An Interview with Bill Gates

      Before Microsoft came along, there really was no software industry. It was just a few companies selling very high-priced software only to companies, big companies. The idea of low-cost software that would be 1)empowering for individuals and that there could be literally 1 around the world hundreds of thousands of these successful companies---that was the part of the Microsoft dream. And in fact, the software industry is 10,000 times bigger because of the work we do. The vast majority of all the 2)revenue in the software business is because Microsoft has a 3)uniform platform that has gotten out to around the world. And so in every country we’ve helped companies grow up, create jobs, pay taxes around the software world. The main competitors who don’t like us are actually hardware companies who have been used to charging very high prices for hardware and the PCs changed that.

     It’s hard to think of a business that’s had a more positive effect for customers than the PC business. The rate of product improvement, the kind of empowerment it provides, this ability to create and stay in touch. You know the closest 5)comparison is when publishing came along and people had books. Of course books created a problem. You know, the people wanted to control things didn’t like books, the people who wanted to sell high-priced hand written things didn’t like the printing press. But 6)overwhelmingly it was something that people knew really that it was very positive. The same thing’s happened with the PC. There’s no company that 7)in terms of our work has gotten as positive feedback and you know has gotten as broad a set of users. Those users are always telling us what they’d like to see us make better, and that’s partly why it’s a fun business because we get to make new versions of the software all the time.

     Well, the vision of Microsoft is about information as you want it, any time, anywhere, any place. And this is an 8)overall strategy about making it easier to write software, easier to share 9)data, revolutionizing user interface 2 with the speech and handwriting. And making reading off the computer as good or better than paper and so today we’re as 10)radical 3 as ever in seeing that the horizons for software are, will let us get so much more than even what we have now.

     The 11)digital future includes lots of specialized 4 12)devices. If all you want to do is make a voice call, you’ll have a device for that, if all you want to do is take a photo, you’ll have a device for that. The PC of course will be the device whenever you want to see a full-size screen to do anything with documents or web browsing 5 or planning, you’ll use that. Now sometimes these devices will be combined together and we have enough partners who make these devices that every possible combination will be tried. You know putting the phone and the camera together, bringing the 13)wristwatch and a camera together, and it’ll be completely up to the market to decide exactly how they’d like to see these things packaged. But no doubt, the photos will go digital, movies will go digital, music will go digital, and so the ability of the user to share and enrichen these things will be 14)dramatically better than it’s been without digital.CE

微软成立之前并没有真正的软件业，只有几家公司向另外一些大公司以高昂价格销售软件而已。低成本软件的意念适用于个人，并在世界上拥有无数家成功的公司——那是微软的部分梦想。事实上，经过我们的努力，软件业的规模已经扩大了一万倍。软件业的收益如此巨大是因为微软有一个标准的平台应用于全世界。所以在每一个国家，我们都在软件业中帮助公司发展、创造就业机会、交纳税款。和我们想法不一样的主要竞争者——实际上是硬件公司——他们习惯于高价销售硬件，而个人电脑改变了这种现象。

很难想出有哪个行业能比个人电脑行业对客户产生更积极的影响。产品的升级换代频率使得创造力跟上社会的步伐。你知道，打个最贴切的比喻说吧，有了出版后，人们拥有了书。当然有书就产生了问题。当时人们想要控制书本，想高价出卖手写体的人不喜欢印刷品。但不可避免的是，人们发现印刷品确实是积极有用的东西。个人电脑也一样。在我们这一行，没有哪家公司得到过积极的反馈且拥有大量用户。那些用户总会告诉我们，他们想看到我们做得更好，那就是为什么它是一个有趣行业的部分原因，因为我们一直在出产新版软件。

微软的想法是，让人们得到想要的信息，无论何时、何地都能得到。这是一个总体战略，使得编写软件更容易，共享数据更容易，使用户界面的言语和书写革命化。使得电脑阅读与书面阅读一样好，甚至更好，所以我们今天跟以往一样很激动地看到，软件的界面将会让我们得到比现在所拥有的更多东西。

一个数码未来包括有很多专业工具。如果你想打一个声音电话，你会有专门的工具；如果你想拍照，你也会有专门的工具。当然个人电脑就是这工具，每当你想利用全屏幕处理文件或上网或制订计划，你就可以用到它。现在这些工具有时候会组合使用，我们有许多制造这些工具的合作伙伴，从而使得每种可能的组合都得到过尝试。你想想，把电话和照相机组合起来，把手表和照相机组合起来，完全按照市场的要求来确定如何包装这些东西。但毫无疑义的是，照片会数码化，电影会数码化，音乐会数码化，于是用户能比无数码时代要更好得多地去共享并丰富这些资源。CE

1) empower [im5pauEr] v. 准许；使能够

2) revenue [5revEnju:] n. 收入，税收

3) uniform [5ju:nifC:m] a. 统一的

4) platform [5plAtfC:m] n. 平台

5) comparison [kEm5pArisEn] n. 比喻

6) overwhelmingly [ EuvE5hwelmiNli] adv. 不可抵挡地

7) in terms of 根据，按照

8) overall [EuvEr5C:l]a.全面的

9) data [5deitE] n. 数据

10)  radical [5rAdikl] a.激进的

11)  digital [5didVitl] a. 数码

12)  device [ di5vais]n. 设备

13)  wristwatch [5ristwCtF]n. 手表

14)  dramatically [drE5mAtikli]adv. 戏剧地