikipedia (aka users origanising the worlds information) As usual making predictions about the future is likely to make people look silly in a couple of years.

Granted the burden of organizing a vast amount of information is difficult, but providing sensical and productive tools to try to reach that mean is leaps and bounds more complicated.

Even Google is at least hedging their bets, providing tools such as Google Desktop Search (or whatever it's called, I use Spotlight myself.) MS isn't pulling these ideas out of thin air (as usual)

Until google can get some software that it controls on people's desktops then you are a complete moron to even talk about Google being a competitor to Microsoft.

Google Earth? (A very popular program)
Google Desktop Search?

These two products compete with Microsoft, as does the Google search engine (which competes with MSN Search).

That doesn't even include Google search bars (which comes standard with Firefox, I believe - I know it does with Konqueror).

There's more than one way to compete with Microsoft, you know? Would you say that Sony isn't in competition with MS because it doesn't make an OS/Office suite?

I'm curious as to why people would moderate this comment down...does it run against the OSNews terms of service in any way? It seems that what I said was in fact quite reasonable...

"Until google can get some software that it controls on people's desktops then you are a complete moron to even talk about Google being a competitor to Microsoft."

Google Earth? (A very popular program)
Google Desktop Search?

These two products compete with Microsoft, as does the Google search engine (which competes with MSN Search).

That doesn't even include Google search bars (which comes standard with Firefox, I believe - I know it does with Konqueror).

There's more than one way to compete with Microsoft, you know? Would you say that Sony isn't in competition with MS because it doesn't make an OS/Office suite?

Ah, but isn't Google a platform? Technically, no, but in practice, yes. When an information worker uses Google tools (Google Groups, Google Search, Google Maps, GMail, etc), as their primary tools, Windows just becomes a host --- a replacable host.

Remember, its the apps that made Microsoft what it is. Microsoft would much rather see people using MSN Search, Hotmail, Streets Plus, Encarta, etc. When people start using primarily internet-based tools, that makes the OS a commodity, which isn't a good thing for Windows sales!