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Bill Gates, Hero

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Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#141

Post by Yzupnick »

lionhearted wrote: post #31
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…

> 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. The rest of your post is very insightful, but this part above strikes me as petty - I was low born myself, was given almost nothing except birth in the USA in…

See Fransisco D'Acconia's "Money" speech in Atlas Shrugged for some of the reasoning behind this view. (It is probably in some of Ayn Rand's non fiction but I just can't remember where off the top of my head)

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#142

Post by angrycoder »

mattmaroon wrote: post #95
edw519 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...but this part above strikes me as petty... Sorry if it came across that way; that was not my intent. Everyone's starting point is relative. No one ever gave me the gifts that Bill Gates got. But then again, I've had gifts that 99% of everyone who ever lived couldn't imagine. With those gifts comes responsibility. Whenever I have an opportunity to use my gifts to do good things, I think of how proud those who made…

From your comments its clear that you're zealously anti-capitalist and, as a result, anti-Microsoft, so you're simply not applying logic. Bill Gates did his legal duty. When you run a corporation you have a fiduciary responsibility to it. He would be doing something immoral if he didn't do what was best for Microsoft. The theory behind free market capitalism is that enough companies doing the same will average out to…

...From your comments its clear that you're zealously anti-capitalist and, as a result, anti-Microsoft, so you're simply not applying logic...

There is a difference between making money and making money at the expense of everything else.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#143

Post by mikeklaas »

d2viant wrote: post #106
gaius wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Famously Warren Buffett's secretary pays more tax than he does...

So why isn't he campaigning for lower taxes for her instead of higher taxes for others?

Because you will need to raise taxes for them to pay for lower taxes for her

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#144

Post by qasar »

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…

In the words of Linus Torvalds "Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems."

the point of the article is that he has done a lot of great for people that markets have traditionally ignored, not if he deserved the success microsoft brought.

if you really hate microsoft, go build something better.

the only thing that counts is action and results. the market doesnt care if you if you're mom knew the IBM chairman - it only cares what you can do with what you have.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#145

Post by Yzupnick »

mattmaroon wrote: post #95
edw519 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...but this part above strikes me as petty... Sorry if it came across that way; that was not my intent. Everyone's starting point is relative. No one ever gave me the gifts that Bill Gates got. But then again, I've had gifts that 99% of everyone who ever lived couldn't imagine. With those gifts comes responsibility. Whenever I have an opportunity to use my gifts to do good things, I think of how proud those who made…

From your comments its clear that you're zealously anti-capitalist and, as a result, anti-Microsoft, so you're simply not applying logic. Bill Gates did his legal duty. When you run a corporation you have a fiduciary responsibility to it. He would be doing something immoral if he didn't do what was best for Microsoft. The theory behind free market capitalism is that enough companies doing the same will average out to…

Free markets only exist when trade is not forced upon anyone. When people are free to trade with whom ever they like, and for what ever reason they like. Gates used the only gun in town (ie: The Government) to shut down other competitors. He was therefore acting against the free market.

I do not mean to detract from the accomplishments Gates did achieve.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#146

Post by ced »

edw519 wrote: post #66
lionhearted wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. The rest of your post is very insightful, but this part above strikes me as petty - I was low born myself, was given almost nothing except birth in the USA in…

...but this part above strikes me as petty... Sorry if it came across that way; that was not my intent. Everyone's starting point is relative. No one ever gave me the gifts that Bill Gates got. But then again, I've had gifts that 99% of everyone who ever lived couldn't imagine. With those gifts comes responsibility. Whenever I have an opportunity to use my gifts to do good things, I think of how proud those who made…

Bill Gates never used his tremendous gifts for the greater good, only for the good of Microsoft.

Wait, what? Are you arguing that his foundation is some kind of elaborate scam?

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#147

Post by macrael »

TGJ wrote: post #130
edw519 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...but this part above strikes me as petty... Sorry if it came across that way; that was not my intent. Everyone's starting point is relative. No one ever gave me the gifts that Bill Gates got. But then again, I've had gifts that 99% of everyone who ever lived couldn't imagine. With those gifts comes responsibility. Whenever I have an opportunity to use my gifts to do good things, I think of how proud those who made…

There is perceived responsibility that comes with those gifts. He could have just blown the money and everyone would have moved on. Plus your next statement is just baloney. The greater good? You mean the good that would have affected you? The man can do with his money as he sees fit, who are you to tell him what to do or judge him when he does it.

The title of this post is "Bill Gates, Hero".

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#148

Post by cwb »

tzs wrote: post #83
cwb wrote: post #51

How come no one talks about the loss of innovation Microsoft have incurred on the world? What if Windows were NeXT or Unix? What if Bill Gates had tried really hard to create the best tools possible, rather than the most profitable software? What if the world had run on Unix in the two decades since Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT machine to create the web? Might we have had a 1% increase in annual productivity (mainly f…

Why are you blaming Microsoft for what IBM did? Microsoft's plan was for the world to run on Unix, with Microsoft selling Unix software--they wanted to be a tools and language company, and were tired of having every different manufacturer have its own operating system. Gates tried to get IBM to pick a processor for the IBM PC that would support Unix, but they weren't interested. Your hypothetical 1% productivity incr…

Simply because I think they had the opportunity to create a great OS (whatever its relation to Unix) and chose not to. My point was that I think DOS/Windows hindered the innovation in applications -- not necessarily their complexity or size -- but their utility. I have the option to use big, feature-rich Windows applications, but mostly prefer smaller command-line based tools. I'm clearly in a minority here though, so maybe I am crazy.. :)

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#149

Post by rbanffy »

storm wrote: post #132
MaysonL wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an old hacker, and proud to admit that I have never owned a Microsoft product.

I am a young(ish) hacker, and I'm proud not to engage in religious nonsense like this at all. Windows, Linux, OSX, who cares? Get on with the coding already.

A real craftsman cares for the tools he uses. And it's not a religious issue - it's just that the thing is taking up space on an NTFS partition. I can store better stuff in that space.

Re: Bill Gates, Hero

#150

Post by blakeweb »

calloc wrote: post #105
jakarta wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, which he says is stupid. That's why Buffett and Gates have been pushing so hard to get other billionaires to pledge to donate as much as them. Larry Ellison is one of the more recent tech execs to take the pledge.

Last I read Larry makes 1.6 BILLION US DOLLARS a year. I don't think you can ever spend that much money.

For what it's worth, Larry Ellison also personally started and funds the Ellison Medical Foundation, which distributes on the order of 100 million dollars (cite: wikipedia: Larry Ellison) per year to leading academic biologists for research into the diseases of the elderly and how to stop them. Grant recipients are selected by a panel of scientists.
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