gate

Bill Gates on Google's Chrome OS

To Bill Gates, Google's Chrome OS looks a lot like a familiar foe: Linux.

"There's many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways," Gates said in an interview with CNET News this week. "In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks. It's got a browser in it."

Gates said it was hard to really say much about Chrome OS, since Google has said so little about how … Read more

Gates on physics, Chrome OS, and Project Natal

Bill Gates may not be showing up at Microsoft headquarters every day, but he's certainly staying busy.

In an interview with CNET News, the Microsoft chairman talks about just a few of the things on his plate, including an effort to make a series of classic physics lectures available for free over the Internet.

Although it's unlikely to garner the audience of say, a sneezing panda, Gates said that putting great educational content online is an important part of getting people interested in science.

"When a lecture is presented as well as this, it draws more people … Read more

Bill Gates offers the world a physics lesson

It's been a year since Bill Gates left full-time work at Microsoft, but he's found plenty to keep him busy.

In between trying to eradicate polio, tame malaria, and fix the broken U.S. education system, Gates has managed to fulfill a dream of taking some classic physics lectures and making them available free over the Web. The lectures, done in 1964 by noted scientist (and Manhattan Project collaborator) Richard Feynman, take notions such as gravity and explains how they work and the broad implications they have in understanding the ways of the universe.

Gates first saw the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1005: I'm Bill Gates, this beer is warm

Bill Gates is part of a team that has patented a new beer keg. Sure it could be used for other things. But the point was we're pretty sure he came up with the idea when drinking warm beer in Africa. We also talk about porn on the iPhone and new Windows pricing.

Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video) EPISODE 1005

Microsoft Windows 7 pricing revealed: pre-orders kick off June 26th http://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-windows-7-pricing-revealed-pre-orders-kick-off-june-26th-2547957/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10272703-56.html

AT&T’s 3G upgrades to … Read more

What drives Steve Jobs?

I've never died, but I can't imagine it to be a terribly enjoyable experience.

So I can't imagine why death's proximity might encourage someone to go on working until they are grimly reaped.

That seems to be the case with Steve Jobs, however. His work seems to be his life. The Apple logo seems to be his heart. And, even with several bites taken out of his health, he appears to want to carry on being Apple until he enters the second life.

The hopeful, perhaps mythical one, rather than the virtual one.

After his pancreatic … Read more

Gates, Ballmer optimistic about tech recovery

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer are optimistic about the power of tech to recover from the current recession and bring business along with it, according to speeches they made at Microsoft's 13th annual CEO Summit earlier this week.

Although the event was private, Microsoft released four clips of the keynote speeches made Tuesday by Gates and Ballmer, which strike a positive tone about the future.

In his keynote speech at the summit, Gates said that overall he was very optimistic about the economy with the opportunities for innovation stronger today than ever. "The drug … Read more

The software trinity explained

Update at 1:25 p.m. PDT May 23: More information on the piece has been added.

Call them a "holy trinity" or the "three wise men of software"--one way or another you will eventually give these guys all your money and continue to worship at their respective altars.

The EyeBeam Gallery in New York's Chelsea neighborhood has been showing a piece of art that captures Linus Torvalds, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates (along with a tiny, cherubic Steve Ballmer) as icons, in the original sense of word.

Jeff Crouse, the artist who conceptualized … Read more

Despite layoffs, Ballmer is doing a great job

Microsoft announced 3,000 layoffs earlier this week. The layoffs inch Microsoft closer to its goal of cutting 5,000 employees from its payroll. The company claims the layoffs are a part of broader strategy that aims at making the software giant more focused on others areas of its operation.

Whatever the logic, there's one person at the company that, over the past nine years, has performed quite admirably: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

I'll be the first to admit that Ballmer can be eccentric. He's often criticized for his outspokenness and willingness to mix it up with tech royalty (I'm looking at you, Apple). He has a tendency to open his mouth when he shouldn't. And he has embarrassed himself on a few occasions.

But when we look at his performance as a CEO from a financial perspective, I don't think even the most ardent Microsoft hater can say that he has done a poor job. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that these layoffs are a mark on his record, but when taken as a whole, Ballmer has proven to be one of the tech industry's most competent CEOs.… Read more

Gates: Cyberattacks a constant threat

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that the United States is "under cyberattack virtually all the time, every day" and that the Defense Department plans to more than quadruple the number of cyber experts it employs to ward off such attacks.

In an interview for an upcoming edition of 60 Minutes, CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked Gates about the nation's cybersecurity after hackers stole specifications from a $300 billion fighter jet development program as well as other sensitive information.

In a series of spy attacks, hackers stole information about the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter … Read more