Hundreds of millions of people around the world, including virtually everyone who has ever used a Windows device, have had to memorise the key command "control-alt-delete". In retrospect, that was probably unnecessary, Microsoft co-founded Bill Gates revealed in a talk at Harvard last week.
The crowd laughed as Gates shifted his weight and scratched his ear sheepishly. His response began with some hemming and hawing, but he eventually wound his way to a straight answer.
"Basically, because when you turn your computer on, you're going to see some screens and eventually type your password in, you want to have something you do with the keyboard that is signalling to a very low level of the software – actually, hard-coded in the hardware – that it really is bringing in the operating system you expect," said Gates.
"So we could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button. And so we had, we programmed at a low level that you had to – it was a mistake."
The guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button. There, in a nutshell, is one big trade-off Microsoft made by partnering with third-party hardware firms rather than building its own computers, as Apple did. The strategy paid off handsomely, as Microsoft's operating systems became the global standard. But it wasn't without its downsides. Can you imagine Steve Jobs requiring users to perform such a wonky key command before they could begin to use an Apple device?
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I have no problem with the ctrl alt del, but maybe that's because I've been using it for so long. Anyone?
