Is Bill Gates an absolute legend?

Rabelais

I've been reading a book about Bill Gates. I've come to the conclusion that he is one of the most important human beings who has ever lived. A liberal, a capitalist, an innovator and a humanitarian.

He created a company that has had an enormous influence on how we communicate and interact with the world about us. He was involved in the development of products that fundamentally changed how companies and individuals work and live. Computing for the masses.

He became the wealthiest man of the planet by doing so. Selling software that people wanted to buy. And then he decided he was going to give it all away. Some people seem to have real problems with what he did. Riles up the anti-establishment crowd.

I find him truly inspirational. Does anyone agree?

123balltv

I respect Bill Gates I despise Bono

Dyr

Windows ME

we're done

Dan_Solo

I reckon he'd have taken Jobs with one hand tied behind his back. Coding, charity or fisticuffs. :-)

PizzamanIRL

Ah yeah he's a sound chap.

wes

A dissenting view from Richard Stallman, who in fairness can go a bit overboard:

Richard Stallman Blasts Bill Gates On His Way Out

--SNIP--
The criticism is the latest clash in Stallman's long-running crusade against restrictions that prevent software from being shared, modified, and distributed without a license. He criticized the software company for lack of interoperability and said it seems that the main advance Windows Vista made was to increases user restrictions.

However, Stallman did not limit his critique to proprietary software. In addition to accusing Microsoft of persistently engaging in anti-competitive behavior, he targeted the philanthropist's efforts to help the poor.

Stallman cited the L.A. Times and said only five to 10% of the money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds causes, and the remainder is invested, "sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental degradation and illness in the same poor countries."
--SNIP--

dodderangler

Prob still a virgin the big geek







I know he has kids but it's all I got.

wandatowell

Windows ME discredits all the good he had/has ever done.


:P

Artful_Badger

Depends on how you look at it. You could make an argument that he was a shrewd business man that took advantage of other peoples work to further his own interests, bullied competitors out of the market to establish a monopoly, became the worlds richest man because of all that and has now come out smelling of roses after some well publicised charity work.

Frosty McSnowballs

He's no Beasty

BogManInc

whats the name of the book OP?

Rabelais

Bambi wrote: »

Windows ME

we're done

How does the fact that Microsoft released an operating system that crashed, balance with Gates handing over 18 thousand million dollars to charity. Charities involved in trying to eradicate malaria and dysentery in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Not seeing the connect.

Bipolar Joe

BogManInc wrote: »

whats the name of the book OP?

"Steve Jobs is a Hipster Twat" by Bill Gates.

Daqster

A total and utter leg end, yes and your space bar is playing up by the way.

Ah, I'm only messing, seems sound enough but will never forgive him for Vista and the spinning white circle hell I endured for two and a half years.

Jesus Wept

a great lad

Mint Aero

He's at least eleventy times better than Steve Jobs if anyone remembers that guy.

TeddyTedson

I find OS X a lot more pleasing than Windows.
I know Apple are awful greedy and so on but Macs are so much enjoyable to use.
Windows is so aggravating!

Mickey H

Bambi wrote: »

Windows ME Vista

we're done

There, FYP Bambi.

Stainless_Steel

Jobs was no 1 for me. Bill is very smart, but his company's products were not the best. They won with their business mod.

Jobs was a real visionary.

nice_very

OP, in the sycophantic list you produced, you failed to mention he (his foundation) was a major bondholder in failed Irish banks to the tune of 20million in 2007...

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/bill-gates-was-bondholder-in-bailedout-irish-zombie-banks-29226533.html#

Bipolar Joe

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Jobs was no 1 for me. Bill is very smart, but his company's products were not the best. They won with their business mod.

Jobs was a real visionary salesman thief.

Fixed your post, then fixed my fix.

Stainless_Steel

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

Fixed your post, then fixed my fix.

Ha...he was a good salesman allright. But thief is a strong word. There doesn't be many people demanding their money back after the sale.

batistuta9

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Ha...he was a good salesman allright. But thief is a strong word. There doesn't be many people demanding their money back after the sale.

i think he means Jobs never had an original concept himself.

& gates got lucky

Sir Arthur Daley

I despise Bono

And Tony Fenton too.

diomed

Daqster wrote: »

A total and utter leg end, yes and your space bar is playing up by the way.

Ah, I'm only messing, seems sound enough but will never forgive him for Vista and the spinning white circle hell I endured for two and a half years.

Do you want to download a device driver?
It was the greatest steaming heap I've seen.

KyussBishop

Not as bad as many others out there, but heavily invested in some massive oil industry organizations that are not shy of putting-out/supporting global-warming-denying propaganda:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation

In among that, there's the whole history of Microsoft and their various massive fines for anti-competitive practices.


It's pretty easy for any guy with ~$75 billion in his pocket, to throw a few bob into charitable causes, to engage in a bit of 'reputational laundering' to make himself look good.

You don't judge these guys based on how much money they have (which is what this really is - anyone can do what Gates does, if you hand them $75 billion, so this is really just worshipping his wealth), or even that they put a portion of it into good causes; you judge them, by looking at how they gained the money (Microsoft has a pretty long anti-competitive history), and the negative aspects of that and what they do with it.

When someone gains this much power/money in society, generally that doesn't happen by playing by the same rules/ethics as the rest of society, so you judge these people skeptically/critically, not sycophantically.

orchidsrpretty

As head of Micro$oft, yer he built an empire, valued at $72 B As of September 2013 according to forbes, is he any more a legend than any other tycoon types throughout history? Maybe, Maybe not, while his polio vaccine programme is a valiant effort I feel more could be done with his sort of back account, ... interesting facts not verified i don't think but interesting all the same

other generous tycoons Carnegie Libraries

... feel free to post more.. donating tycoons.

Francisco Durden

What does liberal even mean? I thought it had different meanings in different countries?

I'm guessing you mean he's just another rich guy who pretends he cares about the world.

kjl

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Jobs was no 1 for me. Bill is very smart, but his company's products were not the best. They won with their business mod.

Jobs was a real visionary.

I hate Apple and I hate Steve Jobs, Apple trade ergonomics and comfort for style, for god sake they made a glass phone, probably the most dropped possession people own

Not to mention the fact that Jobs was an asshole who treated everyone like sh1t. He abandoned his daughter and had no business ethics.

He was a con man, just a very brilliant con man. He conned the world into buying overpriced crap. He is worse than a religious leader, with this almighty messiah complex that the Apple brand represents. I can't stand listening to gob****es who know nothing about IT tell me how proper designers use a mac.

They rip off their developers too, 30% fee to host my app and $99 to publish it, oh thank you might Apple and they are thieves too, every innovation in the iOS software is stolen from the jailbreak community.

Windows is reliable, stable and easy to use. Ok it's taken a while to get to Windows 7, but the first 10 versions of osx were absolute pants. It's still a stupidly annoying operating system to use.

Steve jobs was also petty, he had grip with adobe so bang, no flash on iPhone and made it his personal goal to get it wiped from all web content.

Bill Gates's only crime is that he paid $50 to own the rights to an operating system and licensed it to IBM, I even think he cut the guy who wrote it something when he got bigger but he also gave up nearly his entire fortune to save lives. He makes a great product, looks after developers and is the definition of philanthropic.

Jobs and Gates aren't in the same league.

stannis

Rabelais wrote: »

I've been reading a book about Bill Gates. I've come to the conclusion that he is one of the most important human beings who has ever lived. A liberal, a capitalist, an innovator and a humanitarian.

Would you have started this thread if he was all of those things except a liberal? I mostly admire him for bringing computing into the reach of many more human beings than possible before the home PC, don't see the need to get political.

mr_edge_to_you

Ah ye, I'm a Gates fan.

Park the OS system debates for a few minutes......

Microsoft Office:
Excel
Word
Access
Powerpoint
Outlook

Very important tools in the modern workplace. Completely changed the way the world does business.

I think the Xbox project has been a massive success too.

Recently made the switch to Windows phone from iphone. I like it but there's f all apps available for it. Everything is on itunes.

In fairness, the iphone 4 is an amazing piece of hardware. Loved it. Its in the same category as the Nokia 3210 (greatest phone pre smartphone era). Looks brilliant, robust (the abuse mine took was frightening), still going strong, 5m pixels (at the time was all we needed). Jobs was definitely a visionary but I just hate the Apple brand buy-in.

Arawn

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Jobs was definitely a visionary but I just hate the Apple brand buy-in.

so ahead of the times was jobs......

http://jerkmag.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/microsoft-surface-meme-tablet-pc-history-ipad-stole-idea-apple-2002-2010-2012.jpg?w=614&h=387

Frank Lee Midere

KyussBishop wrote: »

Not as bad as many others out there, but heavily invested in some massive oil industry organizations that are not shy of putting-out/supporting global-warming-denying propaganda:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation

In among that, there's the whole history of Microsoft and their various massive fines for anti-competitive practices.


It's pretty easy for any guy with ~$75 billion in his pocket, to throw a few bob into charitable causes, to engage in a bit of 'reputational laundering' to make himself look good.

You don't judge these guys based on how much money they have (which is what this really is - anyone can do what Gates does, if you hand them $75 billion, so this is really just worshipping his wealth), or even that they put a portion of it into good causes; you judge them, by looking at how they gained the money (Microsoft has a pretty long anti-competitive history), and the negative aspects of that and what they do with it.

When someone gains this much power/money in society, generally that doesn't happen by playing by the same rules/ethics as the rest of society, so you judge these people skeptically/critically, not sycophantically.

He's giving pretty much giving all of it away.

Frank Lee Midere

Arawn wrote: »

so ahead of the times was jobs......

http://jerkmag.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/microsoft-surface-meme-tablet-pc-history-ipad-stole-idea-apple-2002-2010-2012.jpg?w=614&h=387

Oh everybody knew that MS had a tablet when the iPad was released. It ran XP, had a start button and you used a stylus.

Frank Lee Midere

kjl wrote: »

They rip off their developers too, 30% fee to host my app and $99 to publish it, oh thank you might Apple and they are thieves too, every innovation in the iOS software is stolen from the jailbreak community.

Windows is reliable, stable and easy to use. Ok it's taken a while to get to Windows 7, but the first 10 versions of osx were absolute pants. It's still a stupidly annoying operating system to use.

Steve jobs was also petty, he had grip with adobe so bang, no flash on iPhone and made it his personal goal to get it wiped from all web content.

Bill Gates's only crime is that he paid $50 to own the rights to an operating system and licensed it to IBM, I even think he cut the guy who wrote it something when he got bigger but he also gave up nearly his entire fortune to save lives. He makes a great product, looks after developers and is the definition of philanthropic.

Jobs and Gates aren't in the same league.

From the MS dev agreement.


b. Store Fees. You will pay Microsoft a Store Fee for each of your apps that Microsoft makes available through the Windows Store. Microsoft may deduct and retain the store fees you owe Microsoft from any amounts it receives from customers for those apps. You will also pay any store fees that Microsoft does not deduct, within five (5) days after you receive a written request. The Store Fee is the percentage of Net Receipts that is retained by Microsoft as a fee for making your app available through the Windows Store. That percentage is 30%, unless and until your app takes in total Net Receipts of USD$25,000, after which time the percentage is 20% for that app. Net Receipts are the total amount collected from customers in connection with the download of your app through the Windows Store, minus any (i) sales, use or VAT/GST taxes collected from customers for remittance by Microsoft; (ii) amounts refunded to customers; and (i

Dyr

Mickey H wrote: »

There, FYP Bambi.

ME plumbed depths that vista could not even contemplate

GrumPy

Rabelais wrote: »

I've been reading a book about Bill Gates.

Just online, or in like - a book?
Care to name the book?

Spring Onion

123balltv wrote: »

I respect Bill Gates I despise Bono

Tall Poppy Syndrome

camel jockey

Yes, he is. Much more so than Steve Jobs.

LostBoy101

I agree Gates has changed the way we do communicate in business and real world. However I tried explaining to my friend that iPhones are the most overated piece of IT ever but no he doesn't listen :rolleyes: fair play Jobs you brainwashed a lot of stupid people.

camel jockey

LostBoy101 wrote: »

I agree Gates has changed the way we do communicate in business and real world. However I tried explaining to my friend that iPhones are the most overated piece of IT ever but no he doesn't listen :rolleyes: fair play Jobs you brainwashed a lot of stupid people.

A lot of people forget that the iPod wasn't the first portable mp3 player by a long shot.

MRnotlob606

jooobs

the_syco

I respect Lynn Garrison more than I respect Bill Gates.

LostBoy101

camel jockey wrote: »

A lot of people forget that the iPod wasn't the first portable mp3 player by a long shot.

Yep they believe it because they listen to Apple's advertisement and think it's god's gift.

jimeryan22

Pretty sure ole bill's a eugenicist not very nice people

Frank Lee Midere

camel jockey wrote: »

A lot of people forget that the iPod wasn't the first portable mp3 player by a long shot.

A lot of people apparantly forget that windows 95 was ten years late.

Frank Lee Midere

LostBoy101 wrote: »

Yep they believe it because they listen to Apple's advertisement and think it's god's gift.

If only they had marketed the Zune!

kingtiger

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Jobs was a real visionary.

snigger, keep telling yourself that one

Jobs invented nothing, he was a shrewd business man that rode on the coat tales of Wozniak and in later years John Ives

Visionary me hole

camel jockey

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

A lot of people apparantly forget that windows 95 was ten years late.

Maybe you got a Windows 95 computer in 2005, the rest of us didn't...

Tails142

He can jump over an office chair from standing, so props to the man!

Frank Lee Midere

While I think that Gates is a better man than Jobs in terms of philanthropy the amount of Windows revisionism on here is amazing. MS invented little or nothing, not even DOS. None of the great inventions mentioned so far: Excel, Word, Outlook, Internet Explorer et al. were original nor were they best in class when released. MS used its monopoly to destroy its competition.