Bill Gates: Open Mouth, Insert Foot, Cue Hackers

I about fell off my chair last Friday when I read Bill Gates' comments in a recent Newsweek interview:

Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.

What Gates was referring to, I believe, is the recently-concluded MOAB (Month of Apple Bugs), a project co-spearheaded by one of the researchers who claimed to have uncovered a vulnerability in Apple's Wi-Fi driver stack last fall. Granted, I've never been one of the Apple faithful who (naïvely, IMHO) believe that OS X (or any operating system and application suite combination, for that matter, PC or embedded) is inherently spyware- and virus-immune. And in that light, while the criticism of Gates' comments delivered by Mac addicts like John Gruber and the Joy of Tech may have some entertainment value, I urge you to consider the sources when assessing their extent of their validity.

But c'mon, Gates….geez! Nothing like pouring gasoline on a fire! Years from now, when we look back on the string of XP-reminiscent patches and service packs that Vista has endured, "I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine" may be justifiably criticized on par with such notable mis-steps as "Bring 'em on" and "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Ahem.