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Maybe Bill Gates Should Stop Making Predictions

Predictions

from the you-said-what-now? dept

Fri, Jan 27th 2006 10:27am — Mike Masnick
Just days after Bill Gates didn't solve the spam problem by the deadline he had promised two years ago, it looked like he might be spouting off again. This time, Reuters says he's claiming that we'll be able to beat software piracy in China and India -- though, he's giving a longer timeline. This time it's 10 years... and the details actually suggest it's not quite as crazy as the Reuters headline suggests. He wasn't saying that Microsoft would beat software piracy in those countries, but that the level of unauthorized copying would decrease to about the same level as in the US and Europe. Also, he seems to be indicating that this is a natural progression as the local economy builds its own software industry.
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18 Comments

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  1. identicon
    haggie, 27 Jan 2006 @ 12:10pm

    No Subject Given

    Bill defeating software piracy would be a huge boon to OpenOffice! Wouldn't it be wonderful if MS wins the piracy battle but loses the war by forcing cash-strapped Asian consumers to use open source applications instead of bootleg MS Word.

    A boy can dream...

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Ben McNelly, 27 Jan 2006 @ 12:19pm

    My prediction....

    I predict that within the next 100 years Bill Gates will be dead, and the empire of Microsft will no longer be in his hands.
    - But seriously, I can see it slowing down as he predicts. That makes sense, but the whole "as the local economy builds its own software industry" part is not what makes it a no brainer.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    A N Other, 27 Jan 2006 @ 12:20pm

    Lets do all we can....

    A plea for all in America and Europe with CD and DVD burners to start pirating Mocrosoft software to help Bill out....

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Richard Hughes, 27 Jan 2006 @ 12:24pm

    Can he focuse on Spam or security?

    Is Microsoft short on money? Should their first priority be stopping illegal copying? Maybe if they stopped Spam and fixed security problems people would want to buy their software more.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Jan 2006 @ 12:34pm

    Re: Can he focuse on Spam or security?

    He's never focused upon either of those, I wouldn't expect him to start.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    SimonTek, 27 Jan 2006 @ 12:38pm

    Re: Lets do all we can....

    I Love that, Best laugh of the day. But seriously, my father has a hotmail account, he gets more spam then carters got pills. to prove a point, I opened a hotmail account, and within a month it was full of spam, i never gave out the email address. I have since given my dad an email off of one of my domains.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Jan 2006 @ 3:19pm

    Re: Can he focuse on Spam or security?

    Why should microsoft be the company that "stops spam" - why not put the blame on the people who make spam...the spammers...

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anthony, 27 Jan 2006 @ 3:30pm

    omg, stupid people

    Forget microsuck people, Open source is the way to be, soon as people stop being so computer dumb, theyll realize you can do alot more, WITH NO ERRORS, on a FREE Open source Operating System!!

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    pooopstainzmcgraw, 27 Jan 2006 @ 3:30pm

    Re: Lets do all we can....

    I love it when people complain and whine about a FREE service like hotmail.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    pooopstainzmcgraw, 27 Jan 2006 @ 3:35pm

    Re: omg, stupid people

    OMG, your a jackass dirt merchant. Open source is bullshit, there is no free lunch, for what you dont pay licensing costs you pay for in buggy piece of shit software written by acne dotted 15 year olds, that write viruses for the shit in their spare time. If popular open source products were relatively close in market share to Microsoft, you'd see their flaws and security issues exposed to 10 times the scale of MS products. Go jerk off to Hackers you little punk.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Bob K Mertz, 27 Jan 2006 @ 3:53pm

    Remember this?

    "I can't imagine the day anyone would need more than 640k of RAM"

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Jan 2006 @ 4:45pm

    pooopstainzmcgraw: obviously you've never used a d

    such as the Mozilla Firefox you are probably using right now (if you're still using IE, you might as well hump MS's leg, and if you're using Netscape, go hump AOL/Time Warner's leg - only thing besides Firefox that could possibly be worth using is Opera) - ya, Firefox is open source, or did you not read that on the fronpage of the Mozilla site?

    How about OpenOffice.org - its every bit as good as MS Office - AND it has the corporate backing of Sun Microsystems which developed the old StarOffice Suite which OpenOffice is based on (they made it open-source and now its OOo), along with backing from Google and an assload of other billion dollar multi national corporations.

    And as for the article? everybody knows hotmail sucks, hell, even yahoo mail is better... but better than that, just ask people you know that have Gmail accounts if they would be so kind as to send you an invitation. I have not once gotten a single bit of spam with Gmail unless it was from a website I registered at, and the websites always have an option to not receive the email letters.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    duane maxymczak, 27 Jan 2006 @ 9:34pm

    Re: omg, stupid people

    ever hear of open office or firefox ???? hmmmm both open source software with better support than most payware ...hmmmm???

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    John Doh!, 28 Jan 2006 @ 7:51am

    Re: omg, stupid people

    Being unable to argue a point without calling names is a definite sign that you lack any of the intelligence necessary to even judge which computer programs are buggy. The only other thing I have to say is follow your own advice, except change the word "Hackers" to "crackers."

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Paul, 28 Jan 2006 @ 1:52pm

    Re: pooopstainzmcgraw: obviously you've never used

    Firefox renders a lot of CSS improperly (mostly dealing with spacing), and with every release they usually break one part of css while fixing another.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Ben McNelly, 28 Jan 2006 @ 3:23pm

    Re: omg, stupid people

    OMG John Doh!, here you are saying that people who resort to calling names are less inteligent, but then turn around call him names! What A hipocrite! A dumb waiter! You r a numbscull!!!

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Rickler, 28 Jan 2006 @ 5:48pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Bill defeating software piracy would be a huge boon to OpenOffice! Wouldn't it be wonderful if MS wins the piracy battle but loses the war by forcing cash-strapped Asian consumers to use open source applications instead of bootleg MS Word.

    MS Word Office and all those products if I'm not mistaken is sold at significantly lower prices in countries not used to spending their day to monthly pay on a piece of software.

    Same goes with DVDs, thus the region codes.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    John Doh!, 28 Jan 2006 @ 8:54pm

    Re: omg, stupid people

    Duuh! Thus the name "John Doh!" "Doh!" as in what Homer Simpson says when he messes up.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


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