Bye, bye, Bill

Yes, it seems the 'evil' Bill Gates is giving up the day job to work for charity, instead. Crikey, whatever next? The Pope joins the Hells Angels?! :P

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5085680.stm


"29.1 biiiiiiillion dollars!"

Yeah, I was watching that on Fox News yesterday. Quite a tough move for him, but he wants to devote his time to his charity work, I see... Well, with that in mind, hopefully this also means that Microsoft won't see the NASDAQ market like a grocery store like Bill Gates always did...

I already knew that Gates did a lot for charity.
Many say that it was just cheaper than keeping it, since he'll loose more money to tax if he kept all the money for himself.
If those ill words are true, well, that's not to me to judge. I do know that Gates ruined the market with a crappy OS, and ruined the computer world with it. But times are difrent now. Windows is more stable than it was (Still crappy though), and Mac and Linux are a true thread to Windows now, since cross-platform project easily release the user from the ties of Windows. And Gates knew that and went indeed into it to make Windows better, and I hate to say it, but I see progress in that. (Still a long way to go, though)

But I'm getting a little off-topic. All I hated about Gates was that he ruined the market with Windows (and other crappy products). People who know the man in person all say that he's a very nice guy to be with, and that he donated a lot to charities has been known for a very long time.

It was to be expected that his "enemies" would speak ill of this decision. I say, that I shouldn't judge things I know too little about. I never met the man, but judging on stories of others, I don't think I've got any reason to put this story to doubt, or to doubt his good intensions behind this all.

I guess, no matter what the man does, he's always going to have his critics. :/

he always amazes me... even with my 'crystal ball' i didn't see this one coming...

i guess he has progressed past the common wants of normal human beings and people like us... he is operating on a new plateau...

lucy in the sky with diamonds...

good luck bill... for yours is a noble calling...


and if you have any spare change left over after fixing
mankind... could ya drop a few mill my way... i'll put it
to good use, i pormise :)

--Mike

I read this this morning on BBC.co.uk. It's good he's doing that, he can try to fix his karma over the next decade or so so that he doesn't get reincarnated as a snail or something.

What's going on?

Haven't you heard, puki? Bill Gates is having a sex change.

no he's starting a sausage factory for the poor. Also if you find a piece of golden gristle in your sausage you get to tour the factory and take a boat ride down a river or lard.

lol

Charity was also the reason why he made hinmself the richest man in the world :o) It's always good to morph your business into a charity foundation, to save taxes. It's the most secure way to protect your billions against the constitutional interests. Ask Rockefeller etc. There isn't much better you can do for this purpose, unless you have your own religion or sect.

You could even declare it charity when you have gentech factories in africa that are working with the biological weapons of the future - and of course already develop their pricy cure.

Wow it's so good to know everybody in this world is a good guy, isn't it?

But basicly this step of Billy reminds me lot of Aurora :) I just asked for refund cause my windows isn't stabile anymore, all of a sudden Bill has vanished! <:o]

Hmmm,

Let's see... Gates single minded vision has nearly put a PC in every home in the developed world and has kept things pretty much backward compatible along the way. As a businessman he was ruthless and brilliant. As a regular guy he has given away more of his own money than any other single person in history and he is just getting started. Bill and his father have gone on record stating that Bill intends to leave a nest egg to his family but that, with his fathers help, he plans to give away the mass of his fortune before he dies.

Yet there are still peanuts here who want to find fault with the guy. It's like they have been personally assaulted or robbed or told their babies are ugly or something.

I get that a lot of socio commies out there/over there despise capitolism and most of all successful capitolists but jeeze I would think the left leaning among you would embrace such a large re-distribution of wealth. Alas, bias prevails and hate wins ...

Allan

and they're probably typing it into a MS browser, using a MS operating system...

... well said Hambone.

--Mike

I agree, who the heck really cares what his motivations are if the outcome makes the world a little better.

Even if he wanted to go a route like that do you think he'd risk it with all the media buzz he's subjected to? Sounds a bit too conspiratory to me. Just because you have plenty of cash or power doesn't mean you're a sociopath, at least not necessarily 8)

I'm reminded of Smashie and Nicey, and "does a lot of great work for char-i-dee." Anyone who does charity work just so they can bang on about how they do charity work is missing the point of doing charity work.


No doubt, but I personally have more respect for people who have very little, still give to charity and do so anonymously.

Isn't he just the nicest man. He gave a crap load of money, and that money to him is like a dime to us. Us being the middle class. Thanks bill, thanks. What about us farmers?!!

MU HU HA HA HAAAAAAAAA >;)

Good. Maybe without his meddling, the next Windows (after Vista) will actually be something to look forward to.

And because he's such a nice guy he also had troubles with the supreme court, right. It doesn't matter that much how many $ he spent exactly for charity, I only ask how many percent of his empire was it, and was that more than somebody else would spend for PR when his business had serious image problems?

For those who are young: Microsoft was the manifestation of evil for almost every user, whereof most of the users were pretty much forced to use Windows and other OSes like the Amiga, Acorn or Atari have been killed by MS's exclusive Intel contract/deal.

Well I'm not surprised the guy has a good reputation now since a lot of idiots are very successfull in politics in this time. Mankind probably just doesn't deserve good service.

Well, that's politics, so let's get back on topic. Bye Bill, byebye! Farewell.

hahaahhahahahaaaaaaaaa... oh my god, 'duck... you as well, never cease to amaze me... just when i think that you couldn't come up with a more absurd comment, you say something that makes your last words look like they were taken from the golden book of knowledge...

jfK... what are you... some kinda communist or something... what percentage of you dosh was given away to make the world a better place... beer donations not withstanding...

--Mike

If he hadn't given any money away to charity, he would have got slated, too. The guy can't win, no matter what he does.

He simply wasn't the nice guy some people seem to think. But it's ok, you may put his picture on your wall.

Red - you missed the point. Repairing image damages can be extremly expensive. It was a bargain for Bill this way.

I don't need to be a communist to develop social responsibility. Everything else is sociopathic, isn't it?

i dunno if it's so much of a case of me missing the point... or others resenting a guy who takes the ball and runs with it...

who told Gary Kildall to go fishing the day that IBM was looking for an OS...

who told Digital to shrink away when Bill threatened to sue em for infringement on look and feel issues... when those issues weren't his to claim violation against in the first place...

who told everyone to buy windows 1.0 before it were being bundled to oem manufacturers...

Bill is just a smart geek, who also happens to be a smart businessman as well... he's done nothing but make computers accessible to the masses... on many levels... and all while protecting his business interests with a passion...

if Xeorox people were smart enough, you be running ParcPlace on your PCs today, and Bill would be another also ran in the industry... don't blame good ole Bill because only he and Jobs saw the business potential and were quick to exploit it...

hey... this is a shining example of capitalism... free enterprise...

i can't see why there is so much animosity towards poor Bill... he just did what he was supposed to...

and now, he's giving back a lot to the world that made him the icon he is today... what's wrong with that...

would any of us be as morally and ethically responsible if we were in his shoes... ask yourself truthfully...

--Mike

I hold myself to higher account than I hold anyone else to.


Yes, yes it is. That's probably why you'll find people who think Capitalism is a wholly good thing supporting everything Gates has ever done, people who think it's wholly a bad thing criticizing everything he's ever done, and the rest of us judging it on a case-by-case basis.

Remember, the love of money is the root of all evil ;)

Bill Gates could really care less about 'image' have you seen him? He dismisses anyone involved with charity work (actors and such) who he thinks is involved just for 'image'. I'm positive he doesn't give a flying f&(# about 'image'.

Was Bill Gates really ruthless in business? He wasn't that bad and I say that knowing some truly ruthless businessmen. Bill Gates is an agreessive capitalist no doubt but I know guys who are much worse personally, the type of people who are in business for the sole sake of putting other people out of business with absolutely no recognition of community within the industry. Bill Gates would not have risen so high if he were that much of a jerk because trust me karma works quick enough that he would have been stopped much earlier.

JFK, you're just being kind of silly. You're always about conspiracy theories and believe people are out for the worst. Now as it pertains to President Bush ... I think you're closer to the mark. Bill Gates on the other hand ... I don't think is so bad. He's intelligent and in the past has used that to manipulate his way into certain positions. He also suffers from a minor case of Asperger's Syndrome which causes him to focus mostly on ideas rather than on conforming to social intracacies. In other words pandering to humanity to look good isn't in his DNA, only if he sees true merit in the concept outside of traditional social bounds (i.e. looking good and fitting in) is he likely to be interested in it.

Additionally, his most ruthless business decisions were made prior to settling down with his wife Melinda. Back then he was also slammed a bit for not giving enough to charity. She changed him significantly and is the real driving force behind these recent great contributions to charity.

'Red' accusing someone of being a Communist - the Irony! I think you have Klingon sympathies my friend...

"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place." - Douglas Adams.

Which definition of "free enterprise" or "capitalism" is equal to "defacto monolpoly"? In fact, isn't a monopoly (although a state-sponsored one [like AT&T] rather than a publicly owned one [like Microsoft]) exactly what communism is all about? So in what way makes Bills monopoly good, while Stalins was bad? At the end of the day, a monopoly is still a monopoly regardless of who profits from it.

Karma has nothing to do with it. Microsoft have a monopoly. There is no way you can stop a monopoly, particularly one that rode the way to success on the back of IBM (the Microsoft at the time).

Karma stops monopolies too.

in response to FlameDuck's question...

uuuuuh, what about the fact that Stalin's monopoly resulted in the deaths of how many millions of his own people...
while Bill's only resulted in the demise of the likes of Digital Research...

the rest of your post was totally rrelevant (as usual), but the Stalin analogy was just tooo precious to pass up... then you go on and quote some obscure dropout from socio economics 101... as if quoting him adds some sorta validity to your delusions... douglas who...

hahahahahaaaaa...


one can only wonder 'duck, what medicinals you're taking, that clouds your mind in such a way, as to prompt you to ask such a question... much less, to prompt you to ask it of me... don't you already know that you are the poultry on my plate... le flambeau eu 'deuck... con carne :)

why do you subject yourself so willingly....

the world must surely be a strange place when viewed through the lenses of eyeglasses coated with 'Duckism' droppings... it can only be this reason, that makes you come up with so much of the stuff that you unleash upon us here...

fortunately, must of us have already been innoculated against the effects of bird droppings...

:)

--Mike

Well Red, not sure about the eyeglasses of Ducks, but some people surely should polish their periscope lense from time to time - and remove the pink filters.

Just make sure ms will never be your (anti-competitive) competitor.

I think I would prefer a blue screen of death to real death in a Siberian Prison camp !

jfk... you can rest assured about the myopic mind's eyesight of our world famous 'duck man...

anyone who sees a direct analogy between Stalin's methods and Blill Gates's, and then, on top of that, uses it to validate whatever point they'reattempting to make, well... all i can say is that they surely must have their vision warped by some sort of fualty prescription... somewhere...

and if you were familiar at all with submarines, you would know that the periscope is not the only thing that a sub uses to 'see' what's ontop of and below the waters surrounding it... heck, even underwater, with dirty persicope lenses, i would never see Bill's methods as being anywhere close to those Stalin employed...

you can go join 'duck on the line for a new pair of glasses... it's a long line by the way.. plenty of people with no vision whatsoever running around...

no wait, both of you move over to the line waiting for a new pair of eyes... the line on the left.. yeah... that one...

:)

--Mike

Well again this is exactly the point - they are diffrent, stalin and gates. And their diffrence doesn't make the monopole of gates any better, the monopole as a seperate issue isn't legalized by some charity (or PR) actions, nor is it any worse if the guy is also a massmurder. A monopole remains a monopole. The murder issue may be handled seperately.

If you take a close look on how the monopole was establised, then you may or may not think "bill wasn't such a nice guy". I think it's be possible he chanched his mind because of the influence of his wife. But he simply isn't the super clean guy some people are trying to make him.

Microsoft's extensive legal history:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3489516.stm

and for sure, i can also bend over backwards far enough as to kiss the back of my feet trying to make a totally absurd point seem worthwhile jf...

tell me... how many millions did Stalin donate to any world charities during his time...

hahahahahaaaa... case closed...

now, get back to your place in the line jf...


--Mike

Well the one thing has nothing to do with the other thing. Be it charity, massmurder or monopoles. They cannot outweight one another. The question is: can we compare the monopole of a communistic government to the one of a commercial company? But basicly I'd say: you cannot divide the world into communism and capitalism because they are only phrases. Today it looks like this: China, Liberator of the working class is actually killing the working class of europe and usa etc. by their high and cheap productivity. Many western capitalists are now outsourcing the production to china. So china basicly supports worldwide capitalism, and capitalists make large use of chinese communism. Now who's who here?
Maybe the plan is captitalism as i just described it will the sooner or later kill itself. You don't need to start a war if your currency is so strong like the chinese that makes the official leading currency US dollar blowing in the wind like an empty paperbag.

But - this is politics. excuse me. I'll stop with it. Ok, case closed.

I don't think it's my medication that's off. Are you saying, that with a Free Market Economy, ruthless dictators do not kill their own subjects?

Siberian prison camps where for political "criminals". Economical criminals where sent to the Kremlin and appointed high positions in the communist party.

That's because western capitalists are too moored in their archaic business practiceses. They think competition is only feasible at the top of the value chain (labour and natural resources).

no... i'm simply saying that making an analogy between Gates and Stalin is absurd...

--Mike

One question remains... How's this retirement going to affect the future of the X360 and Windows Vista, and all the other things that Microsoft has done, ir is doing?

good point RDM... while everyone is busy taking shots at Bill, moves are being made that may indeed impact the future of Windows, and in turn the ways in which we approach our development here...

not coincidental, i think, is the delay in releasing Vista, the scaling back of a few features, and Bill's announcement... me thinks that a lot is going on behind the scenes that wil indeed affect many of the end user products and services that MS provides...

good point indeed...

--Mike

That has to be the most significant "domino effect" of that issue... One thing's for sure... I'm certainly glad he didn't name Peter Moore his successor... Seeing how Peter Moore is about the X360, I certainly don't want to know what his mouth flaps on Windows Vista at all...