You have to respect the man's dedication. He wanted his OS on every desktop computer and he may have played loose with the rules but he got his wish. Now he wants this terrible disease to be destroyed, and there are a lot of obstacles in his way (and after all, destroying a well entrenched virus is a feat that humanity reached only once before), but still in my heart I feel like I wouldn't bet on the virus on that on…
He --may-- have? Let's not whitewash history. He not only very much played loose with the rules, he outright broke the rules and trampled upon laws that caused far-reaching net damage to society in the process.
Like yourself and most others, I'm certainly pleased that Gates has decided to give back a small portion of his overall plunder from society, but it also shouldn't act as a public relations whitewash that erases his past history. His charity doesn't simply erase his overall negative impacts upon society that runs easily into the trillions and also took away from charity by proxy and directly in the process as well for decades.
We should teach future generations to give to charity, but in the process we shouldn't also instruct future generations that the way Gates amassed his ridiculous amount of money and power was acceptable and good for society overall.
Despite what they and their lackeys would have many of us believe, society prospers without megalomaniacal billionaires. Billionaires reach that ridiculous, megalomaniacal status by pushing the externalities produced via their business growth upon the rest of society instead of paying it themselves.
Once externalities are accounted for, there are very few organic, ethical ways to acquire and hoard that kind of wealth without stunting the rest of society in insidious ways. And, by the time one "gives it away", all the greater damage has already been done in the meantime.
We don't need them. For example, the overwhelming majority of charity comes from small businesses and lower income individuals. The same individuals and small businesses that are drastically hurt and destroyed by the business practices of people like Gates and other billionaires.
Keep in mind, large corporations and people like Bill Gates give only a tiny percentage of overall charity, but they (and their lackeys) spend vastly more on telling everyone about it through various public relations channels, etc. and that's why it distorts public perception on who really gives the lion's share to charity overall.
Again, I'm very happy Gates is giving to charity, but let's not whitewash his overall net impact against society in the process. He accomplished some great good for society with his business and now his charity as well. But, for us to ignore all the harm he's caused with his past business practices over those decades isn't fair to society and it's a horrible lesson for future generations that may think they should emulate the methodologies billionaires like him use to acquire and hoard enough wealth to reach that "status".
There's much more to the story of Bill Gates and his dire issues with externalities (and charity issues as well) that we shouldn't ignore in our haste to worship him and/or as someone else in this thread did... apply some sort of sainthood.
edits: spelling/grammar