Bill Gates Says Ctrl+Alt+Delete is IBM's Fault

[QEFX]

1 finger US salute
2 fingers UK salute
3 fingers MS salute

How weird the world would seem if it wasn't for the 3 finger salute.

 

[ibemerson]

Back in the mid 80's My first computer was an Atari 800XL which did have a reset button on the left side of the keyboard. I accidently hit that button a over a dozen times before I finally taped some sheet metal over it. Worst design flaw ever.

 

[eodeo]

I prefer multiple separate key strokes. It does the job and is very unlikely to be activated by accident.

 

[waaaybetter]

CTRL-ALT-DEL for PC's is waaay better than the rediculous CTRL-ALT/COMMAND-OPEN_APPLE-ALT//whatever-the-hell black magic combination that my Apple computers have used. Even today on my macbook I rarely get the combo right the first time.

 

[billgatez]

" GoldenI Who is responsible for making Alt + F4 enlarge your screen?"
I dough anyone on a tech forum is going to fall for this. Because every one knows it F + 13.

 

[mageworld]

What he really said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2GgM4AoRW8

 

[The_Trutherizer]

One button? One button that can be pressed by accident? Eeek!!!

 

[axefire0]

For me Ctrl-Alt-Del and BSOD are regular partners.

 

[cats_Paw]

Having that on one button would be like the windows start button (removed by default by gamers).
I hate it when i accidentaly press the windows key in a PC that aint mine, my keyboards have it blocked by default.

 

[CommentariesAnd More]

In the other new - Tim Cook says Bill Gates was a fault.

 

[master9716]

I like ctrl atl delete - it prevents ppl that dont know about to computers from going in there.

 

[CommentariesAnd More]

If he ever wanted that , why didn't he do it on MS's ow keyboard's atleast ?
Just like the way you can put multimedia key , they could have putted a customisable key for the Ctrl+Alt+Delete combo , even though it was dumb for us , it would have satisfied him atleast.

 

[Vredes Byrd]

I'm in full agreement with a 3-key sequence for task manager. A single button to open a monitoring process that is sort of a memory hog and will absolutely supersede any other application is best left to combinations to prevent accidental launching. As a gamer, especially. I'm sure we've all had our share of 'Windows Key' incidents. I can only imagine they would have ended up placing it close to the home keys or space bar, thus adding another 'oh s***' button.

 

[Kevin Morrison]

WOW, I always though Bill got everything his way? Just ask Gary Kildall...

 

[noob4ever]

i often use ctr+alt+del to open task manager that was in win98. in winxp i used ctr+shit+esc. its much easier to do in single hand.

 

[noob4ever]

i often use ctr+alt+del to open task manager that was in win98. in winxp and later ver of windows i used ctr+shit+esc. its much easier to do in single hand.

 

[noob4ever]

i often use ctr+alt+del to open task manager that was in win98. in winxp and later ver of windows i used ctr+shit+esc. its much easier to do in single hand.

 

[abeerhazra]

Ctrl+Alt+Del = the key should be "ADL" or "CAD"
ADL=Arithmetic Digital Layout respond to all booting process may in pre or post booting function,
CAD= Computing Array Digit function to collaborate the same key function to Ctrl+Alt+Del (CAD).
Abeer Hazra..ITE

 

[shamino]

Ironically, Apple had a single button reset (labeled RESET) on the Apple II. People pressed it by mistake often enough that users often did things like remove the key-cap to prevent accidental presses. Later on, Apple put a heavier spring under the key to force you to press hard. On the IIe and //c, they forced you to type Ctrl-Reset, in order to eliminate the problem. (And to reboot, it was a 3-key sequence - OpenApple-Ctrl-Reset).

Interestingly, many versions of Mac OS supported CMD-CTRL-Power as a quick-reboot sequence as well.

In the Sun workstation world, the critical keystroke (to pull up the system-monitor shell) was not just the "stop" key, but was STOP-A - another 2-key sequence.

Gates may have wanted a single-key reset button, but other manufacturers all learned that this was a bad idea and migrated to 2- and 3-key sequences.

Ironically, Microsoft chose to stick with Ctrl-Alt-Del on Windows XP and later, to bring up the emergency features (logout, kill processes, change password, etc.) even though at that point in time, there was actually a key dedicated to that purpose - Alt-SysRq. A key which almost nobody used for anything (and has been removed from many modern keyboards.)

 

[me2olive]

Kind of a strange article, seemingly trying to reinforce the mistaken belief that Gates invented the PC. Ctrl+Alt+Del has always worked regardless of any OS installed to reboot a machine, it has nothing specifically to do with DOS or Microsoft other than the fact that versions of Windows also use that key binding.

As for the "single button" solution, I also find that a strange comment. Why would Gates have felt he could have gone to IBM and said "Oh by the way, please can you add another key, we want to bind it to something special", his initial involvement was just to supply DOS (and BASIC) nothing more. The SysRq button existed, if he'd asked for a special OS key they'd have most likely told him to use that.

 

[shamino]

The SysRq button existed, if he'd asked for a special OS key they'd have most likely told him to use that.

Not quite. SysRq was added on the PC/AT. The original PC keyboard didn't have it.

 

[me2olive]

Not quite. SysRq was added on the PC/AT. The original PC keyboard didn't have it.

True, I'd forgotten the old XT keyboard. That actually makes Gates' comment even stranger. They added a key that was arguably just what he claims he wanted, yet M$ never used it as a Ctrl+Alt+Del substitute.

 

[Spearmint2]

Oh yeah, my cats would just LOVE to have a single button to walk on and crap my computer when I'm up and away from it. I come back to screen captures, computer in sleep mode, not to mention added characters. Started opening a Notepad full page when I leave it unattended now. I've already had to pull the POWER button off my keyboard! Not a single cat has figured out how to do CTRL-ALT-DEL, yet. Thank you IBM!!!

 

[kaller]

There were already Unix systems that ran for years and could be updated on the fly without rebooting the kernel. The need to reboot the computer at all was Bill's mistake and IBM;s too. They are all guilty. IBM are just as guilty because they locked the PC to BIOS ROM instead of RAM (CP/M had software BIOS) to lock in the consumer to hardware upgrade cycles. Bill was not interested in changing DOS either because he wanted to lock in his DOS applications market. Besides microsoft had no idea how to develop DOS, witness the belated shambles of DOS 4. And let's not forget that IBM chose the segmented memory 8086 chip in the first place which made memory growth unmanageble, and the lack of talent at microsoft that had no idea how to write a memory manager to keep viruses out, until intel eventually produced the 80286 protected mode chip that opened the way for OS/2 which microsoft purloined to become windows, re-boots and all. There is mud everywhere.

 

[Paulustrious]

AFAIR this dates back to DOS 1.0 which was essentially non-multitasking. So if something was in a loop you were stuck. The IBM keyboard was hard wired so that CAD sent an non-maskable interrupt (on line 7 was it?). When MS developed windows they used the existing facility. Granted a single key could have done this, but the facility was useful primarily for software developers since you could zap the interrupt address to point to your own 'debug' code.