Bill Gates vents spleen over Apple ads

By Iain Thomson

Feb 8 2007 9:50AM

'No truth' in ad claims, says Microsoft chairman.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has given an unusually candid interview in which he pours scorn on claims made in recent Apple commercials which feature Bill Gates and Steve Jobs lookalikes in the characters of 'PC' and 'Mac'.

Speaking to Steven Levy from Newsweek Gates displayed annoyance at the adverts, which include scenes where the 'PC' character complains about being infested with viruses and depreciating in value.

Other adverts promote Apple's superiority in making home movies, the difficulties in upgrading to Vista and dealing with the home computing environment.

"I don't think the over 90 per cent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are," said Gates.

"I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it's superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the slightest shred of truth to it."

Gates also had some choice words on Apple's security strategy and the low incidence of virus attacks on Apple's platforms.

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit. Your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on a Windows machine," he said.

Gates acknowledged that there had already been security updates for Vista, but maintained that this is normal operating practice and good security.