The Financial Times has published a transcript of an interview with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at the RSA Security Conference in San Jose. Gates mentions the nine month delay to Vista, due to taking a year out to tackle security issues, which he now reckons take up a third of development resources, talks about not charging for emails, and defends his position in China.
It's interesting that Gates understands the difference between authentication and identification. He also says anti-trust legislation is preventing Microsoft from including some extra features, such as anti-virus checking, in the operating system. He says:
Yes. The decision to leave AV outside - there's so many factors that weigh into it. But certainly, we looked at that as one factor, how people will respond. Remember, the whole notion of improving software and making it better for users has been attacked because it makes it tough for competitors.
That's the basic framework we have, where we're kind of saying if we put new things in and don't raise the price, it's there, that's competition, that's beneficial to users, and other people are saying no, let's protect us competitors. That's a tricky framework. Clearly if that was all we thought about we wouldn't have put all this new stuff in, but we have.
There's also an informal 17-minute video interview with Gates on Microsoft's Channel 9. He plugs Mix06 and Office 12, and says "mea culpa" on the browser issue. Although not a TV watcher, he confesses to a 24 addiction.
