Gates vs Jobs at All Things D

Here is the interview meet-up between Mossberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, at the All Things D conference:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/when-two-worlds-collide/gates-vs-jobs-the-complete-videos-264788.php

Note that you might need to let it stream (pause) for a bit before viewing, unless you have some pretty high bandwidth (5mbps+?). You can read a semi-transcript from Engadget.

Despite what the ‘I hate/love MS/Apple’ camps might want you to think, from the onstage presence, those two guys could easily be buddies, in some ways, it is comforting to see familiar faces in the same industry after two decades. None of the predicted catfights happened at all despite some of the aggressive questioning by Mossberg, in fact it was rather heartwarming to see them two seemingly get along as colleagues rather than foes.

Though Microsoft is seen as being a copycat and a non-innovator, they are, as a simple fact, very successful, and not through sheer luck. Love or hate their products, they do have a large pool of talented minds, and our culture and society is in a way, affected indirectly from what they have achieved. Hopefully they are seeing the light, and embracing standards as a consequence of this very public embrace. I would predict however, that things will be even rosier for these two companies, after this public display of affection (as much as can be implied from two CEOs and a gay marriage!).

Finally, as for the Mac vs Windows debate, I usually say to people, don’t criticise the platforms, just use the one you are most comfortable with. Everyone has different needs.