> It's similar to the gates quote about RAM (I think it was 64KB?)
reply640, and Bill Gates said he either never said that, or at least never remembered having said it. I think there is no evidence anywhere that he did.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/1563853/the-640k-quote...
That exact quote? No, never.
He said something like: current computers at the time had 64kb of RAM, so the OS was designed with a limit of 640kb, and he believed this would give them 10 years of future proofing. As it happened, that limit was reached much faster, in about 6 years.
replyOr maybe he simply made a mistake. Big deal. This doesn't speak negatively of his other achievements.
replyHe had a long career and presumably many successes, and is fallible like the rest of us. But a half-remembered zinger with no context makes for zippier posts I guess.
replyThe early popularity of Minitel, the continued popularity of ssh/tmux, and the web browser itself indicates that bespoke client applications are not the only way. He wasn’t directionally wrong.