li·bel
1. Law.
a. defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
b. the act or crime of publishing it.
c. a formal written declaration or statement, as one containing the allegations of a plaintiff or the grounds of a charge.
2. anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.
–verb (used with object)
3. to publish a libel against.
4. to misrepresent damagingly.
5. to institute suit against by a libel, as in an admiralty court.source: dictionary.com
Bill Gates must be getting a little tired of defending Vista against the onslaught of “Hey, this is just like OS X”…because he’s been saying some really…REALLY…interesting stuff….like this, for example, from his interview with Newsweek yesterday.
“Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.”
ahem…WHAT?!?!?!?!
Now, one can only assume that Mr. Gates is talking about the Month of Apple Bugs, which needed several third party application exploits to pad out it’s month…but nothing from MOAB could be considered a TOTAL exploit…they couldn’t even exploit OS X every day for a month like they claimed they would.
So…and someone correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that makes his above statement a straight up lie?
Also in the the interview, he speaks very candidly about the “Get a Mac” ads…
How about the implication that you need surgery to upgrade?
Well, certainly we’ve done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don’t know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don’t even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.
You can probably see where I’m going with this, right?
link via TUAW
6 thoughts on “Mr. Gates, have you ever heard the term “libel”?”
I totally agree with you. Earlier after i read this article, i almost fell out of my chair with disbelief. The part where he says that Vista has improved their security, and Apple has done absolutely nothing. Well last time I checked, Apple was the one who has absolutely no viruses, unlike Windows with over 110,000 different ones.
Not libel, just copying again.
Apple said bad things about precious little Windows and PC users in general (albeit in quite a light-hearted way: the TV commercials feature comedians after all).
So in retaliation Billy boy is responding with some bad things of his own. It’s just that in typical Microsoft cargo cult fashion, he imitated badly and forget the light-hearted bit.
Up until now, I thought the Apple/Microsoft rivalry was a bit of friendly competition that ultimately benefited the market as a whole. (Indeed, the past year must have increased Windows box sales by a few units simply because Mac users can now run it via Parallels or Boot Camp.) And Apple has long been Microsoft’s unofficial R&D lab, letting ideas get developed in a microcosm which Microsoft can take mainstream by owning 95% of the desktop OS market.
But that interview showed a very bitter streak in ‘softie land.
hah, Bill Gates with his stupid propaganda 😛
He lies and lies and the scary thing is that many people might believe it.
Bill Gates has adopted the neocon mentality — always insist that your own fantasy is reality and claim everyone else is crazy. Can’t wait for YoViB, the Year of Vista Bugs….
This bitching war is getting a little out of hand. In the end we all choose our platforms because of taste or circumstance.
The Creatives choose Macs because they don’t want to be distracted by long winded interfaces. Gamers choose Windows because there’s better support and more games. Business users have too much invested to choose any other platform than the one they are already using.
Does it really matter if one copies the other? Without this would either side find a better way to do things? Give me inspiration over innovation any day.
In the end many prefer Apple because they find simple ways to do difficult things. Microsoft has this skill to learn but at last we have some healthy competition on all sides.
It doesn’t matter where a technology or an idea comes from. The end result is what really matters… and that’s simply down to taste.
So Mr. Gates, we’ll give you back your teddy if you’ll stop telling fibs and learn to sell your products in a more honest way. You know Vista will sell anyway, many don’t have a choice. There’s no need to tell lies.
“Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it?”
Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really rich, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it?