Do You Envy Bill Gates, Or Just Hate Him?

[THUNDER HANDS]

I'm curious because in one sense, I admire the guy. College drop-out, makes it big and becomes the most powerful man in the world (arguably) and has tons of loot.

On the other his business practices leave a little to be desired in terms of fairness.

But as long as we're working within a capitalistic framework, you'd have to admire the guy's genius for getting the world to buy his widgets.

Now, what do you think?

[Rainbowreflect]

1. Neither.

[geniph]

2. He baffles me

I can't imagine having that kind of money and still going to work in the morning. NFW. He stops at 7-11 for coffee on the way in, too. YUCK!

See, Paul Allen knows how to be wealthy - he made his money and quit working, and he uses his money to do things like build the Experience Music Project, refurbish the Cinerama Theatre, or buy sports teams. More power to Paul. I *understand* him better.

[comradebillyboy]

3. i respect and admire bill gates

he seems willing to share his wealth.

[sujan]

4. Despite all his misgivings, I admire the guy

[bloom]

5. I basically agree with you.

Nice to see such a nerdy guy make it - but what's with the monopolistic stuff?

[tsipple]

6. Neither, But...

...He really does have enough money, doesn't he? Why not check out Linux? You can download a CD and run Linux without installing it. Check out this web site for the download links.

[billbuckhead]

8. No saint,Gates is the master demon of intellectual property "rights".

Gates gives money to Africa and AIDS because his defense of "intellectual property rights" allows drug companies to charge monoply profits to AIDS sufferers in the third world. Just so he can charge monoply profits on his substandard software in America and around the world.

[Kahuna]

7. Neither.

[BlueJazz]

9. I like Bill

and I'm glad that Microsoft came out on top as the Main Operating systems...

[SOteric]

10. Neither.

[nuxvomica]

11. I envy him his money, of which he seems to have quite a lot

I think his single-minded desire to control everything around him and his morbid fear of competition would be pitiable in a man earning something less than billions per year. So I don't pity him and I do admire his cleverness.

[Deja Q]

12. Coming from a person inside the industry from day 1... (and a link!)

He's slimy vermin who leached off of IBM before discarding them, let alone other activities which make him a pathetic little creep.

Other companies IBM went to in order to get an OS for their piece of shit with the appalling 8086 processor (the Motorola 68000 of the time was far more powerful) didn't take them up.

Microsoft saw how big IBM was and decided to hitch along for the ride. They bought DOS from Digital Research (I think that's the company's name), not bothering to tell them their true intent.

That's how MS got started.

You think IBM would have learned once that you don't deal with letcherous vermin.

Nope.

IBM and MS teamed up in 1995 to make the next generation operating system. OS/2 was born. But MS was busy making Windows, their own 'next gen' OS - which hit it big in 1990, oddly. (Apple sued MS and won, which is sad because Xerox had a bigger case against Apple and lost and the reasons were very similar...) Anyway, in the separation, MS got the newest and greatest OS/2 code along with the 32-bit HPFS file system code whereas IBM got to keep the existing OS/2 code plus get the rights to integrate Windows into it. (Having used OS/2 since v2.1 days, Microsoft clearly got - by far - the better deal as OS/2, despite its promises, was buggy and crash-prone. I'll spare you the technical details, but it would't even work right on hardware sold by IBM! ...)

I think IBM and MS were going to team up again to develop something else, but that's IBM's loss.

And it's all due to greed.

Hell, MS's licensing contracts are fascist as well. Up until 1994 even, MS FORCED hardware companies to buy MS licenses for every computer MADE - not sold - even if the computer would ultimately have Unix or OS/2 or some other OS on it. The law decided this was a no-no and namby-pambily punished them. Too little, too late. MS these days has similar stranglehold contracts. Meanwhile, the law does nothing.

Need I mention his products also being bloaty and crash-prone? XP and Linux distros have roughly the same amount of lines of code. Yet Linux is far faster than Windows and isn't as stable. Linux's excuse is that it's open source and people can do anything with it. In a closed, controlled environment, Microsoft has no excuse for their sloppiness. Windows has no place being on any computer, let alone any server computer!!!!!

In a sensible society, Gates would be greeting people at Wal-Mart.

Bill Gates is a vile evil squirmy shithead scumbag.

So, if people haven't grasped the idea yet, I don't give a fuck that he's a multi-billionaire. He's a slime trail left by a slug who doesn't deserve a damn penny of the money he's made. He sure hasn't earned much of it, 99% of his "innovations" come from everybody else.

www.vcnet.com/bms/ (boycott Microsoft)

http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/ (a whole list pointing out MS...)

http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/innovation.shtml (a list of innovations Microsoft did not innovate)

[graywarrior]

13. I just took an Enneagram test

and found out I have an Investigator personality, similar to Bill Gates. Why aren't I as wealthy and despised?

[ForrestGump]

17. Here ya go, ThermoHypnoFroggyToad

[Walter_Bowman]

14. Neither, he's cool

And he seems pretty fair to me.

[Deja Q]

15. Re-read post #12 and check out this link too...

http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/dirtytricks.shtml

Can you still tell me, with a straight face, he's cool and fair?

Or, posed another way, why do YOU think he's fair and cool? I've been in the PC industry since the late 80s and have read about the PC's early days. Maybe I'm so jaded or overwhelmed by all the vile things that I'm overlooking some potential good things.

So, what good has he done? :shrug:

[Walter_Bowman]

18. Helped create and distribute an operating system

that even my Mom can use, and she doesn't even know the OS language (she doesn't speak English, and we use English Windows XP).

I don't really know why, but I find Windows much more comfortable to use than any other OS, and yes, I had the option of another OS, but I have Windows on my PC, and Windows shall it stay. And yes, it's a proud, license, bought MS product! :-)

[Feanorcurufinwe]

16. I dont envy or hate him.

I dont envy or hate him. Sure I'd like to have his money. And yes, I do resent all the time I've wasted, both on the job and in my personal life, dealing with the crappy product Microsoft produces, which would be infinitely better if there were only some competition in the industry.

I do hate Bush for among so many other things, having the Justice Dept. back down on the anti-trust lawsuit. Business as usual at Microsoft: consumers lose.

[JohnKleeb]

19. I dunno

I guess I would like some of that loot, I dont like the fact that Microsoft was a monopoly like, but he and his wife have done good things like fund that thing on Aids that Rorry Kennedy did.

[jonnyblitz]

20. how about "indifferent" to Bill Gates...

thats me..:hi: