ZDNet Interview With Bill Gates
Microsoft founder and chief software architect Bill Gates gave a short, but very interesting interview to ZDNet this week. He explains the removal of WinFS, and the reasons why, which seem to indicate that Microsoft wasn't quite sure how to market the technology, and is pushing it as a development platform. Even so, Microsoft is saying WinFS, when it does ship in 2007, is the "big breakthrough", indicating their hope that the system represents a huge leap forward for Windows. In contrasting Microsoft's work on search to their progress on Windows, he says:

Some things here are cases where there is a clear competitor. If you take our guys who are competing with Google, they understand exactly what they're measured against and how everybody thinks Google walks on water, and they've got to surprise the world.
Then we have other groups, like WinFS, where we're way out in front, and there's nobody to compare ourselves to.

Gates seems to agree that competition is the best thing for Microsoft, because it forces the company to develop at a much higher, more innovative level.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 9/03/2004 12:52:00 AM