May 11, 2003 at 11:19 pm
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated :
“If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has,
we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”
In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft; we would all be driving
cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have
to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it,
and reopen the windows before you could continue.
For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to
shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car unless you bought “CarNT”, but then
you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times
as fast and twice as easy to drive-but would only run on five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced
by a single “General Protection Fault” warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same sized butt.
9. The airbag system would ask, “are you sure?” before deploying.
10. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let
you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold
of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally
road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need nor want them.
Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car’s performance to
diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation
by the Justice Dept.
12. Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all
over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.
By: Sauron - 12th May 2003 at 15:30
Gee! Garry and Arthur both trumpeting the merits of free and fair trade!
Good try Guys but the simple fact is that Bill was smart enough to recognize the value of DOS and jumped on it whereas IBM didn’t. And as far as MSDOS well, there are BMW’s and there are Toyota’s but Toyota dosn’t put ‘BMW’ logos on their cars do they, so your China story dosn’t wash.
As far as the anti-Microsoft gang, well they got beat by a smarter businessman so instead of concentrating on producing products that are better than Bill’s they went the legal route instead. What did they accomplish? Bill gives more money away in a year than these pikers make.
Regards
Sauron
By: Arthur - 12th May 2003 at 10:33
Sauron,
Does the phrase ‘Anti-trust case, United States vs. Microsoft’ ring a bell? This was actually one of the cases in which the US tried to support free trade for once.
By: Arabella-Cox - 12th May 2003 at 05:24
“Good example of how capitialism works for the benefit of the’masses’.”
Hahahahha… Bill Gate’s is a perfect example of the kind of business that the US does not approve of and wants to stop China doing the same… I am of course referring to MSDOS and Windows specifically.
By: Sauron - 12th May 2003 at 03:24
Arthur
Good example of how capitialism works for the benefit of the’masses’. Now mind you not all that Bill sells was ‘Union Made’ I grant you.
🙂
Regards
Sauron
By: Arthur - 12th May 2003 at 02:37
I don’t care about how good or bad the guy has done, or that he didn’t need other people’s money to get started (in stead, he took other people’s ideas }> ).
I only care about the product he delivers. With XP, i am finally reasonably satisfied. Before that, Bill made a lot of money on unreliable junk.
By: Sauron - 12th May 2003 at 01:11
Yes, But up to now Bill has done pretty good for I guy who didn’t ask for a handout when he started Microsoft unlike most of the big corporations who are constanly whining for tax breaks and other forms of corporate welfare everytime they build new plant or start a new project.
Regards
Sauron