Filed under: OS, Software, Blogs
Wil Shipley offers $10,000 bet to Gates that Vista doesn't ship by January

Bill Gates recently stated that he felt Vista had an 80% chance of shipping in January. He even said he'd be glad to delay it if beta testers say so. Apparently, this latest talk of Vista getting kicked back yet again was the last straw on Wil Shipley's back, as he has offered a $10,000 bet to Bill Gates that Vista doesn't ship by January. As you can see from his post, Wil doesn't have a very large spot in his heart for Microsoft, and - discussion of whether Bill will even see this, let alone respond, aside - I think it's a riot that someone has called out the world's largest (and, unofficially: most tardy to the party) software pimp on the planet like this.
By Gates' claim of 80%, Wil has 4 to 1 odds. Anyone feel like starting up a GuessVistasReleaseDate.com? Oh wait, Microsoft already did that.
[via Daring Fireball]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
doug said 11:09AM on 7-14-2006
Gates is over in Africa with Bill Clinton. I don't think he really cares at this point whether Vista ships or not...maybe he should make the bet with Ballmer...
I don't know when Vista will be released, but I can bet on one thing....it will be a total retread of Mac OS X. That seems to be a pretty safe bet...
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kevin said 11:17AM on 7-14-2006
windows 10.4
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doc said 11:31AM on 7-14-2006
Oh, my mistake I must have typed in TUVW by mistake...Nope, that's not it. Come on now, is there really that little to report?
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Mitchell said 11:48AM on 7-14-2006
Well, Someone is going to be $10,000 richer, that's for sure! ;)
More than likely, shipley.
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Tristan O'Tierney said 12:14PM on 7-14-2006
Just FYI it's WIL Shipley :)
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Grumpy about the love-fest said 12:18PM on 7-14-2006
The so-called bet is just to grab attention from an ever more parochial Mac fan club. Shipley is guerilla marketing Delicious Library (read the blog) and loves himself because he won a design award. Great. Except that every year people win design awards. You don't see the other winners keep on going about it, do you? Have you read his profile on Apple's WWDC marketing? Do you really believe he spends all day every day programming in a coffee-shop? It's all marketing and Mac geeks lap up the image of an uber-cool programmer, sitting in a coffee-shop, making cash, and driving a nice car. Who hasn't heard about his 250k in first month of sales. Great. Congratulations. It might be true, but then again it might not be because how many other companies reveal their confidential sales figures? Talk is cheap, just like this bet. This is not news people, move along!
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nate said 12:22PM on 7-14-2006
not a beta tester but i have it, dear bill: delay it
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spil said 12:42PM on 7-14-2006
That's hularioius that Microsoft is actually having a contest to guess when it will come out. I bet they are only doing it to see when to release it: they get the guess most in the future, and add one year to that, and that is when they will release it.
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Colin P said 12:42PM on 7-14-2006
Reminds me of 'Rushmore'..
"I WROTE A HIT PLAY!"
Or, in this case, "I'VE GOT A HANDFUL OF DESIGN AWARDS!"
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b said 12:44PM on 7-14-2006
i wish someone would put a sock in Wil Shipley's mouth. he comes across as an arrogant brat most of the time i read his writing.
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Don Wilson said 4:53PM on 7-14-2006
Wow, what a jerkoff. "I've got a fistful (sic) of design awards." Congrats. You did all of this as a ploy to make money by selling your crappy Delicious Library? What a joke.
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Alex Hillman said 6:09PM on 7-14-2006
don't you all get it? this is what we like to call a publicity stunt. and its working brilliantly. it doesnt matter if you think wil's attitude is brazen (i think it is). It doesnt matter if you like or dislike microsoft. What this writing does successfully is gets everyone to a)know his name and b)associate it with his product. There's no such thing as bad publicity...I bet he makes plenty of sales from all of the frenzy he's generating.
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Solipsism said 7:53PM on 7-14-2006
Firstly, why is this on TAUW?
Secondly, why would Gate even consider a $10,000 bet. That is like me betting someone for 1,000,000,000th a penny (yeah, I'm that poor)?
Thirdly, Doesn't anyone else see the Vista delay as a good thing? MS is actually "attempting" to get a decent initial build. Plus, Vista's delay allows more refinements to be made to OS X 10.5 Leopard.
Fourthly, Do not talk about Fight Club!
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Mac Lover said 10:17AM on 7-15-2006
$10,000? That's probably not even close to what Bill Gates makes in a nanosecond. That Schipley's such a douchebag.
LOL @ fight club. Hehehe :)
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Jason said 10:31PM on 7-15-2006
Hey, Wil, is Delicious Library 2.0 going to ship by January?
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tape said 3:37PM on 8-30-2006
actually, the Wil's odds would be 1-4, not 4-1.
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