Microsoft's Gates warns on U.S. competitiveness
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Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday he feels "deep anxiety" about the state of U.S. competitiveness and called for education, immigration and research funding reforms.
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Microsoft chair Bill Gates has a tough job ahead of him at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.
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Just before his farewell CES keynote speech, Microsoft's chairman reflects on Redmond's rivals and the changing face of Windows. Photos: Gates' last call at CES?
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(InfoWorld) - Four European Parliament members warned the European Commission that its actions toward Microsoft could endanger the competitiveness of European businesses by delaying the release of Vista, Microsoft's next operating system. In a strongly worded letter submitted Thursday to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the legislators said Microsoft regards the E.U.'s regulatory actions as a "risk factor." Microsoft used the terminology in its annual report filed Aug. 25 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). "This effectively means that the Commission's actions are endangering the ability of European business to compete globally," the legislators wrote. The letter is signed by U.K. representatives Chris Heaton-Harris, Sharon Bowles and Peter Skinner, plus Michal Kaminski of Poland. Microsoft wrote in the SEC filing that its ongoing appeal of European Commission's March 2004 antitrust decision means there's uncertainty over the legal principles regarding product design in the European market. "These uncertainties could ... delay release dates for Windows or other products," the SEC filing read. Microsoft has provided copies of Vista to the Commission along with technical information, said spokesman Tom Brookes. The Commission, he said, has raised concerns regarding complaints by competitors. In March, the Commission sent a letter to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, saying it was concerned about certain functions in Vista and how compatible the OS would be with products from other software companies. European Commission representatives were not immediately available for comment regarding Thursday's letter. Brookes said Microsoft was unaware of the letter until this morning. Two of the legislators said their letter is based on information contained in the company's SEC filing. Heaton-Harris referred questions to Microsoft, regarding why the company thought the E.U. might cause a delay Vista's shipping date. Microsoft has said Vista will be ready for corporate customers in November and consumers in January. Bowles said she has participated in informal sessions where Commission members have acknowledged they are watching Microsoft's development of Vista closely. She said she had no specific information on what the Commission is currently doing, as few details are publicly released. However, the Commission's actions have prompted concern among small to medium-size businesses in Europe, worried that the E.U. could potentially delay Vista's release, putting them at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world, Bowles said. "That climate of uncertainty caused through competition policy and actions already taken ... are meaning that Europe is being deprived," Bowles said. Europe is in the middle of a 10-year plan, called the Lisbon Agenda, to increase the continent's competitiveness in technology. The legislators wrote that they are concerned the Commission's actions toward Microsoft are undermining Europe's moves to become a knowledge-driven economy. Microsoft and the Commission have locked horns over how the company is complying with the March 2004 antitrust decision. TheÂ Commission fined MicrosoftÂ â¬280.5 million ($357 million at the time) in July for failing to provide technical documentation for certain protocols used by its server products. The Commission required disclosure of the protocols to allow competitors to develop compatible products.Â Microsoft is appealing. Microsoft is also appealing the entire March 2004 decision, in which it was fined â¬497 million ($613 million at the time), before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
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Robert Gates, President George W. Bush's choice to take over the Pentagon, said on Tuesday America was not winning in Iraq and warned that the Middle East could explode into violence.
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Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday the software giant was dedicated to cooperation with the European Union despite the complications created by the landmark EU ruling and record fine against the company.
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BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA - "You can't go wrong in computer science," Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates told University of California, Berkeley students on Friday. Some students, however, were unhappy with the way Gates responded to questions about increasing competition for jobs from China and India.ADVERTISEMENTSBC Case Study: Crate & BarrelWhat sold them on improving their network? A system that could cut management costs from the get-go. Find out more.
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Keeping information secure in this age of laptop-lugging workers is the tech industry's most formidable challenge, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday.
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Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday that sales forecasts for its new Vista operating system may be "overly aggressive."
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Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said the key for simplifying system management lies in the company's Dynamic Systems Initiative, which he described as a long-term vision that needs broad industry cooperation.
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Microsoft Corp.  Chairman  Bill Gates will testify Wednesday at a congressional hearing on  American business competitiveness, the Senate Health, Education  and Labor Committee said on Friday.
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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates speaks Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 at Microsoft Corp.&#39;s annual shareholders meeting in Bellevue, Wash.
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LAS VEGAS --In his seventh keynote speech at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates promoted what he called the "digital lifestyle."
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Robert Gates, sworn in as U.S. defense secretary on Monday, said he understood the desire to bring troops home but that failure in Iraq would be a "calamity" that haunts and threatens America for decades.
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Speaking to members of the Massachusetts Software Council, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touted a bright future for technology but warned his listeners to think twice before adopting open-source products like Linux.
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BERKELEY, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- The computing problems to be solved in the next two decades will be more exciting than those that already have been solved, according to Microsoft&#39;s Bill Gates.
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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer on Thursday warned Asian governments that they could face intellectual rights-infringement lawsuits for using rival open-source operating platforms such as Linux.