back to article Twenty years ago today: Windows 98 crashed live on stage with Bill Gates. Let's watch it again...

Let us pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that 20 years have passed since Windows 98 memorably fell over during Bill Gates' presentation at Comdex. A nervous-looking Chris Capossela, now chief marketing officer at Microsoft, attempted to plug a scanner into a Windows 98 PC while Gates looked on. The intent was to …

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  1. arctic_haze

    It's always great entertainment

    Especially as it happened more than one time to Microsoft.

    Just Google up "Microsoft on stage fail". You may even Bing it but I'm not sure of the results.

    1. Nolveys
      Gimp

      Re: It's always great entertainment

      Just Google up "Microsoft on stage fail".

      Guests in the first 8 rows will get wet also the splash zone is up to 12 rows.

      WOOOOOOOOO!!!!

      DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS!!!

      WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

      1. Korev Silver badge
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: It's always great entertainment

          I prefer the remix myself.

          https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d_AP3SGMxxM

    2. Faceless Man

      Re: It's always great entertainment

      Used to be it wasn't a real Microsoft event until Windows crashed. People used to run a pool on what minute of the presentation it would happen in.

  2. adnim

    "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

    Either quick thinking or a case of anticipated.

    Whatever the case good response.

    1. asdf

      Re: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

      He knew his baby back then. Can't watch video at work but have a feeling he drew in some breath as that was being done lol.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

      "Either quick thinking or a case of anticipated.

      Whatever the case good response."

      Agreed. Love him or hate him, he did handle that rather well. I can imaging a lot of other CEO types who would handled that rather...rather...differently :-)

      1. Ian Johnston Silver badge

        Re: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

        Can you imagine how Elon Musk would have handled it? Screaming tantrum, wild accusations of big oil shills, the poor bugger doing the demonstration sacked before he left the stage and then a blank denial that any of it ever happened.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Happy

          Re: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

          s/Elon Musk/Tim Cook/

          1. rajivdx

            Re: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

            You mean:

            s/Elon Musk/Steve Jobs/

            I wonder how many people would have got fired then and then the audience told the BSOD was a feature and that they were plugging in the scanner wrong...

        2. mrjohn

          Re: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

          Or by pointing out that in the infinite possibilities of the universe, somewhere Tesla turns a profit

  3. BRYN

    Still funny, even after all these years

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      " Still funny, even after all these years"

      And still happening, after all these years.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

        I thought it happened at the 1997 PDC, but apparently I was mistaken.

        'Developers Developers Developers Developers' was in 1993, as i recall [though Ballmer may have done it more than once].

        And I _MUCH_ prefer Win '98 to Win-10-nic, in AS MANY WAYS AS ARE POSSIBLE!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

        Only it isn't happening all these years after really, is it?

        Unless you use cheap ho-flung-dung hardware then windows 7 is generally rock solid.

        I think I can count the number of bsod ive seen in the last 6 years on one hand.

        1. TonyJ

          Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

          @cornz 1 you beat me to it.

          The last time I saw a machine bsod due to hardware was a win7 machine I forced to use a winxp driver and I knew the chances were high it'd cause problems.

          In fact I can count on one hand the number of times i saw an XP machine bsod

          1. teknopaul

            Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

            I must have been unlucky.

          2. teknopaul

            Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

            What do they call the blue screen of cantshutdowndespitegettingonaplane.

            I get that pretty much every flight.

            I think I prefered bsod.

          3. Sgt_Oddball
            Flame

            Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

            I still see them from time to time but usual it's a warm day and I've been hammering the machine for a few hours. 5ghz vs the stock 3.1ghz will do that occasionally ..

            (Fire because the psu went that way once..)

        2. rajivdx

          Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

          Mine only BSOD'd when I used the dodgy fake-FTDI peripherals and the FTDI driver would deliberately BSOD when it detected a counterfeit peripheral...

        3. phuzz Silver badge

          Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

          I managed to BSoD Win10, but that was a bad stick of RAM. Not cheap stuff either, but it managed to reduce Mint to a screen full of random colours when I tried that, which I guess leaves Windows slightly ahead, because at least it gave me a readable error message.

        4. Shufflemoomin

          Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

          "cheap ho-flung-dung hardware" Really? Are you that immature and ignorant?

        5. Him_Over_There

          Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

          Utter bollocks! I have a Dell XPS 13 (i7, 16gb RAM, with Windows 10 etc etc)... Had several BSODs.

          Luckily I have another machine running Linux Mint... which never fails.

          1. TonyJ

            Re: " Still funny, even after all these years"

            "...Utter bollocks! I have a Dell XPS 13 (i7, 16gb RAM, with Windows 10 etc etc)... Had several BSODs..."

            Sample size of one. What, exactly, have you done to diagnose the issue on your Dell? Ever stopped to consider it could be hardware related? Or even Dell-created? Tried blowing it away and putting a vanilla copy on?

            Or was it a corporate image? I've never seen them be problematic...

            "...Luckily I have another machine running Linux Mint... which never fails..."

            I had a Mint Cinammon VM that would freeze almost without exception. It was being run on VirtualBox and was a know, but to the best of my knowledge never fixed, issue.

            Sample size of <some> as it was on the various forums.

            Wait one moment whilst I rant about how crap it was...oh hang on.... one use case was problematic and using an alternative OS fixed it.

  4. J. R. Hartley

    Bill Gates

    Bill actually handled that very well. Imagine what Steve Jobs would have done to that guy.

    Always remember, as a famous Commodore engineer once said: "There's nothing nasty about Bill Gates, and nothing nice about Steve Jobs".

    1. Hans 1
      Facepalm

      Re: Bill Gates

      I think your famous Commodore engineer should talk to Paul Allen, for example ... yes, Gates' high school buddy with whom he founded Microsoft! For those who do not know, one of the two was undergoing cancer treatment while the other tried the dilute his buddy's shares.

      Besides, when Commodre was still in business, Gates was the most hated professional ... Gates later made ONE promise and has since become a philantropist-hero-angel-demi-dog, all previous lies, betrayals, bullying, extortion ... all forgotten, all thanks to one promise ... I judge people on what they do, NOT what they say ... and I ignore what serial liars say, regardless of what they have done, good or bad.

      PS: I want a reliable source for your quote or I call bullshit. I cannot see how a "famous" (whatever that means in this context) Commode engineer could have any form of affection for Gates.

      PPS: Regarding Steve, I do not think it is right to make up something like that considering he is dead!

      1. Arty Effem

        Re: Bill Gates

        'I cannot see how a "famous" (whatever that means in this context) Commode engineer could have any form of affection for Gates.'

        Perhaps he used Windows Paint to design his portable toilets...

      2. J. R. Hartley

        Re: Bill Gates

        The famous Commodore engineer is Chuck Peddle.

        'You might have heard of him.'

      3. David Webb

        Re: Bill Gates

        PPS: Regarding Steve, I do not think it is right to make up something like that considering he is dead!

        Actually when someone is dead is the best time, you can say whatever you want with no libel ;)

        1. JWLong

          Re: Bill Gates

          "Actually when someone is dead is the best time,

          you can say whatever you want with no libel ;)"

          Libel is printed, Slander is spoken.

          1. Bob Magoo

            Re: Bill Gates

            "Libel is printed, Slander is spoken."

            You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel.

          2. bombastic bob Silver badge
            Devil

            Re: Bill Gates

            Libel is printed, Slander is spoken, but it's only libel or slander if it's NOT TRUE.

            So, as long as you can PROVE what you say or write is true, no problem!

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Bill Gates

              "Libel is printed, Slander is spoken, but it's only libel or slander if it's NOT TRUE."

              Perhaps in your jurisdiction but not in England and Wales. The old saying was "The greater the truth, the greater the libel."

              As an example, suppose you ran a car dealership in a town full of fundie Christians and I printed in the local paper that every Friday night you used to whip Mrs. Bob with a riding crop and then pleasure her with a gigantic vibrator. Regardless of truth, it would be libel because your business would be harmed but your kink would have no relation to the business of selling cars. Unless you were also the local preacher and telling your congregation that anything other than straight sex through a hole in a blanket would send them straight to Hell, when a public interest defence would apply.

              In effect, you have no right in the UK to reveal damaging information about people that has no implications for their interactions with others. And that is surely as it should be.

              1. Peter2 Silver badge

                Re: Bill Gates

                Perhaps in your jurisdiction but not in England and Wales.

                Where did you source your facts from, wikipedia? Let's read the primary legislation, shall we?

                http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/crossheading/defences/enacted

                Defences

                2 Truth

                (1)It is a defence to an action for defamation for the defendant to show that the imputation conveyed by the statement complained of is substantially true.

                And therefore, should you make a substantially true statement you cannot be found guilty of libel or slander.

      4. jockmcthingiemibobb

        Re: Bill Gates

        by that logic, we could only say good things about Adolf Hitler.

        1. ridley

          Re: Bill Gates

          Wow that was quick.

        2. bombastic bob Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: Bill Gates

          "by that logic, we could only say good things about Adolf Hitler."

          no, because THAT would be LYING.

      5. steviebuk Silver badge

        Re: Bill Gates

        Read Steve's official autobiography. It clearly states in there that he was an arsehole. Even his wife didn't want them to hide that fact.

        1. ridley

          Re: Bill Gates

          Confused, was it an autobiography or not?

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Bill Gates

            "Confused, was it an autobiography or not?"

            These days it seems you don't have to write your own autobiography.

            1. Sanguma

              Re: Bill Gates

              "These days it seems you don't have to write your own autobiography."

              Nothing wrong with a posthumous unauthorized autobiography. That's what ghostwriters are for, particularly the posthumous part. Getting the ghost to unauthorize the autobiography can be a little tricky, though, I understand ...

            2. doublelayer Silver badge

              Re: Bill Gates

              To clarify on the autobiography comments, the book was not an autobiography--it was a standard biography, not written by a ghost writer helping Jobs, but by a writer who wrote about him. The writer in question is Walter Isaacson. He got approval to interview people, including long interviews with Jobs and his family, as well as many people who worked with, lived with, knew in some capacity, or talked about Jobs at some point. The number of times the word "jerk" and less complementary synonyms appeared should at least assuage the comments that the book will tell only the story from Jobs's perspective.

      6. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Bill Gates

        Regarding Steve, I do not think it is right to make up something like that considering he is dead!

        forget the comment was St Jobbs for a moment, but Just because someone is dead does not excuse or alter someone's opinion of them.

        People often recite terrible things about for example Margaret Thatcher. They call her a milk thief for taking the milk from kids in schools. She killed a bunch of Argentinians in a boat heading away from an exclusion zone. She Killed off British coal mining.... Where what she did was take the milk from schools and give it it to the kids in the way of milk tokens that parents could buy milk with (or booze in the pub as I know many of them took milk tokens). The Belgrano was in a direction heading out of the exclusion zone, but with a quick change of direction that could have took but a few minutes, put a significant number of ships in the task force in danger. And she stood her ground to a dictator who called the miners out on strike for a year without a ballot...

        And dont forget, she worked on the team that invented mr whippy icecream....

        Do a little more reading about St Jobbs and you find he really was not a very nice person at all. he was a very driven person getting what he wanted and spitting his dummy if he didnt get his own way..

      7. rajivdx

        Re: Bill Gates

        Interesting story and I'm not surprised - Bill Gates was ruthless in business. But he wouldn't fire anyone for something that wasn't totally in their control - Jobs would.

        About the pledge - I think he will be remembered for his philanthropy a lot longer than his role at Microsoft, even Jobs will be forgotten by then. Its no use hoarding your money if nobody else benefits from it - once you go past a billion it makes absolutely no difference, all those extra billions are just wealth you are keeping from everyone else. Get the hint Mr Bezos?

        1. defiler

          Re: Bill Gates

          Its no use hoarding your money if nobody else benefits from it - once you go past a billion it makes absolutely no difference

          Or as Andrew Carnegie put it, "A man who dies rich dies in disgrace."

          Sadly some people seem to think that looking at a big number is the thing that will satisfy them. I know some of these people.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Terminator

      Re: Bill Gates

      Plug-and-play was always a hack, it dynamically bumped a device up and reallocated the old interrupt number to the new device. Unfortunately if the old device was doing something vital the machine went blue-screen. The solution being to manually set the devices to the highest interrupt, that way they won't be changed when a new device is plugged in.

      @J. R. Hartley: 'as a famous Commodore engineer once said: "There's nothing nasty about Bill Gates, and nothing nice about Steve Jobs"'

      A better metric would be to count how many times Steve Jobs has been in court as compared to Bill Gates. Gates faux geek persona was what let him for years, get away with murder.

      Microsoft Litigation Resource Page

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Bill Gates

        "A better metric would be to count how many times Steve Jobs has been in court as compared to Bill Gates. Gates faux geek persona was what let him for years, get away with murder."

        Not wishing to take sides between either of them but the second item on that page is Apple suing Microsoft.

    3. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Bill Gates

      > Imagine what Steve Jobs would have done to that guy.

      The announcement of the first iPhone was said be a scary time for some engineers - it was touch and go that it would make it through the presentation without crashing.

      Still, I seem to remember a technical issue during a Jobs keynote that he handled well - I can't imagine him not having practiced such a response.

      1. steviebuk Silver badge

        Re: Bill Gates

        I could be remembering wrong but I think its in his autobiography or written somewhere else I saw recently where they admitted the iPhone didn't actually work and it was all just animated. Steve had to get the timings correct so no one would notice.

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