It's not often that a tech giant will admit to a mistake but on Sept. 26, The Washington Post reported that Bill Gates openly admitted that the crtl+atl+delete combination was a mistake.
Gates made this comment during an interview at Harvard university over the weekend. The interview, which last about an hour, was part of a fundraising event for the school. At one point David Rubenstein asks Gates why it takes three fingers when he wants to turn on his software and computer.
For background, the man who actually invented Control+Atl+Delete is an IBM PC designer named David Bradley. The Register explains that Bradley designed the command for the soft reboot with three keys so that it could not happen on accident. And GeekWire notes that in an interview with CNET, Bradley mentioned that he's not sure why Microsoft used his invention to become their log in command.
To Rubenstein’s question, Gates replied openly that it was a mistake, though he stumbled a bit along the way. He noted that they had originally wanted a single button for the function, but that the IBM keyboard designer didn't want to give them that one button. He asserts that Microsoft did clever stuff, but that it was more software than hardware.
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/2013-09-26-bill-gates-admits-control-atl-delete-as-a-login-was-a-mistake?cid=roadrunner