Gates emphasizes XML, introduces new Net appliance
LAS VEGAS (IDG) -- Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates again kicked off Fall Comdex with the opening keynote speech, this year trumpeting the reliability and scalability offered by the forthcoming Windows 2000 operating system, and emphasizing the role that XML (extensible markup language) will play on the Web and in electronic commerce.
But Gates began his speech with a reference to something no doubt on the mind of many in the audience: the recent ruling in the U.S. government's antitrust case that Microsoft is a monopolist.
"Anyone here hear any good lawyer jokes lately?" Gates quipped. All over the U.S., he said, entrepreneurs are working at innovation in their garages, while in their 20th floor offices lawyers are working equally hard. Both groups are working hard to do what they do best, he added, to laughter from an appreciative audience of approximately 6,000.
VIDEO CNN's Rick Lockridge reports on Bill Gates' speech at Comdex Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K ALSO Comdex: S3 to demo new Rio MP3 player Comdex: Net PCs, appliances take center stage Comdex: Speech technology to talk IT up MESSAGE BOARD Microsoft Windows 2000 One attendee, the film maker George Lucas, here to join Sony President and co-CEO Nobuyuki Idei at a keynote speech tomorrow, laughed and shrugged when asked what he thought about Gates' lawyer joke. "That's how business is done here in the United States," he said. "It's business as usual -- you sue someone, then you negotiate."
