Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer Reminisce

By: Larry Magid
Topics: Tech Talk

(CBS/Larry Magid)

It was a joy listening to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer reminisce about the past as they sat on stage at the Wall Street Journal's "All Things Digital Conference" in Carlsbad, California Tuesday night. Responding to questions from conference co-hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, the two talked about the early days at Microsoft, their early worries about running out of money and their 28 year long working relationship at Microsoft.

But while reports on their past made for interesting listening, I wasn't so impressed about what they had to say and show about the future. I was particularly aghast at the demo they did of Windows 7.0, the successor to Microsoft Vista. Vista, which took several years and more than $5 billion to create has not exactly been jumping off the shelves though there's no denying that plenty of people are using Vista that came bundled on their PC. Still, when given a choice, plenty of people say they prefer to stick with the old Windows XP while Apple enjoys tremendous growth in its market share, made up largely of Windows defectors.

Admittedly, Windows 7 is in the early development stages and I'm sure there will be lots of new features but in the first public sneak preview of its interface, the Microsoft VP who joined Gates and Ballmer on stage demonstrated the "multi-touch interface." To this technosavvy audience it looked an awful lot like the interface on the Apple iPhone leading several people I spoke with to wonder "what were they thinking."

Ballmer said that Windows 7.0 would be out in 2009 (though they're always late) which makes me wonder if their goal is to replace Vista sooner rather than later.

For more on this as well as some quotes from my brief conversations with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, see my column here on CBSNews.com.

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by stevepballmer May 29, 2008 12:27 AM EDT: D6 - The Nightmare!
I awoke late this morning; I tossed and turned most of the night. When I got up I said to myself, %u201Cthank God, that%u2019s over, what a dream!%u201D I dreamt that Bill and I were on stage at D6 being interviewed by luscious Kara and the Mossburger, suffice it to say it didn%u2019t go very well.

They started out by asking us a bunch of questions about our %u2018emotions%u2019 and the old days in college. I did my usual pretense that I could even stand to be in the same room as Bill. By the time they finished you would think we were gonna%u2019 French kiss or something! It was very unsettling.

The dream got even uglier when they got to the %u201CVista Sucks%u201D portion. When asked anything on this one Bill just smiled and nodded, I had to do the entire defense. I basically just went with my old, %u201Cyes, Vista has minor problems but we are working on them and people buy it anyways!%u201D The Mossburger didn%u2019t like my answers on Vista.

Kara said, %u201Con to Windows 7!%u201D
We then had one of our MS-Babes come out and demo how you could %u2018touch%u2019 Windows 7! The audience seemed to like this part! The Mossburger ruined the whole thing by saying something about how 7 looked even more like the Mac OS than Vista does. We denied it! Bill said something about Apple pre-copying us.

That%u2019s all I can remember, what a nightmare!

%u2026 Wait a minute %u2026..

What day is it?

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com; Reply to this comment


by stevepballmer May 29, 2008 12:04 AM EDT: D6 - The Nightmare!
I awoke late this morning; I tossed and turned most of the night. When I got up I said to myself, %u201Cthank God, that%u2019s over, what a dream!%u201D I dreamt that Bill and I were on stage at D6 being interviewed by luscious Kara and the Mossburger, suffice it to say it didn%u2019t go very well.

They started out by asking us a bunch of questions about our %u2018emotions%u2019 and the old days in college. I did my usual pretense that I could even stand to be in the same room as Bill. By the time they finished you would think we were gonna%u2019 French kiss or something! It was very unsettling.

The dream got even uglier when they got to the %u201CVista Sucks%u201D portion. When asked anything on this one Bill just smiled and nodded, I had to do the entire defense. I basically just went with my old, %u201Cyes, Vista has minor problems but we are working on them and people buy it anyways!%u201D The Mossburger didn%u2019t like my answers on Vista.

Kara said, %u201Con to Windows 7!%u201D
We then had one of our MS-Babes come out and demo how you could %u2018touch%u2019 Windows 7! The audience seemed to like this part! The Mossburger ruined the whole thing by saying something about how 7 looked even more like the Mac OS than Vista does. We denied it! Bill said something about Apple pre-copying us.

That%u2019s all I can remember, what a nightmare!

%u2026 Wait a minute %u2026..

What day is it?

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com; Reply to this comment


by stevepballmer May 29, 2008 12:04 AM EDT: D6 - The Nightmare!
I awoke late this morning; I tossed and turned most of the night. When I got up I said to myself, %u201Cthank God, that%u2019s over, what a dream!%u201D I dreamt that Bill and I were on stage at D6 being interviewed by luscious Kara and the Mossburger, suffice it to say it didn%u2019t go very well.

They started out by asking us a bunch of questions about our %u2018emotions%u2019 and the old days in college. I did my usual pretense that I could even stand to be in the same room as Bill. By the time they finished you would think we were gonna%u2019 French kiss or something! It was very unsettling.

The dream got even uglier when they got to the %u201CVista Sucks%u201D portion. When asked anything on this one Bill just smiled and nodded, I had to do the entire defense. I basically just went with my old, %u201Cyes, Vista has minor problems but we are working on them and people buy it anyways!%u201D The Mossburger didn%u2019t like my answers on Vista.

Kara said, %u201Con to Windows 7!%u201D
We then had one of our MS-Babes come out and demo how you could %u2018touch%u2019 Windows 7! The audience seemed to like this part! The Mossburger ruined the whole thing by saying something about how 7 looked even more like the Mac OS than Vista does. We denied it! Bill said something about Apple pre-copying us.

That%u2019s all I can remember, what a nightmare!

%u2026 Wait a minute %u2026..

What day is it?

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com; Reply to this comment