Gates fields questions from future competitors at MIT

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. - Software is the engine that makes the IT industry run, and developers will need to adapt as the world of computer science changes over the next several years, said Bill Gates, chief software architect at Microsoft Corp., in a speech to students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Thursday.

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In a wide-ranging address, Gates touched on many aspects of modern computing and on where students need to focus their energies as they enter the workforce. Attendees also were given the opportunity to ask questions to the Microsoft founder.

The U.S. needs to improve its investment in computer research if it is to maintain its leadership position in the global economy, Gates said. Advances in technology have created a world where "the ability to have great jobs is determined by education, not where (those jobs) are," Gates said.

That research will pay off if it is invested in technologies such as lightweight digital displays that could replace paper media such as newspapers and magazines, Gates said. Display manufacturers and chip designers have given the software community increasingly powerful platforms for which to write applications, but those advances in hardware mean nothing without software to manage files and create a pleasant user interface, he said.

A student asked Gates what fields he would consider if he were a computer science student today. After drawing laughs for alluding to his decision to drop out of neighboring Harvard University to found Microsoft with Paul Allen, Gates cited artificial intelligence and computational biology as two areas that he would like to study if he were a student again.

Security was also on the mind of MIT students. When asked if recent security threats such as the MyDoom worm are related to a computer "monoculture" where Microsoft's Windows controls the vast majority of the world's desktop computers, Gates replied, "variety is not the answer."

A company that ran multiple operating systems for different business activities would need to port all of its applications to all of those operating systems at significant expense, Gates said.

"The world needs a small number of operating systems that have firewalling techniques and isolation techniques that make them secure. That's the most urgent thing we're doing," he said.

The final question of the afternoon dealt with Microsoft's mountain of cash and short-term investments, which stood at about $50 billion at the end of December.

"How do you justify having that much cash?" a student asked. "I sleep well at night," Gates joked, drawing laughs from the audience.

Turning serious, Gates noted that software companies don't have the plant and equipment expenses for which many hardware companies have to raise capital. Microsoft recently began offering a "modest" dividend to investors and is likely to change the company's balance sheet to invest that cash at some point in the future, he said.