Ending an era with Bill Gates' best quotes

As the world's most famous tech boss, Bill Gates has been quoted more times than you can shake a stick at -- but there have been some particularly insightful, bold and wide of the mark comments that stand out. Here's CNET.co.uk's sister site silicon.com's pick of the best:

The early days…

"There's nobody getting rich writing software that I know of."

Did he honestly believe that? From an interview in 80 Microcomputing (1980).

Predictions…

"We will never make a 32-bit operating system."

… until Microsoft launched the 32-bit OS, Windows NT 3.1 in 1993, that is (speaking at the launch of MSX in 1989).

"Spam will be a thing of the past in two years' time."

Gates made this bold and ultimately wrong prediction to the BBC in 2004.

On getting it wrong…

"Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority. It wasn't like somebody told me about it and I said, 'I don't know how to spell that', I said, 'Yeah, I've got that on my list, so I'm okay'. But there came a point when we realised it was happening faster and was a much deeper phenomenon than had been recognised in our strategy."

Perhaps a clue as to how Google gained its online market lead? From a speech at the University of Washington, reported by CNET News.com (1998).

"I have to say that in 1981, making those decisions, I felt like I was providing enough freedom for 10 years. That is, a move from 64k to 640k felt like something that would last a great deal of time. Well, it didn't -- it took about only six years before people started to see that as a real problem."

Gates reveals how even he didn't see how quickly things would change. A 1989 speech on the history of the microcomputer industry.