Gallery

Bill's 10 biggest blunders

Posted on 12 May 2008 at 12:54

1. Being curt in court

Gates didn't even have to take to the stand when his company was sued by his own government for antitrust violations in 1998, but his videotaped testimony was the very definition of petulance. Prosecution questions often met with a surly "don't know" or "don't recall", and Gates even asked what his interrogators meant when they asked him about "non-Microsoft browsers". "I think it's evident to every spectator that... Mr Gates has not been particularly responsive to his deposition interrogation," commented the clearly irritated judge, whose subsequent decision to rip the company in two was only overturned on appeal.

2. Cute helpers

We'd like to have been in the meeting when they decided that the best solution for Help menus in Office Professional (yes, Professional) was an animated puppy dog. Perhaps Bill wasn't there, either, but then he was the man who introduced the world to Microsoft Bob - the inanely irritating animated helper of Windows 3.1 vintage. And he also stood by while Clippy butted in every time you touched the keyboard in Word.

3. Windows Live

Call it MSN, call it Windows Live, call it anything you want: aside from Internet Explorer, Microsoft's online strategy has been a shambles. Despite throwing billions upon billions at the internet, the company has failed to find a single must-have online service since Hotmail - and even that was bought in. Windows Live has effectively become a shadow of Google's services, Live search has a fraction of Google's traffic, and the company's so desperate for a web presence it's prepared to gamble $44 billion on Yahoo. Call it Bill's black hole.

4. Memory crystal ball

Considering virtually every word he utters in public fills a print column somewhere in the world, Gates had made precious few verbal blunders. So when he does make a fortune-telling faux pas it's instantly seized upon, and none more so than his infamous 1981 outburst on future RAM requirements: "640K ought to be enough for anybody". They'll put that on his gravestone.

5. Missing the Internet boat

Gates didn't so much miss the internet boat, as flick it a V-sign from the harbour as it set sail. There's debate whether he really said "the internet? We're not interested in it" in 1993, but in 1998 he admitted: "Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority." As we point out opposite, though, he eventually woke up.

6. Windows ME

This stopgap version between Windows 98 and XP was probably the worst operating system in Microsoft's history. It brought little new to the table, froze more often than an arthritic rabbit in the headlights, and was replaced by Windows XP in little more than a year. Windows Vista is making a pretty valiant attempt to steal ME's wooden spoon, but we're not sure we can really blame Bill for that.

7. Incremental updates

"While you don't see many changes on the surface..." begins our review to Office 97. "While application functionality has developed only marginally..." starts our Office 2000 verdict. Gates' Microsoft is the master of the incremental upgrade, releasing new versions that don't contain anything particularly new. Will Ballmer be more radical?

8. Outstaying his welcome

After passing over CEO duties to Steve Ballmer in 2000, Bill could have gently eased himself out of the frame a year or two later, having seen off his own government and basking in the relative glory of Windows XP. Instead, he's clung on in there for another eight years, making few notable contributions to the company since the turn of the century. Vista was Jim Allchin's baby, J Allard spearheaded the Xbox drive, and Bill's been notable by his absence from the Yahoo bid.