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Microsoft vs General Motors
At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:
"If General Motors had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles per gallon."
In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If General Motors had developed technology like Microsoft we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
- For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
- Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
- Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
- Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
- Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT", but then you would have to buy more seats.
- Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive but would only run on five percent of the roads.
- The oil, water, temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car fault" warning light.
- New seats would force everyone to have the same size butts.
- The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
- Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio aerial.
- GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary) even though they neither need them nor want them.
Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car’s performance to diminish by 50 percent or more.
- Every time GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as your old car.
- You’d have to press the "start" button to shut down the engine.
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