Bill Gates admits Control-Alt-Delete was a mistake, blames IBM

[kpete]

Bill Gates admits Control-Alt-Delete was a mistake, blames IBM



"It was a mistake," Gates admits to an audience left laughing at his honesty. "We could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't wanna give us our single button." David Bradley, an engineer who worked on the original IBM PC, invented the combination which was originally designed to reboot a PC. "I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous," Bradley said in an interview previously, leaving Bill Gates looking rather awkward. To this day the combination still exists in Windows 8, allowing users to lock a machine or access the task manager. While Windows 8 defaults to a new login screen, it's still possible to use the traditional Control-Alt-Delete requirement and a number of businesses running on Windows XP and Windows 7 will still use it every day.


http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/26/4772680/bill-gates-admits-ctrl-alt-del-was-a-mistake?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WinRumors+%28WinRumors%29

[enlightenment]

1. I would rather

have to press a combination of buttons to reboot than risk a single button. Too easy to do the latter by mistake.

[Dash87]

2. Agreed, especially when gaming.

If I'm in the heat of battle in a MMORPG, I would go into rage mode if I hit a key by accident and went to the task manager, rendering me defenseless.

The three key idea has worked out well. It's easy to use, but not easy to accidentally use.

[JHB]

13. or cats demanding attention

Not immune, given the way they spread out, but a better defense than a single reboot button.

[BootinUp]

3. Are they talking about the Three Finger Salute? lol.

[MineralMan]

4. I disagree. It works, and it's hard to use accidentally.

I've been using it to fire up the Task Manager for a long time. Not any more. I start task manager at boot-up now.

[hootinholler]

10. Christ, just right click the task bar.

It's right there and you don't spend any cycles on the task mangler.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Agree with folks here; a single button would be pretty risky

for the occasionally clumsy and/or inattentive, which I think means most people.

[randome]

7. Place the button on the side of the keyboard and maybe that problem would be solved?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[BeyondGeography]

9. For me, it would have to be on the side of the laptop

The back side.

[randome]

11. Maybe a recessed button on the side of the laptop, then.

Of course no one was thinking in those terms back in DOS days.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[hootinholler]

12. But it would be a definitive answer to

"Where is the any key?"

[bemildred]

6. Gates' expertise is marketing. nt

[Roland99]

8. A single button would have been risky in the days of DOS...

Ctrl-Alt-Del back then was an immediate soft boot.

In Windows, all it does now is bring up a menu screen with options to log off, lock the computer, task manager, etc.

[sibelian]

14. I think the three fingered salute's a great idea

for the same reason as listed above.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. Hey Bill! Don't you think the real mistake was in stealing good software and then

fucking it up so badly that having to use ctrl-alt-del several times a day?

What an asshole!

"The rich are different than you and me, they have a lot more money" - Hemingway