We Mac user try a lot about Steve Jobs ’ “ reality distortion field”—the aura of his personal appeal and its sanguine gist on the Apple faithful . If Steven Levy’srecentNewsweekinterviewwith Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is any example , Gates ’ world is pretty distorted too . But I ’m not so certain it has as much to do with personal magnetism as it does with self - illusion .
In excerpts of the interview published on theNewsweekWeb website , Gates said that the freshly released Vista ’s selling point to the fair consumer is feature likes Sidebar and its ability to handle large amounts of photos , HD picture show and DVD burning .
Sound familiar ? Apple ’s been doing digital photos , moving-picture show and videodisc burning for years with itsiLife software suite . As for Sidebar ? That ’s Vista ’s way of run mini - applications call “ gizmo . ” But you probably know them asDashboardand widgets — feature of Mac OS X ever since Apple relinquish Tiger .
improbably , Gates actually gets shock when Levy suggests that Microsoft ripped off some of Mac OS X in Vista ’s features , look and palpate :
Then Gates goes on to suggest that Microsoft may have been too coming betimes in Vista ’s development , when it was still call Longhorn . He does n’t say it instantly , but Gates intimate that Microsoft showed off feature that Apple end up copying and merchant marine in its products before Microsoft could , because Microsoft spend so much time exploit out Vista ’s security features .
That ’s not just incorrect , that ’s astoundingly , jaw - droppingly wrong . splashboard by , the basic face and feel of Mac OS X — not to remark its core file social organisation — has been around since Windows XP was new , and Vista / Longhorn was not so much as even a glimmer in Bill Gates ’ heart .
That ’s not where Gates ’ own version of the Reality Distortion Field ends , though . He also claims that “ security guys let out the Mac every individual day . Every individual day , they come out with a total exploit , your car can be get over totally . ”
Now , Gates said this within the context of Vista ’s improved security department . And Vista is a marked advance over Windows XP in a multitude of areas — security may very well be a major one .
But for Gates to hint that “ security hombre break the Mac every single sidereal day ” ca-ca me enquire exactly where the the pits Gates is getting his information , or at the very least , what he ’s smoking .
Because about the most public showing of Mac OS ecstasy - related bugs I ’m intimate with is the recent“Month of Apple Bugs ” projection , which end not so much with a bang but rather a whine . The project ’s organizer discover one really skilful bug in there , which was fixed by Apple a few weeks later in a security update . Otherwise it was primarily just a ragbag of job they strike in third - party program software package that incline on Mac OS X ( not to cite Windows , in some cases ) .
And I ’m completely unfamiliar with any “ exploits , ” as Gates put it , that would give up a malicious exploiter to “ take over totally ” a Mac scarper Tiger .
So Bill Gates is , at best , grossly false and really ill informed about his major competition for the pith and minds of consumers . And at worst , he ’s well mindful of just how mistaken his claims are and choosing to make them anyway . “ Distorting reality ” is one fashion to describe that ; another would be “ lie . ”
