Apple products 'banned' from Bill Gates' home

Telegraph (UK) ^ | 3 March 2009 | Claudine Beaumont

[Fractal Trader]

Melinda Gates told Vogue magazine: "There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids."

Her admission has raised giggles in the technology community, with some members of the blogosphere speculating that Gates' three children – Jennifer, 13, Rory, 10 and Phoebe, 7 – must instead use phones running the Windows Mobile operating system, and listen to their favourite songs on Microsoft's much-criticised Zune music players.

Mr Gates, a multi-billionaire, lives in a lodge-like house overlooking Lake Washington. According to reports, the home boasts plenty of cutting-edge technology, including automatic lighting, speakers hidden inside walls to create the impression of music following visitors wherever they go, and portable touch pads that control everything from the televisions to the temperature.

Mrs Gates admitted to be swayed by Apple's iPhone device, which combines a touch-screen music player and web browser with a fully featured mobile phone. "Every now and then I look at my friends and say 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone'," she said.

Bill Gates has stepped down from his role as chief executive of Microsoft, the company he co-founded with Paul Allen, in order to concentrate on the philanthropic work carried out by his charitable organisation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Last month, at TED 2009, the technology, entertainment and design conference, Gates let loose a swarm of mosquitoes to highlight the dangers of malaria.

[Fractal Trader]

His kids must comprise half of the population that actually uses Zune.

[mikelets456]

Microsoft products ‘banned’ from Steve Job’s home....

There, fixed!! (slapping hands together)

[Michael.SF.]

Maybe even this is banned?

[the long march]

I think that the fact that Billie Boy had to ban the use of Apple products in his home says it all. What a paranoid, mean spirited, piece of wastrel. It isn’t as if Microsoft doesn’t do business with Apple they do. Bill has been delusional for years —— his great gift to the children of Africa ( before the more recent one) was a bunch of outdated hardware and software that no one else wanted. Gave it to places that lacked electricity for crying out loud. The guy is a loon ——very rich —— but a loon. And what a nut for a wife. I want an iPhone but Billie won’t let me buy one? Give me a break

[reagan_fanatic]

Poor kids have probably never had apple pie, either.

[mountainbunny]

If I were Steve Jobs, I would make a point of using Windows install disks for coasters and using shrink wrapped (never opened) copies of Windows ME to prop open my yoga room door.

[Non-Sequitur]

...Gates' three children – Jennifer, 13, Rory, 10 and Phoebe, 7 – must instead use phones running the Windows Mobile operating system, and listen to their favourite songs on Microsoft's much-criticised Zune music players.

Oh the humanity.

[Albion Wilde]

Here's the Gates pad:

And here it is from the air:

Global Abortion Sponsorship Central Headquarters.

[DYngbld]

Those kids have enough money that they could have a band follow them around all day a sing to them personally.

[PurpleMan]

Sheesh.

Is there medication for combating the symptoms EMU/EMH? (Enranged Mac User/Enraged Microsoft Hater)

[a fool in paradise]

What’s his carbon footprint?

[DYngbld]

I wonder if Linux is OK?

[Mojave]

[Joe 6-pack]

"I think that the fact that Billie Boy had to ban the use of Apple products in his home says it all. What a paranoid, mean spirited, piece of wastrel."

Oh please...I doubt the families of Ford execs are tooling around in Corvettes or Hummers...or a whole lot of Pepsi is consumed in the households of Coke management.

[Albion Wilde]

What’s his carbon footprint?

Probably about the same as Algore and John Edwards.

[Cyclone59]

Of course those things are banned. Do you think that Michael Dell has any thing but a Dell computer in his house? Do you think that folks who work at Mastercard have an American Express in their wallets? Do the Waltons/Kronkes shop at Target? What a stupid article.

[TomServo]

But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids.

They already have too many toys as it is..

[Fractal Trader]

Your pictures are misleading. A large per cent of the square feet of the mansion are below ground, so that your pictures underestimate the size of the mansion.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

I have this image of a bug in the software that runs his house and everything goes wrong, trapping him in a freezing cold shower with Barry Manilow music blaring incessantly.

He comes out after several weeks dazed and incoherent.

[ari-freedom]

hmm a billion dollars vs iphone. I think I’ll take the billion dollars.