Gates Successor Says Microsoft Laid Foundation for Google 500
thefickler writes "According to Bill Gates' successor Craig Mundie, there would have been no Google without Microsoft. 'I mean, the fact is: Google's existence and success required Microsoft to have been successful previously to create the platform that allowed them to go on and connect people to their search servers. Now, Microsoft's business is not to control the platform per se, but in fact to allow it to be exploited by the world's developers. The fact that we have it out there gives us a good business, but in some ways it doesn't give us an advantage over any of the other developers in terms of being able to utilize it.' This comment comes from a lengthy interview between Mundie and APC magazine, which talks with the newly installed strategy and R&D head. Other interesting topics discussed include the future of Microsoft and Windows, OOXML, and and the 'rise of Linux' on the desktop."
What's he smoking? (Score:5, Funny)
Create the platform???? BWAHAHAHAHAHA (Score:2, Funny)
Google would work just as well if MSFT had been nothing more than a long-forgotten BASIC provider.
Standing on the shoulders of giants (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I suppose they have to; there are no seats left to sit on
It's completely true (Score:2, Funny)
I think they both forgot... (Score:4, Funny)
Almost right... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What's he smoking? (Score:5, Funny)
If it werent for microsoft, there would have been no internet, or at least no web browsers for it!
I mean didn't Microsoft invent networking?
The first web browser (Internet Explorer, the Mosaic thing is a LIE!), wasn't that created by MS?
And everyone knows IIS was the first web server!
Certainly BSD, Sun, Apple, and the rest didn't have any internet access before they stole it from Micrsoft.
*ahem*
I feel dumber even after typing that, knowing it is sarcasm and false...
Australopithecus Africanus threw a stone first (Score:5, Funny)
Next thing you know another Boreopithecus Redmondanus is throwing chairs instead of stones.
They're right, of course. (Score:4, Funny)
He he ... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, it gets exploited all the time, so they're succeeding.
Cheers
Job Opportunity (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Standing on the shoulders of giants (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What a heaping pile of poo (Score:3, Funny)
Minix.
Experiment (Score:3, Funny)
to assassinate Bill's mother before he was born, thereby erasing his entire existence. We can then observe the effects on the present and determine if the statement is true.
Re:It's completely true (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yeah - so? (Score:3, Funny)
Please.
The personal computing revolution would have happened with or without Microsoft. It was all a matter of timing and nefarious business practices that allowed Microsoft to be the dominant player and their resulting "defacto monopoly". We they a part of "bringing computers to the masses?" Sure, in a sense because they were THERE, not because of what they actually DID (outside of the "nefarious business practices" of course.)
No, Luke... (Score:3, Funny)
Google/Luke: He did. He told me you embraced and extended / killed him.
Microsoft/Vader: No, Google/Luke. I am your father!
Google/Luke: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Re:It's completely true (Score:3, Funny)
You're "that guy" at parties, aren't you?
Re:Australopithecus Africanus threw a stone first (Score:3, Funny)
Or, for intelligent design types:
Windows is the end result of Noah saving a pair of jackasses.
Re:I think they both forgot... (Score:4, Funny)
Chris DiBona
Re:Yeah - so? (Score:5, Funny)
Then again, given that the Allies were the leaders in computing during WWII, a victory by the Third Reich would probably have delayed the PC revolution by many years. So really, Google couldn't have happened without Germany's disastrous decision to assault the Soviet Union... and we all know who made thatdecision. What that means, of course, is that Google really owes their very existence to Hitler.
Re:Yeah - so? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah - so? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What's he smoking? (Score:5, Funny)
This post was brought to you by Microsoft Minitrue(TM)
I think Mundie has a point (Score:4, Funny)
That's not really fair.
I think it's fairly clear that Mundie is referring to the sudden increase in global data flow that coincided with the advent of the Internet. In effect, I think he's making the claim that without Microsoft's valiant attempts to choke off this dataflow, without its deliberate obfuscations and distortions, without the calculated policies of embrace and extend... I think he's suggesting that without these factors, there would be no need for Google; that without Microsoft fscking it up for the rest of us, we wouldn't need Google to find useful information. And to that extent at least, I think he has a point.
All the same, I still think he's giving MS too much credit: The main problem was that even despite MS' best efforts, there was still to much information to easily organise.
Still, I can see where the man is coming from.
Re:What's he smoking? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I think Mundie has a point (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A simple test (Score:4, Funny)
Well... duh! (Score:1, Funny)
Since the demand increased, it allowed the price to come down, which allowed even more demand, and further lowered the price, etc. We went from at least $3000 for a home PC setup to today's sub-$500 home PC setup... and NONE of it would have been possible had Microsoft not started the ball rolling.
You can also attribute the rise of the internet back to MS, the iPod would have not been possible without MS enabling all those people to get on the internet (especially when they offered an OS which didn't require people to pay $50 for a WinSock, $50 for a TCP/IP protocol stack, and $60 for Netscape).
Thank God for Microsoft. The world would be a much poorer place without their existence. And seeing as how Bill Gates is now the greatest philanthropist in human history, we can also say thank God for Bill Gates, and know that many people around the world would not be alive today if Microsoft did not exist.