All Apple Products Forbidden in Bill Gates' Family

By Marcus Yam
published

All Apples are bad Apples, according to the Gates family.

Even though Bill Gates is no longer the CEO of Microsoft, he and his family are still attached to the legacy of products that he helped bring to the market are the company that he founded.

One of Bill's new focuses is with his wife in work on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The New York Times had a chance to briefly talk with Melinda Gates, and one of the topics she was asked about was whether or not Apple products exist inside the Gates' household. In a word, the answer is a stern "No." Here's the entire exchange:

Do you own an iPod, which is made by Apple? No, I have a Zune. What if one of your children says, “Mom, I have to have an iPod?” I have gotten that argument — “You may have a Zune.” Do you have an iPad? Of course not. Is it true that Bill works on an Apple laptop? False. Nothing crosses the threshold of our doorstep. Isn’t there room in this world for both Apple and Microsoft? Microsoft certainly makes products for the Macintosh. Go talk to Bill.

We don't expect there to be any Windows PC products inside Steve Jobs' home, so this isn't all that surprising.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
82 Comments Comment from the forums
  • adamboy64
    That makes him a good father.
    Reply
  • ira176
    I think I heard or read something about this in the Gates' family before. I guess until the kid can afford what he really wants he might be stuck with the Zune. I do think that it is a bit rigid to keep all competing products out of the house though.
    Reply
  • victorintelr
    Forget about losing some millions in the stock market,his worst nightmare would be probably relative as an Apple servant in his house.
    Reply
  • calmstateofmind
    "We don't expect there to be any Windows PC
    products inside Steve Jobs' home, so this isn't all that surprising."

    Then why is this news?
    Reply
  • theshonen8899
    calmstateofmind"We don't expect there to be any Windows PCproducts inside Steve Jobs' home, so this isn't all that surprising."Then why is this news?
    Agreed. What was the point of this article?
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    this is hella old
    Reply
  • makwy2
    Surprising. Not.

    Also, why is the NYT interviewing Melinda Gates about Apple products? They ought to be focusing on all the work the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation does to help solve common problems plaguing humanity, like Malaria and Diabetes. Instead of focusing on the inane we ought to be talking about the extraordinary!
    Reply
  • micr0be
    as much as i love bashing apple, i agree that the article has no purpose other than to create a fanboy war.

    kind of disappointing.
    Reply
  • bachok83
    Using competitor's products is very risky. You might like some features and before you know it, you would put similar feature in your products (consciously or subconsciously).

    In summary, lawsuit.
    Reply
  • liveonc
    An Apple a day keeps the Windows away. Sad, but half true. It's not even about pride, it's a matter of survival. Jobs does it too, he just doesn't admit that selling an iPhone that loses it's signal & has many design flaws meant he didn't use it himself.
    Reply