The Pragmatic Craftsman :: Simplicity from complexity : by Stanley Kubasek ::

Read what Gates has to say about Web services and Java.

Where should companies spend the dollars freed up from lowering costs? And where should they spend new technology funds?

Bill Gates: Web services is the new architecture for new applications. Web services are being used to connect information that is inside the company in different systems. They’re connecting people and systems in new ways and companies as well. You think of investments for making your knowledge workers more productive. That is the biggest investment companies in any industry make.

There are things that are essentially new ways of doing business, such as creating workflows to connect buyers and sellers together.

How does Java fit into your computing expectations?

Bill Gates: It is a language that we have supported in Visual Studio for many years. … Our whole thing is to use your existing code, to use whichever code you are most comfortable with and be able to combine that with code written in other languages. We have been agnostic about languages and supporting all the new things that come along.

[Excerpt from eWeek] Read the whole inverview on eWeek.com here.