Bill Gates versus GM

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 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 (and I just love this part):

  1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

  1. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

  2. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You could have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and then reopen the windows before you could continue For some reason you would simply accept this.

  1. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre 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.

  2. 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 run on only five percent of the roads.

  1. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

  2. Before deploying, the airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?"

  1. 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.

  2. Every time a new car was introduced, the car buyer would have to learn how to drive all over again, because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

  1. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn off the engine. Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate

-their computer!

Reply to
RichA
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LMAO That's awesome, Rich!!!

-Mike

-- Melt away the Cellulite with Cellulean!

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Reply to
<memset

Great! Thanks.

Reply to
John H

Yeah, but we can emulate a Windows car anytime we want by pushing it off a cliff and letting it bounce end over end for a few hundred feet.

Reply to
Quiet Desperation

You forgot to mention, 11. Everytime you replace the oil, oil filter, airfilter and sparkplugs, you have to call GM on the phone to get them to send you a new key to start the car with....

Reply to
WindsorFox[SS]

.. and after waiting on the phone for the 5th time they tell you that you have gotten too many new keys and will have to re-buy your car.

Reply to
Andrew

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 05:25:22 -0400, RichA wrote something wonderfully witty:

While humorous, it is not true. There was no Comdex last year (2004), I used to go ever year until it was canceled because of very poor attendance in 2003. This is a very old joke with certain elements of the truth, but not from GM nor Microsoft.

Reply to
ZombyWoof

As one who recently moved from a Windows XP office to a Mac OS X office, I can tell you that any claim to Mac superiority is definitely an outdated myth. This Mac stuff sucks, both from its own slowness and from its incompatibility with Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word (which I presume to be intentional on MS's part). I haven't seen so many lockups since Windows 95, and the speed (i.e., the lack of it) is continuously aggravating.

180 Out
Reply to
one80out

Has that actually ever happened to anyone?? I have to tell you, someone would have a serious problem. I upgrade my system a lot and sometime change things just to change them or to do a hardware review. Once I purchase that OS, by God it is MINE....

Reply to
WindsorFox[SS]

It happened to an acquaintance of mine who is a friend of my cousin's, but I didn't hear it directly from him, so it could have been BS or pure misinformation. :)

Not according to Microsoft; you're not purchasing the OS itself, just a license to use the OS.

Reply to
Garth Almgren

(2004),

I was going to keep mum about this until I saw your post. I actually saw the Bill Gates/GM statement about three or four years ago. I don't know if there is any truth to all of it, but it couldn't have been said at a RECENT Comdex because of when I first read it.

Reply to
Kruse

Right, but if I change parts in my puter they have absolutly no right to suddenly say "no".

Reply to
WindsorFox[SS]

On 28 Apr 2005 20:16:03 -0700, "Kruse" wrote something wonderfully witty:

Nah, it's to funny to be true, an to unprofessional to be as well. The senior folks at GM aren't known for their sense of humor. I've never checked it against Snopes, but I would bet it is in there.

It really is a shame about Comdex I used to love that show, but the company that originally put it on went belly up and the folks who purchased the rights to the name really didn't know what direction they were going to go in. They have been sending out a lot of questionnaires to previous attendees to try an identify what the IT community would like out of the trade show. Towards the end you had people with absolutely no connection to the IT business at all showing up with kids in strollers just trying to grab up the swag. After the economic down turn after 9/11 most exhibitors cut way back on the good swag stuff anyways. I always enjoyed the keynote addresses and the training sessions. The exhibit floor was a monster to patrol.

Since Comdex was canceled this year and I had the monies to attend in my budget I went to the CES for the very first time instead. I suspect many of the Comdex activities are going to get split between the venue and Interop.

Reply to
ZombyWoof

Wanna bet? Read the EULA.

Reply to
Thomas Cameron

End User License Agreement

..I think.

-Mike

-- Melt away the Cellulite with Cellulean!

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Reply to
<memset

You are right, sorry. I'm in the computer biz so to me EULA is as natural as "vert" is in this group.

Microsoft only licenses you to use thei OS and they put a wad of restrictions in that EULA - if you can stay awake, you should really read through it. It's scary.

Thomas

Reply to
Thomas Cameron

I'm the computer biz too. What part you focus on? Web-development over here.

-Mike

-- Melt away the Cellulite with Cellulean!

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Reply to
<memset

[...]

This has actually been around for quite a while. Still good for a laugh ;-)!

Interestingly enough, this might not be too far from a reality:

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Is it no surprise that it was Ford rather than GM that decided to work with Microsoft?

Scary, I tell ya!

Reply to
Fao, Sean

On Thu, 05 May 2005 18:58:21 -0400, "Fao, Sean" wrote something wonderfully witty:

Yeah Microsoft building anything that doesn't crash is scarier then hell.

Reply to
ZombyWoof

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