Vista Is Open To All Bets...

[Teddy Rogers]

At least this seems to be the case as the elusive Microsoft’s operating system has started to draw bets on the estimated release date. Based on Bill Gates’ recent statement that the Windows Vista operating system faces a 20% chance of further delay, a Seattle software developer named Wil Shipley has publicly challenged Gates to a $10.000 bet that Microsoft won’t meet the January dead-line.

“Now, you are (still) the Chairman of Microsoft. You've got inside information on this issue. You can talk to the engineers, you can look at the source code, you can read reports from your managers. You've got people you pay (in aggregate) millions of dollars to estimate this kind of thing. You've spent $8 billion writing this crap. Still, I'm willing to risk $10,000 of my money against $30,000 of yours that you do NOT ship Vista by January. (That's 1 to 3 odds, for bookie-types.) Since your stated "80%" means you think the odds are 4 to 1 against slipping, I'm giving you better odds than you asked for -- you should really be putting up $40,000 to make this fair, but I want to make it more attractive for you. I know you're famous for being cheap frugal,” posted Shipley on his blog.

The software developer has also stated that Microsoft won’t be able to solve its problems no matter how much money they throw at it, arguing that no committee has ever been able to create art. Shipley provoked Bill Gates even further saying that the co-founder of Microsoft has actual input that Vista won’t ship in January and because of that he will not take on the bet.

Ted.