According to onmsft, 40 years ago, Bill Gates was 26 years old. His new software company, Microsoft, had just begun to make headlines after cooperating with IBM on the PC project. On the cusp of the IBM PC era, David Bunnell, editor in chief of PC Magazine, interviewed gates in 1982 to understand the young co-founder's views on a large number of technology industries and how a 16 bit Beige box will affect everyone's life in the future.
For 40 years, Microsoft has merged into a household name and the main force of computer evolution. Wendy Sheehan Donnell from PC Magazine interview He compared the idea of a young software manufacturer with the reality of today's modern computing world.
During the interview, Donnell and gates talked about Gates' early bid for PC Magazine, artificial intelligence and its role in coping with climate change and political polarization, as well as the former CEO's daily carrying technology.
At the beginning of the interview, Donnell reviewed Gates' dream 40 years ago, that is, the goal of "having a computer on every desk in every family".
We know that the miraculous progress of chips and the software that can be built because of these miraculous chips will make everyone want to use computers. Later, we talked about the information on the fingertips. Of course, with the emergence of mobile phones and sensors, it has surpassed the original dream. But it still goes back to the early days of so much important work driven by chips and great software.
As for Gates' purchase of PC Magazine, when thinking about this idea, he learned that computing will surpass amateurs and data processors, and regard the publication as a bridge to a larger audience.
From his more than 550 magazines and 40 years of career, Gates is right to believe that PC Magazine will play a long-term and key role in the computing field.
Donnell and gates also discussed the issue of "what is the biggest technical challenge in the next 40 years and how we will overcome it". Gates simply pointed out artificial intelligence.
No technical tool can solve this problem, but the way we interact with each other is closely related to the way information flows around the world.
With artificial intelligence, there is great potential to bring benefits to the world, but we should also be careful to ensure that it develops in the right way. Microsoft and openai have a smart way to do this.
Although the whole interview is very attractive to fans of historical, technical and business tycoons, the most interesting part may be when Donnell questions the technology gates actually uses, not just the theory that is helpful for the future.
Although surface Duo is the spiritual successor of the concept of Microsoft courier, but Gates chose Samsung Galaxy Z fold3 as his mobile phone and used surface laptop 4 and surface Studio 2 to complete his work inside and outside the home office.
I prefer to use a large screen computer than most people because I like to send long emails, read long documents and research papers. I am not as mobile centric as the younger generation, but this combination works well. I can keep all my work at the foundation, even when I travel. These tools are getting better and better, but they still have a long way to go and have great potential.
At the end of the interview, gates recalled that the programming code has become so large and extensive that today's computer users will find it difficult to accept the hardware and software restrictions of the past. He said: "we are spoiled now - our computers are so incredible."