Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates took to Reddit on Monday for “Ask Me Anything” session and opened up on various topics ranging from tech to his philanthropic works to his favorite band, if you are wondering, it is U2.
This was his first AMA session, logging in as “this is billgates,” he fielded dozens of questions from Reddit users for several hours, sometimes buzzing in the follow-up threads to the approval of many participants. The unfiltered nature of Reddit AMA gave Gates a chance to put both his genius and wit on display to a crowd that consists largely of people just like him: geeks who are passionate about the Internet and technology.
The session revealed some of the secrets and some of the biggest regrets carried by the tech’s richest man, as compiled by Mashable. Here are some excerpts…
Steve Jobs
On his relationship with Steve Jobs, Gates said “He and I respected each other. Our biggest joint project was the Mac where Microsoft had more people on the project than Apple did as we wrote a lot of applications. I saw Steve regularly over the years including spending an afternoon with him a few months before he tragically passed away.”
What Gates Would Have Been
His answer to what he would’ve done if Microsoft hadn’t taken off: “If the microprocessor had NOT come along I am not sure what I would have done. Maybe medicine or theoretical math but it is hard to say.”
He’s Funny
Gates showed his funnier and wittier side to some usual, some conflicting questions. When asked what do people give you for your birthday, given that you can buy anything you want? Gates said, “Free software. Just kidding. Books actually.” And when was asked a conflicting question about if he prefers Windows 7 or Windows 8, he replied: “Higher is better.”
And the thing that takes cream of the crop about Gates being funny is— “Since becoming wealthy, what’s the cheapest thing that gives you the most pleasure?” He replied “Kids. Cheap cheeseburgers. Open Course Ware courses,” and then obviously bewildered questioner asked “Where are you acquiring these cheap kids from?” Gates replied “The stork.”
His Regret
Cloud computing is a relatively recent phenomenon, but Gates had wanted to bring it mainstream a few years early with the 2007 release of Windows Vista. When asked what one Microsoft program or product that was never fully developed or released do you wish had made it to market? Gates said “We had a rich database as the client/cloud store that was part of a Windows release that was before its time. This is an idea that will remerge since your cloud store will be rich with schema rather than just a bunch of files and the client will be a partial replica of it with rich schema understanding.”
Gates was referencing WinFS, or Windows Future Storage. The idea behind WinFS was to integrate some relational database technologies with the Windows File System. In its early (codename “Cairo”) days, WinFS was key to Microsoft’s plans to create a true, object-oriented file store.
At one point, Microsoft was touting WinFS as one of the key components Windows Vista/Longhorn. Then the Longhorn reset happened and Microsoft ended up rolling out bits of WinFS as components of SQL Server and other database-focused deliverables.
He Still CodesGates left his job as Microsoft CEO years ago to devote himself full-time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but he still finds time to dabble in programming. When asked if he still codes, Gates replied, “Not as much as I would like to. I write some C, C# and some Basic. I am surprised new languages have not made more progress in simplifying programming. It would be great if most high school kids were exposed to programming”
source::::::siliconindia net
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