Kotaku
By: Brian Crecente
The interview was, as I said earlier, a bit fragmented due to the nature of the forum. When you get five geeks to sit around the table with Bill Gates, chances are they aren't going to want to all talk about the same things.
While Gates spent a bulk of the time talking about stuff as varied as his charity work (it's going to blossom when he semi-retires next summer), the amount of spam assaulting his mailbox (next to none recently) and his penchant for speeding, yet not dying when he was younger. (Yes, that old gem.)
Gates told the small group that Microsoft has always been about software and that despite their recent jump into some hardware, always will be.
"Microsoft has always been about software that empowers people," he said. "What can happen over the next ten years is probably even bigger than what's happened over the entire history as we get speech and vision just getting rid of constraints: Storage constraints, resolution constraints."
"Microsoft was a software company in 1975 well be a software company 20 years from now, that's what we are good at that's our unique contribution."
He did touch a few times on gaming and for the most part what he said was direct and interesting. Gates, it turns out, is a pretty personable guy.
I even got him to laugh when I asked him to take a picture with me.
Me: Do you mind if I get my picture with you? Last one, promise.
Gates: Sure, though no one ever stops the next person from getting a picture with me.
Me: Give me a fork and a spoon and I'll fight them off for you.
I crack myself up, and at least slightly amuse Gates.
I decided to break down the chat into a group of stories to make it more digestible:
Gates on Vision and Live
Gates the Gamer
Zune is the Xbox of Music
Gates: Xbox is a PC
