MS vs.
GM
At a
historic computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared
the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,
"If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer
industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000
miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press
release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft,
we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would
have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason.
You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all
of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the
windows before you could continue. For some reason you would
simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing maneuver 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.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car unless you bought
"CarNT," but then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was
reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive but it
would only run on five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights
would all be replaced by a single "general protection
fault" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same sized butt.
9. The airbag system would ask "are you sure?" before
deploying.
10. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, you car would lock
you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted
the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the antenna.
11. 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 nor want them. Attempting to delete this
option would immediately cause the cars performance to diminish
by 50 percent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for
investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to
learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would
operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd have to press the "start" button to turn the
engine off.
It's
a classic humorous story, though completely unfounded:
http://www.snopes.com/humor/jokes/autos.asp
