Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Supposedly 'Soft' Bill Gates Interrogated About What Was Called His “Jihad”

Recent: Reminder: Bill Gates Called for “Jihad” (His Word) Both Before and After Being Grilled for Crimes | Bill Gates Deposition: Gates Keeps Referring to His Attacks on Competitors (Linux Included) as “Jihad” and Still Lies About Illegal Contracts

Oxford dictionary on “Jihad”
From Oxford dictionary



Summary: We revisit the odd choice of words (repeatedly used by Mr. Gates internally), suggestive of some divine call for war/arms in the business context

THE FOLLOWING passages are from the full transcript of the Bill Gates deposition (fourth part of the transcripts). For those who forgot, Gates repeatedly used the word "Jihad" (odd choice of words for a Christian) and after this deposition he continued using this term in his "holy war" against GNU/Linux, as noted in 2019 and in 2009.






13 Q. Were you told in or about March of 1997
14 that people within Microsoft believed that browser
15 share needed to remain a key priority for your field
16 and marketing efforts?
17 A. I don't remember being told that, but I
18 wouldn't be surprised to hear that people were saying
19 that.
20 Q. Immediately before that sentence there
21 is a statement that Microsoft needs to continue its
22 jihad next year. Do you see that?
23 A. No.
24 Q. The sentence that says "Browser share
25 needs to remain a key priority for our field and
605
BARNEY, UNGERMANN & ASSOCIATES 888-326-5900





1 marketing efforts," the sentence right before that
2 says "we need to continue our jihad next year."
3 That's the way it ends. Do you see that?
4 A. Now I see -- it doesn't say Microsoft.
5 Q. Well, when it says "we" there, do you
6 understand that means something other than Microsoft,
7 sir?
8 A. It could mean Brad Chase's group.
9 Q. Well, this is a message from Brad Chase
10 to you, Brad Silverberg, Paul Maritz and Steve
11 Ballmer; correct?
12 A. As I say, it's strange that this -- if
13 this was a normal piece of e-mail, it wouldn't print
14 like that. I'm not aware of any way -- maybe there
15 is some way -- that e-mail ends up looking like this
16 when you print it out.
17 Q. I wasn't the one that was asserting it
18 was an e-mail. I don't know whether it is an e-mail
19 or memo or what it is. All I know is it was produced
20 to us by Microsoft. And the first line of it says
21 "To" and the first name there is "Bradsi." Do you
22 see that?
23 A. Uh-huh.
24 Q. Does that refer to Brad Silverberg?
25 A. Usually you can use that shorthand in
606
BARNEY, UNGERMANN & ASSOCIATES 888-326-5900





1 typing in someone's name, but when you print out
2 e-mail, it doesn't come out that way.
3 Q. Do you believe that the reference here
4 to "Bradsi" is a reference to Brad Silverberg, sir?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. The next addressee is "Paulma." Do you
7 believe that that is Paul Maritz?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And the next addressee is "Steveb". Do
10 you believe that that is Steve Ballmer?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. The next addressee is "Billg" and do
13 you believe that that is yourself?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And it says it's from "Bradc" and do
16 you believe that is Brad Chase?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Now, when Brad Chase writes to you and
19 the others "we need to continue our jihad next year,"
20 do you understand that he is referring to Microsoft
21 when he uses the word "we"?
22 A. No.
23 Q. What do you think he means when he uses
24 the word "we"?
25 A. I'm not sure.
607
BARNEY, UNGERMANN & ASSOCIATES 888-326-5900





1 Q. Do you know what he means by jihad?
2 A. I think he is referring to our vigorous
3 efforts to make a superior product and to market that
4 product.
5 Q. Now, what he says in the next sentence
6 is, "Browser share needs to remain a key priority for
7 our field and marketing efforts;" is that correct?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. The field and marketing efforts were
10 not involved in product design or making an improved
11 browser, were they, sir?
12 A. No.




Does Gates have a megalomania issue/God complex? Is this business or religion? Remember that Microsoft likes to portray GNU and Linux folks as religious fanatics... (even if many are atheistic and you'd never see GNU/Linux users calling for a "Jihad")

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 28/03/2026: Microsoft's LinkedIn a National Security Risk, Microsoft's Slop "Ambitions Face Investor Scrutiny Amid Soaring Costs"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 26 Out of 200: Asking for Documents and Information You Already Have, Even Letters and E-mails That You Yourself Sent!
barristers are expensive
 
The Old Days
In the early days of this site (2006) it was mostly just a couple of people, plus comments
Gemini Links 29/03/2026: Return to Gopherspace, "Zen of Marking Playing Cards"
Links for the day
The Real XBox is Dead, So Microsoft is Calling Everything "XBox" Now
It even wanted to run a campaign to convince everybody that XBox is not actually a console
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 28, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, March 28, 2026
Open Web Destroyed by Centibillionaires, Says Anil Dash of Blogging Fame
Blogging was going through its 'prime years' about 20 years ago
"Linux" Slop Going Away, Microsoft et al Pay 'Linux' Foundation to Promote Slop
It's a timely reminder that the Linux Foundation exists to promote whoever pays the Linux Foundation, even pedophiles and companies that attack the GPL
Gemini Links 28/03/2026: "Finding My Base Tone", "Astrobotany", and BugoutBack/OFFLFIRSOCH
Links for the day
Links 28/03/2026: More Worldwide Bans on Social Control Media (Harms to Adolescents), Protests in US Against Dictatorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/03/2026: Echo Delay and 0x0.st
Links for the day
Rumours of More IBM Mass Layoffs at Beginning of April
IBM is not doing well
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 27, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 27, 2026
"Headcount" as Distraction From Mass Layoffs and Salary Reductions
Things aren't looking well when one considers revenue is acquired, not earned
"Linux" Slop Turning Rarer, New York Times Nowadays Contaminated With LLM Slop
Another day has passed without much slop about "linux"
Links 27/03/2026: Studying Whale Births, Apple is Cancelling Products, Cambodia Arrests Journalists Over Photographs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/03/2026: GTD, Gopher Catchup, Gemini Crawlers, and "Slop Everywhere"
Links for the day
Mozilla Was Ruined Like Sirius Open Source Was Ruined - From the Top Down
Mozilla will never return to its Free software roots
Nokia Could Never Recover From Microsoft
It's very important to remember what really happened
Why Techrights and Many Other Sites Stopped Doing April Fools’ Day Articles
Well before slop (made by LLMs) it was "bad optics" to have satire or humour in a site, irrespective of the day of the year
President Not-Cocaine Campinos Notified of Historic EPO Strikes (Thousands of Workers Not Coming Back to the Office)
Please do pay attention to how the media treats these strikes in Europe's second-largest institution
Slides From the Presentation Discussing EPO Strikes Until End of June or Until End of 2026 (Maybe Next Year Too)
More to come soon (later today)
IBM Cuts Are Everywhere (Global), the Aim is to Lower the Pay
Because the revenues keep falling (IBM buys other companies' revenues using borrowed money)
Perpetual Strikes to Begin at European Patent Office (EPO), Large Majority Votes for Strikes Any Day of the Week
Approved industrial actions [...] Notice how none of the media or even so-called 'IP' blogs write about it
Mozilla is Not a Privacy Company, Mozilla is Run by GAFAM Executives and Managers Who Came From American Surveillance Companies
Would you trust a VPN they claim to be "free"?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 25 Out of 200: That Time Matthew J. Garrett Got Temporarily Banned/Suspended From Twitter
That he gets banned from large social control media platform is hardly surprising given his combative communications
Ubuntu Started as Free With ShipIt, Now It Becomes Payware That Exploits Debian Volunteers (Slaves)
"Ubuntu" the distro now replaces the GNU components inherited from Debian with a bunch of Microsoft GitHub (proprietary) things that reject reciprocal licences
Last Night The Register MS Published a Fake Article. It Mentioned "AI" 27 Times.
Paid-for nonsense! [...] What's left of once-respectable news sites actively harms society
Links 27/03/2026: Google Executive (GAFAM, US, Surveillance) "Named the New BBC Head", Prominent Climate Scientist Resigns From NASA
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/03/2026: "Being Busy" and "Posting Again"
Links for the day
GNOME Has No "Real" Executive Director, Only an IBM (Perma)'Interim' One With No Openings in Sight
GNOME is having financial problems
Microsoft Experiencing "Leadership Exodus"
Microsoft's current position is no better than Meta's (Facebook)
GNU/Linux Distros Should Reject "Age Verification" and Uphold Software Freedom for Users
It's not about protecting children
Slop Plunge
we can already "smell the blood" of the so-called 'AI industry'
IBM Media Puff Pieces While Layoffs Go On and On
Has the PR industry absorbed the press?
Media Says Microsoft Hiring Freezes, But There Are Already Microsoft Layoffs
They want the public to talk about Microsoft as if it's just not hiring when it is actually firing
Richard Stallman lynchings: Sruthi Chandran splitting Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 26, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 26, 2026