Celebrate the tech innovator’s 60th birthday with a look back at his EW interview.
In honor of Gates 60th birthday Wednesday, read on below to see just how close he got.
The following article by Noah Robischon originally appeared in the January 7, 2000 issue of Entertainment Weekly.
Credit: Jeff Christensen/Getty Images
Like E-Elvis leaving the building, Bill Gates swiftly moves past a backstage throng of awestruck digit-heads.
a subpoena?before the worlds wealthiest man is ushered into a nearby meeting room.
Yet in spite of his Olympian celebrity, Gates still, and somewhat endearingly, exudes geekitude.
We quizzed him on his vision of the future.
EW:Where will the entertainment of the early 21st century come from?
BG:It will be quite a mix of start-ups and traditional players.
You dont have to own a TV internet to go out and do a cool show.
People useThe Blair Witch Projectas a sort of prototypical example.
EW:Where does the PC fit in?
All those kinds of neat special-effects-throw in things will become standard features of PCs over the next five years.
Our whole thing has been to take technology and not have it be a barrier.
So anybody who has got the creativity doesnt have to learn the bits and bytes.
EW:Where do you see this evolution occurring first?
Why shouldnt I have just a small unit?
they would view physical storage of music as kind of outdated and very inconvenient.
Will it go so extreme that you wont have much physical media at all?
There are people like myself who believe that it may well do that.
And some music executivewho will remain unnamedsaid, Oh, no way would it go digital.
People love having that CD.
Its one of those things you look back on and say, How could there have been a debate?
Cmon, its just better.
EW:And what happens to record companies if there are no CDs to distribute?
But then you get these new opportunities to essentially author and experience more than just the music itself.
EW:When will the PC start affecting the way we watch movies and television with the same impact?
Music, even with these dial-up connections you have to the Internet, is very practical to download.
But every PC you buy in 2001 will have the ability to tape shows that youre watching.
This new generation of set-top boxes that connects up to the Internet is very much part of that.
There will be so many choices out there.
Youve got to imagine that a software agent will help you find things that you might be interested in.
EW:Like a personalized TV Guide?
Its already getting a little unwieldy.
When you turn on DirecTV and you step through every channelwell, theres three minutes of your life.
Its not going to be Lets look at channels 4, 5, and 7.
Its going to be something that has pretty incredible graphics and its got an Internet connection to it.
If that happened, would one of the so-called Baby Bills be spun off as an entertainment company?
BG:The whole talk about breaking up is really inappropriate and premature.
We are in partnership with entertainment companies.
We do websites where we put our partners up, and we do these great tools.
[Disney CEO Michael] Eisner has said Microsoft is one competitor hes concerned about.
That just blew me away.
Because were not in this business.
What he does, and all of those companies do, I have great admiration for.
Picking scripts, picking story lines, all that.
That is not the skill set of Microsoft.
Thats not the direction strategy of Microsoft.
Were enabling neat things and we want to see other companies do the entertainment using our technology.
How will you avoid Edisons fate?
BG:Theres more total profit in the long run in actually building the entertainment experiences.
But theres no one company that is going to dominate that.
If our technology does anything, it allows for there to be more variety.
EW:And how will companies make money?
The value of that marketing is much higher.
You dont have this funny envelope in the mail that you tend to throw away.
EW:How will that affect online commerce?
What will be different about Christmas shopping 10 years from now?
BG:I like the idea of putting your Christmas wish list up and letting people share it.
Well just wonder how people did that in the past.
Did you have to take the things back?
TECHNO-BAUBLES
Microsoft is no more interested in building hardware now than it was before.
Still, that home-radio-station thingie looks cool.
SET-TOP BOX:Gates opening shot in the cable-modem and digital TV wars.
They will also offer commercials that are targeted to your interestswhich is supposedly a good thing.
CLARION AUTOPC:One pitfall of the Sonicbox is that you cant take it on the road.
Along with the standard radio/CD player combo, the AutoPC responds to voice commands and acts as your navigator.
But for the whopping price of $1,669, it could have at least included a radar detector.
Start by cuing up a playlist on your PC or connecting to a netcasting radio station.
After that, any radio in the house becomes your personal NPR/classic rock/Top 40 jam session.
CASIO COLOR CASSIOPEIA:Tired of showing off those wallet-crumpled photos of the kids?
Your coworkers will be impressed by the gadget, but just as bored by the pics.
Just remove that memory card full of songs and plug it into a digital music player like the I-JAM.
Microsofts audio format runs on other players as well, including the Rio 500.
