Andy and Bill's law is a statement that new software will always consume any increase in computing power that new hardware can provide. The law originates from a humorous one-liner told in the 1990s during computing conferences: "what Andy giveth, Bill taketh away." The phrase is a riff upon the business strategies of former Intel CEO Andy Grove and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. Intel and Microsoft had entered into a lucrative partnership in the 1980s through to the 1990s, and the standard chipsets in Microsoft Windows were Intel brand. Despite the profit Intel gained from the deal, Grove felt that Gates was not making full use of the powerful capabilities of Intel chips, and that he was in fact refusing to upgrade his software to achieve optimum hardware performance. Grove's frustration with the dominance of Microsoft software over Intel hardware became public, spawning the humorous catchphrase, and later, the law.
See also
References
- Karlgaard, Rich (April 19, 2005). "Ten Laws Of The Modern World". Forbes. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
- Schlender, Brent (July 10, 1995). "Why Andy Grove Can't Stop". FORTUNE Magazine. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
 | This technology-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |