14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Office Steve Ballmer have taken the stage for the commercial launch of Windows Vista. Microsoft has made available an on-demand Webcast of the Vista celebration.
Bill Gates kicked off the event. "Well, it all started 24 years ago here in New York City. In 1983, Microsoft committed the company to graphical user interface. And there we were, the machines could barely keep up displaying the text, Windows could barely fit in memory. It took us two more years to get it all put together. And even explaining why we believed in graphical interface was very tough," were the first phrases he uttered.
Gates then went on to discuss the events synonymous with the combined launch of Windows 95 and Office 95 and the evolution of the industry that culminated with Windows Vista and the 2007 office System. "So, it's been 12 years since we've brought Windows and Office together, done a release where we're just showing off the platform with Office innovation, a breakthrough there, and the breakthrough in Windows coming out together," Gates added.
Mike Sievert, Microsoft corporate vice president gave a detailed presentation of the Redmond Company's flagship products and then Steve Ballmer took the stage.
"It's an honor and privilege to have a chance to be here today with you all for what is not only the biggest launch in software history, it's also the broadest release we've ever done. I hope you liked a little bit of the TV footage that we just had a chance to show you. We're certainly incredibly, incredibly excited about the products, we're incredibly excited about what I think it means to our customers, to the PC industry, and really we hit the ground running, starting with the first copy of the product," began Ballmer addressing the audience.
However, you are able to watch the full Webcast of the New York launch and hear Gates and Ballmer yourselves via these files: 500K, 220K, 100K.