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Peeved Bill Gates Says Everyone Copies Microsoft
This line of questioning, which essentially accused Microsoft of copying other people's inventions, sent the bespectacled founder into a tirade about how Microsoft does all the stupid things first, and that other companies, learning from Microsoft's mistakes, are able to build perfect versions of a particular product or service (and subsequently get the credit for being innovators).
Gates declared that what Microsoft does is the baseline for the entire industry, and whatever it doesn't do is the innovation. And by that definition everyone else is innovating. That's a pretty innovative, if not a little sarcastic, save/explanation.
But seriously, Gates cites IPTV and tablet computers as two areas in which Microsoft is leading the pack. "Is anyone else doing tablet computers?" he asks.
We understand Gate's being upset, and he makes some good points in his sarcastic rant about everyone borrowing from each other (with particular attention paid to Apple of course). But we do have to question some of his claims.
Sure, there are plenty of Microsoft Office and Word clones out there, but Word was far from the first word processor on the PC. Microsoft's entry only got copied after it crushed the competition, namely Wordperfect and Lotus. We racked our brains trying to think of where other companies had blatantly copied Microsoft and actually came up empty. If you've got any examples, be sure to leave them in the comments, in the meantime make sure to check out the gallery below of Microsoft's other "me too" products and services (including everything from Zune and Xbox 360 to the original Windows and MSN, which were inspired by the early Mac OS and the product of our parent company AOL, respectively).
How about you? Do you think Microsoft's reputation as a copycat is deserved, or is Bill Gates right when he says that his company does, in fact, innovate?
From SeattlePI
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Comments
446
Subscribe to commentsEDec 14th 2007 2:23PM
For all you idiots bashing Bill Gates, he is laughing all the way to the bank. He was a pioneer and innovator for computers today. His was the main and first truly evolved idea that made it so computer technology could move forward. If anything, others are copying his idea. He also speaks the truth about others letting Microsoft work the bugs out. I bet it is nice for these companies to sit back and let Microsoft do all the experimentation and then reap the benefits. They may perfect some of the ideas BUT they should never forget the root idea.
RZDec 14th 2007 2:38PM
A quick comment. Some say Apple invented the "Windows" system. Actually they did not. They were just the first to market the idea. The system was actually invented 10 years prior and put away into a room with the thinking that it would never go anywhere. Anyone want to guess at the company that actually invented the "windows" system?
boredwellDec 14th 2007 4:10PM
The Karma Police are on the beat.
boredwellDec 14th 2007 4:26PM
RZ : xerox's PARC amazing stuff on which they capitalized! Credited with ethernet, laser printing,Windows & the indespensible mouse.
BruceDec 15th 2007 9:53PM
From the beginning of the personal computer age, Microsoft has used predatory business practices to wipe out the real innovators of software applications. We would never have heard of Microsoft or Bill Gates if IBM hadn't picked DOS over the dozens of better OS's of the early CP/M days. Wordperfect, Lotus 123, Ashton Tate's dBase and Harvard Graphics were the real innovators of the word processor, spreadsheets, databases, and business graphics applications before Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint came along. Apple, of course, gave use the GUI half a decade before Windows was usable. Novell broke the ground on networking, not NT. Netscape was our internet brower long before IE. Xbox, MSN, Zune... the list goes on and on. Excuse me, Mr. Gates, but what innovation are you referring to? Because your company has NEVER innovated a single area of software. It has simply stolen the innovations of others and leveraged your copy-cat products with proprietary hooks into the underlying operating systems which you control.
Sheeva LazarJan 22nd 2008 10:27AM
No doubt there are some very original and new thoughts that become products developed by Microsoft. Many of us would not be in the business we are today if not for the consumerization of MS DOS. I started in the business before B.Gates but did not have the wherewithall to bring my ideas to market, he did and history shows this to be true. His forte was not in creating anything but more in the monetization, packaging and marketing of new products. He initially saw great value in what others only saw as a hobby - I still have my old Altair in a box in the basement, sentimentally of course. He has since surrounded himself with a continuous supply of young minds and innovators. When the well dries up temporarily he then "buys" what he sees as either competition to his roadmap or complimentary technology that saved time/cost in his R&D.
Regardless of what we think or feel regarding B.Gates, he was a man of the times. As with all of us, he is now turned to other pursuits that align with his sensibilities and the corporate, Microsoft is no longer one of them.
Microsoft has not been Microsoft since the turn of this century, year 2000 - reflect back and you will see my point. Once B.Gates dismissed the internet as the next big "thing" he lost momentum for Microsoft and since then, it's been one marketing or bullying tactic after another. There is still some glimmer that could put Microsoft back in the innovation saddle but not with B.Gates at the helm and definitely not with S.Balmer; maybe Ray Ozzie, the NOTES and Groove collaboration techie will do it for Microsoft.