Bill Gates' Vision for Vista

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As far as I can see into the future, there will be a need every three years or so to take the world's most used, most important piece of software and take it to a new level, because that's what lets the hardware partners and the application partners—where we have 10 times as many applications in Windows as anywhere else—that lets them build on top of what we've done. So they don't have to duplicate the advanced capabilities. They can just focus on their unique thing.

You have been involved in many, many major product launches at Microsoft, but this might be one of the last major Microsoft product launches for you, before you go off and focus on philanthropy. Do you have any reflections on that?

Well, I don't think I'll get reflective until I'm very close to transition. That's almost 18 months away. I will get a chance to shape the key decisions for the next version of Windows and Office, and that's going to be a lot of fun. So you're right, this is the last major launch that I'll have this kind of central role in, but there's still plenty of time to do some neat things.

Are you going to miss this?

Sure, a day like today is a lot of fun. Hopefully, I'll have a day in the future where I'm launching a malaria vaccine, and that will be fun. When I go part-time, Steve Ballmer will pick a few projects for me—maybe something to do with search or Tablet PC. We have more than a year to decide that. So there are some launches that might be appropriate to roll out the old guy and have him say a few sage things.

I want to change the subject and ask you how do we get computing capabilities and powers to the next billion people in the world? What are your latest thoughts about that?

There is some great progress on this. Microsoft actually worked with the [Bill and Melinda Gates] foundation to get Internet-connected Windows PCs in all the libraries in the country. That was such a success that we went down and did that in Chile. We're about halfway through doing that in Mexico. It's gone very well. There are some new countries—Latvia, Estonia, Botswana—where they're putting the computers in. So that means that any kid who can reach the library is equal to any other kid. Even adults come in and use the PCs to do job searches and things like that. This whole phenomenon of the computer in a library is an amazing thing.

Our India group invented this idea of a PC having multiple mice on the same PC, so kids can collaborate together. It's called multipoint. We're figuring out how the cell phone, which is cheap and pervasive, could light up your TV set. You'd use the processor in the phone and have a cheap keyboard. That's called Phone Plus. It's in an incubation stage.

You always have to be realistic about these things, though, in that in a lot of developing countries you're not going to have the electricity, you're not going to have the teacher training, and the devices can be stolen. Unless you get the teachers and the curriculum involved, and figure out the network connectivity, it won't all come together. The network connectivity is way more expensive than the hardware. So it's great for people to try out different things in this area.

What do you think of the [Linux-based] $100 laptop proposed by the One Laptop Per Child organization?

Well, cheaper is always better. So we should have a zero-dollar laptop. The hardware is not the hard part, though. I wish it was, because then you've got Moore's Law, you just keep getting more computing power for less money, and time is on our side. The key thing is the educational system, how you draw on the teachers, how you get the network there. And there are a lot of costs in computers, printers, and electricity. They break. They get stolen. And so we've got to make sure we don't force governments to buy a whole bunch at once. We let them try out what works for them, and shape what works for them.

So you don't think that the $100 computer will go into mass distribution?

I think there will be PCs at every price point. I don't think there's one magic design.