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Bill Gates, Hero

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Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#21

Post by stackthat »

lotharbot wrote: post #15
edkennedy wrote: post #4

I think he's villanized because of his main product, Windows. It suffers from the same plight Bill himself suffers as mentioned in the article. Awkwardness.

As much as this seems like snark, it's a fair observation. Bill Gates is often seen as a villain because of the late 1990s behavior of Microsoft and the quality of some of their flagship products (Windows and IE). It can be hard to separate perceptions of Bill Gates the man/philanthropist from Bill Gates the businessman. Perceptions of Bill Gates are colored by BSoD's, IE's non-compliance to standards, Frontpage crea…

Get over yourselves , have you used *nix systems in 90s as desktops? If you not you can't compare Windows's quality with something else.

OSX wasn't even properly exist.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#22

Post by avar »

reader5000 wrote: post #18
edw519 wrote: post #13

Why do you think Silicon Valley has never quite come around on this guy? Because of the trail of dead bodies and lost opportunities left in his wake. Let's not forget, Bill Gates was handed a 0th birthday gift of $1 million from his grandfather, the keys to his private middle school computer (the same one Stanford had), and a free ticket to do business with IBM because his mother already knew its chairman. Sure he wa…

Many fledgling industries have "evil titans". Look at oil, trains, telephone, social media. I'm not intimately acquainted enough with the actual events that earn Gates/Microsoft's popular ire, but if they hadn't earned the evil titan role somebody else would have. The work Gates is doing now I think makes up for any rough play he may have engaged in in the past.

So if I manage to extract money from you, governments and institutions with rough play it's all OK at the end of the day if I give some percentage of it to charity?

Giving to charity by way of the residue of the profits of a monopoly like Microsoft is a very inefficient process.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#24

Post by zzzmarcus »

ariels wrote: post #17
edw519 wrote: post #13

Why do you think Silicon Valley has never quite come around on this guy? Because of the trail of dead bodies and lost opportunities left in his wake. Let's not forget, Bill Gates was handed a 0th birthday gift of $1 million from his grandfather, the keys to his private middle school computer (the same one Stanford had), and a free ticket to do business with IBM because his mother already knew its chairman. Sure he wa…

The same thing can be said of Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, and most of the tech titans. Sounds like you just have something against powerful people.

Bill Gates did bad things. Jobs, Ellison, most tech titans do/did bad things.

edw519 does not like Bill Gates worship.

Therefore, edw519 has something against powerful people.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#25

Post by kmfrk »

edw519 wrote: post #13

Why do you think Silicon Valley has never quite come around on this guy? Because of the trail of dead bodies and lost opportunities left in his wake. Let's not forget, Bill Gates was handed a 0th birthday gift of $1 million from his grandfather, the keys to his private middle school computer (the same one Stanford had), and a free ticket to do business with IBM because his mother already knew its chairman. Sure he wa…

As I understand, he also met Warren Buffet at a young age through his parents and formed a relationship with him. (I think he was a friend of his parents and met Bill at a party.)

Not the worst person to have in your rolodex.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#26

Post by melvinram »

edw519 wrote: post #13

Why do you think Silicon Valley has never quite come around on this guy? Because of the trail of dead bodies and lost opportunities left in his wake. Let's not forget, Bill Gates was handed a 0th birthday gift of $1 million from his grandfather, the keys to his private middle school computer (the same one Stanford had), and a free ticket to do business with IBM because his mother already knew its chairman. Sure he wa…

Yes, he had a few things going for him but to trivalize what he/Microsoft accomplished over the years with "no smarter and worked no harder" is quiet ludicrous as mega successes usually have an unusually perfect set of circumstances that allow the successes to happen, whether you're talking about Ted Turner, Oracle or Google.

The circumstances may be favorable but it takes good decisions and massive action to turn the circumstances into a multi-billion dollar, world changing enterprise.

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft and it's products but it's undeniable that Bill has the opportunity to improve the quality of hundreds of millions of people in a way that no one ever has.

--

Written on a MacBook Pro

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#27

Post by qq66 »

siglesias wrote: post #16

The interesting fact that is often left out of these Gates-as-philanthropist v. Jobs-as-salesman arguments is that Jobs has 1/10 the wealth that Bill Gates has, if that, even though Apple is now worth more than Microsoft. So if this is a simple comparison of allocation of wealth we find that Jobs simply hasn't taken the money (look at his paycheck v. Apple's cash holdings for crying out loud). And socially how effect…

Jobs' wealth is lower than Gates because Apple raised more money than Microsoft did early on, and because he sold all his stock when he left Apple and is now compensated in stock options rather than in founders' stock.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#28

Post by pohl »

stackthat wrote: post #21
lotharbot wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as this seems like snark, it's a fair observation. Bill Gates is often seen as a villain because of the late 1990s behavior of Microsoft and the quality of some of their flagship products (Windows and IE). It can be hard to separate perceptions of Bill Gates the man/philanthropist from Bill Gates the businessman. Perceptions of Bill Gates are colored by BSoD's, IE's non-compliance to standards, Frontpage crea…

Get over yourselves , have you used *nix systems in 90s as desktops? If you not you can't compare Windows's quality with something else. OSX wasn't even properly exist.

"NEXTSTEP is probably the most respected piece of software on the planet." -- Byte Magazine, October 1992

I used it during that decade on an x86 desktop, on a SPARC laptop made by Tadpole, and on an HP PA-RISC "gecko" workstation. It was awesome.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#29

Post by reader5000 »

avar wrote: post #22
reader5000 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many fledgling industries have "evil titans". Look at oil, trains, telephone, social media. I'm not intimately acquainted enough with the actual events that earn Gates/Microsoft's popular ire, but if they hadn't earned the evil titan role somebody else would have. The work Gates is doing now I think makes up for any rough play he may have engaged in in the past.

So if I manage to extract money from you, governments and institutions with rough play it's all OK at the end of the day if I give some percentage of it to charity? Giving to charity by way of the residue of the profits of a monopoly like Microsoft is a very inefficient process.

Maybe you know something I don't but reading over wikipedia's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft I don't see any misbehavior that most every other big company in the world has not engaged in or is actively engaging in. I mean, can you quantify roughly how much money Microsoft has "extracted" from you or other governments/institutions?

My point is just, most leaders of industry are going to have skeletons in their closets. Most industry leaders don't then commit 98% of their wealth to charity.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#30

Post by naner »

ariels wrote: post #17
edw519 wrote: post #13

Why do you think Silicon Valley has never quite come around on this guy? Because of the trail of dead bodies and lost opportunities left in his wake. Let's not forget, Bill Gates was handed a 0th birthday gift of $1 million from his grandfather, the keys to his private middle school computer (the same one Stanford had), and a free ticket to do business with IBM because his mother already knew its chairman. Sure he wa…

The same thing can be said of Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, and most of the tech titans. Sounds like you just have something against powerful people.

There's nothing wrong with criticizing how powerful people choose to wield and maintain their power. You are right that many of the same things can be said about Jobs and Ellison. I don't think anyone here would argue that they are saints.
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