Slate has an interview with Nathan Myhrvold, founder and CEO of patent acquisition firm Intellectual Ventures and former chief technology officer at Microsoft.

In the video interview, Myhrvold talks about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, disagreeing with Jobs' critique of Gates as unimaginative and having never invented anything.

Jobs' role, Mhyrvold said, was to refine how Apple and the world thought about products. But "he was never a technical guy, he was never a programmer," Mhyrvold said. "He was a user of technology but he wasn't a creator of technology."

Gates, on the other hand, Mhyrvold said, "I think, is actually very innovative. He's innovative in a technologist's way. He was a programmer. Bill's understanding of technology and what is possible was absolutely part and parcel of what Microsoft successful."

Mhyrvold also talked about how Word, Excel and other Microsoft programs are "essentially on every Macintosh and were part and parcel of the Mac's success. Our stuff was ugly unless you needed it," he said with a laugh. "As every Mac user seems to."

The Slate interview is here. And here's Slates video of that interview segment: