Goodbye, Bill Gates!

[EV_Ares]

Bill Gates is one of the most influential and wealthiest people the world has ever seen. He's a ruthless businessman who built Microsoft into a software empire that would dominate office and home computing around the world.

Forbes named Gates as the world's richest person for 13 years straight. But all good things must come to an end. On June 27, he is leaving the company he co-founded more than 30 years ago to devote himself to philanthropic work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Here's a look back at Gates' career and what lies ahead for him.

Link: http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/06/23/bill-gates-life-tech-gates08-cx_wt_0623gateslife_land.html


the career - Bill Gates Unfiltered
Elizabeth Corcoran
Gates reflects on innovation, Microsoft's contributions and what he's doing in his spare time.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/23/gates-technology-innovation-microsoft-gates08-cx_ec_0623gates.html

[Spouting Horn]

1. Bill Gates is proof

that wealth can be inversely proportional to the quality of the product you sell.

[no limit]

3. You are saying microsoft products aren't quality?

You can say what you want to about their business practices but the products they sell are top notch which is why they dominate the market.

[theoldman]

8. Microsoft dominates the market because they ruthlessly

crushed the competition. Why do you think there have been so many law suits against them?

[no limit]

18. Certainly a part of that

but if their product was of poor quality they would not be dominating the market. Money can only take you so far when you are selling snake oil. Any software developer in this world respects the development that goes in to microsoft products. Anyone that says otherwise really has no clue as to what they are talking about.

[hootinholler]

10. ROFLMAO!

:rofl:

One word: vista

-Hoot

[guitar man]

52. don't forget

Windows ME...that's what Vista reminded me of :rofl:

[Fovea]

11. No. Microsoft products aren't quality.

Internet Exploder has a bright future behind it.

Their best technology was attained by smash and grab.

Microsoft is a triumph of marketing and a celebration of bells and whistles over function and security.

Try Open office. Try Firefox.
Try Linux.

Then take what you save, and buy yourself something nice for being zo smaat. Like a new bicycle...

For you and all your friends.

[Mythsaje]

14. Open Office is MASSIVE and ram-hungry.

I had to uninstall it because it choked my machine where Word works just fine. When I get a machine that can tolerate it, I'll get it again. In the meantime, I'll stick with Word.

[Fovea]

37. That is odd, it is running like a top on my old dell notebook

circa 1999.

It has a slower risetime than word, but once up it runs fine. And it is nice to have the same app on my linux box. I read most of my PDF's on the linux box, which is so old, the help files are in linear B and the assembler codes in ogham.

I don't know. It might be a java problem. How much RAM you got?

This notebook is a gig. But it has a slow chip by todays standards.

[Mythsaje]

39. I don't even have a gig...

Which is part of the problem.

[Fovea]

43. The sandbox loves memory

and pouts without it.

[no limit]

16. You are nuts if you think openoffice is higher quality than Microsoft office

That tells me you have absolutely no understanding of software development and there really is no point trying to argue with you.

Yes, go and install Linux on your PC. If you actually manage to get online with it let me know how that works out for you.

[stanwyck]

29. You're joking, right?

Or you work for MicroSoft.

[no limit]

31. No, Im not joking and I don't work for microsoft

are you saying that their products are of poor quality? if you are please provide some back up for this assertion with your next reply.

[newmajority]

36. Two words

Vista
WindowsME

quality products???? :rofl:

[Fovea]

38. BoB

:rofl:

[no limit]

48. Touché

I would like to clarify my original statement. Every product microsoft has made in the last 8 years has been quality. And most before that were too, with the exception of a few such as Windows Bob and Windows ME.

:toast:

[WritersBlock]

32. If he or she isn't, I will.

Top notch? Not unless you're looking on the buggy & bloated scale. They certainly shine at that. ;)

And as someone upthread has already pointed out, they dominate the market because of their marketing and business practices, not because of the quality of their products. Make it damn near impossible for the average person to buy a computer without your OS installed, and it's pretty easy to dominate the market.

[no limit]

33. What alternative do you think should come with every new PC purchase?

Linux? I would love to see an old lady that doesn't know how to turn the computer off trying to navigate through Ubuntu. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

But you are making an accusation here that MS isn't quality and it's buggy. Please, provide some back up for this statement. Be specific (if you are going to point to Vista point to the exact problem you have with vista).

[WritersBlock]

42. What alternative? Gee, how about "choice" for starters?

Your post implies that you think old ladies are too stupid to use anything other than Windows. Interesting.

You want specifics on poor quality and bugs? Sure.

I've had to replace two of their branded keyboards, neither of which, although they were nice to type on until they started repeating characters at random, lasted a year.

Entourage lost every single task and note I'd entered during an hour and a half phone call with my boss. When it crashed, it advised me that some of my data "might" be lost. Sure enough, it was. Although not "some" - ALL. I bought OmniFocus that afternoon and it hasn't crashed - or lost any data - at all from the get-go.

Word 2008 crashes at random and frequently. It is simply unusable.

Those are Mac programs, but they're Microsoft. Why am I on a Mac? Wanted to upgrade to Adobe CS3, and it was a choice of Vista or Mac. Easy choice.

Why did I buy Office? Excel; required for work. It crashes, too, but thankfully not as often or as randomly as Word. Entourage was a total disaster, as noted above.

Having said that, Microsoft do make one product that I loved and dearly miss, and that's OneNote. I used it extensively on my tablet PC.

[no limit]

47. My post doesn't imply that old ladies a stupid, I don't appreciate you putting words in my mouth

the simple fact is that older people in general are not technical. I, like most young people, have been using a computer for the most part of my life. Older people haven't and most don't bother to. Ask John McCain if you don't believe me. This has nothing to do with stupidity, this has to do with technical ability.

Yes, choice would be awesome. Are you a software engineer? Get to coding, I want my choice now!!!!! The simple fact that there isn't much of a choice is because there isn't a product that can compete. Everybody has a choice to buy a mac. Wal mart recently started selling computers preloaded with linux for under $200. Yet Microsoft continues to dominate even when clear choices are available. That's because people view their product as superior, no matter how many "Im a mac and Im a pc" commercials they see.

I'm sorry to hear you are having problems on your mac. Not only have I been running office 2007 on my home pc for months now I manage a number of pc workstations at work with it installed. We have not had any issues. I can't remember the last time it has crashed on me. But yes, it sucks that your product is crashing on your mac and the fact its running fine on a pc is no excuse. What steps have you taken to try and resolve this, have you contacted microsoft's support?

I never claimed that microsoft software doesn't have bugs. Every software in the universe has bugs, that's a fact of life. So in that regard you are using a straw man argument.

[WritersBlock]

49. I didn't have to put any words in your mouth; you typed them yourself.

Judging by your posts, I have a feeling there are plenty of "older people" around who were using computers before you ever saw your first one, so don't be so condescending.

Seems I remember, way back in my foggy elderly memory, that if resellers wanted to sell *any* machines with Microsoft OS's, they had to agree to sell *solely* Microsoft OS's. And THAT is where the market domination came from. But hey, I'm old & feeble, so maybe my memory is faulty.

But if you don't think that's what happened, how about you back up your repeated statements that people view Microsoft products as superior? What are you basing that on? The fact that they dominate the market? If so, that's a circular argument.

I'm not actually having problems on my Mac as long as I don't use the Microsoft products. I use Excel on the few occasions when it's required for work, which is the only reason I bought the package in the first place. Word & Entourage came with it, so I tried them. They suck, so I don't use them. I resolved the situation by using other software that does work.

[no limit]

50. So you made absolutely no effort to make your pdocut work?

You just threw it out the window and then said Microsfot sucks? Didn't bother calling their support, reinstalling the application, doing a quick search for the error you were getting, nothing?

I have no idea where you are getting the fact that if a OEM wanted to sell computers with windows on it they had to do so exclusively. This is absolutely false, I bought a dell before with RedHat loaded on it. But don't take my word for it, go to dell's web site and you can configure a server with any OS they offer, everything from windows to redhat enterprise.

I already made my case to show that people view microsoft's products as superior. The fact you ignored it is not my problem. Reread my post above, you will see my back up this assertion.

And my point remains, most older people are not technically capable when it comes to computers. You can try to go against common sense and argue with me on this but I really don't know what there is to argue.

[WritersBlock]

51. Why should I have to make the product work? Making their product work is Microsoft's job, not mine.

In answer to your other question, for years, if the average person wanted to buy a computer, it was very difficult, if not damn near impossible, to buy one without Windows on it. That's why people built their own if they knew how.

As for where I'm getting that from?

Experience.

I *experienced* that.

I *experienced* trying to buy computers without Windows.

Sorry, but there's no link to it on the internets.

Experience.

Most older people often have that, even if we're not as technically capable as you young'uns.

[MadHound]

34. Are you saying that with a straight face? Then I have one word for you. . .

Vista!

Sorry, but MS products are nothing more than cheap knock-offs that are of inelegant design and poor performance. The only reason that they sell is because Gates has succeeded through various means, legal and otherwise, to flood the planet with with them, not because they are of high quality.

[no limit]

35. Vista is an interesting word, but you aren't explaining where it lacks quality

so please, I've asked this of 3 different people now and they all disappeared after I did. What specifically about Vista is of poor quality?

[MadHound]

41. Given the severity and amount of problems related to Vista, one would have to be living in a cave

Not to have heard a thing on this subject. Rather than copying and pasting an infinite number of links, I'll post just two. The first <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2007-03-02-vista-problems_N.htm> is an article from USA Today, the second is simply the results from a quick search, which you can peruse on your own <http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=problems+with+vista&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8>

There have been numerous discussion both here on DU and throughout the internet on the horrible quality of Vista, and like I said, you must have been living in a cave to not have heard of them.

Frankly this is but the logical conclusion of the path MS has been taking for years now, bloated, glitch ridden software that isn't fit to run a switch much less a computer. That's why I bought a Mac as my first computer, and why I still have a Mac now. I like the fact that my computer does what I want it to do, when I want to do it, without the blue screen of death, random crashes, conflicts, viri, and the various other maladies suffered by Windows users.

[question everything]

24. I disagree. Back in the mid 80s, I think, I discovered

Microsoft Works. It had a word processor, a spreadsheet and perhaps something else and I loved it. Was so much better that SuperCalc or whatever else was there.

Yes, it has dominated the market but I think that it started with the ease of these applications.

[Fovea]

54. Can you imagine them updating it?

Works was simple and trim, and did what most people needed for free.

Where did that model go?

Oh, right, Linux.

[no limit]

2. I don't care what anyone here says, I respect the guy.

I wish him good luck in his charity work.

[EV_Ares]

4. Yeah, I really think it is pretty cool what he and his wife are doing in their charity

work and the fact they plan on giving it all away and not taking any money to the grave. Sure, he has probably done some things we don't like as we all do those things, but I think when you look at the overall picture of his life, there are certainly more positives than negatives in it.

Also, interesting how he and William Buffett have become the closest of friends and who is another good, kind and wealthy individual.

I too wish Gates and his wife well.

[EOTE]

6. I respect him as well.

I think sometimes he was blinded by ambition, but never by greed. I think he always attempted to make technology that enriched people's lives and saw how much good technology was capable of. He'll certainly do quite a bit of good with the billions that he's donating.

[Fovea]

12. If his OS, or his software were as benign as his charity

It would be a better world already.

[TahitiNut]

13. Yeah. Ya gotta respect a guy that got wealthy by selling something he didn't own.

Yippee. :eyes:

He's a wonderful example of someone enriched by the labors of others.

[no limit]

17. What didn't he own?

Please, enlighten me.

[TahitiNut]

20. MS-DOS to begin with. I thought you knew it all. After all, you seem to be a cheerleader here.

What would I know ... even tough I was a beta-tester for Microsoft when they had fewer than 100 employees. What would anyone else know ... even though some of us may have been systems software engineers with over 30 years of experience. Have you ever even seen the source code for CP/M? For MS-DOS? Can you tell me about memory models? Interrupt handlers?

Nevermind. It's gotta be great ... because someone on the Internet says so. :eyes: Far be it from me to disagree.

[no limit]

21. Microsoft owned MS-Dos

Hence the title MS-DOS. The fact they bought it for what, $50, doesn't change the fact that they owned it.

So you are a software engineer? I haven't heard you dispute the quality of MS products here, are you going to do that?

And I'm not looking for a history lesson from you on micro-processors. The fact you were around then is very impressive, I certainly wasn't. But the question is about today's products from MS and their quality. I am arguing that their quality is superior, I haven't heard you argue otherwise.

[TahitiNut]

25. Not $50 ... $50,000 ... and then ONLY after they'd already sold it to IBM.

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033099.htm

I started in the business over 40 years ago, and began developing systems software in 1970 with a special-purpose standalone operating system. I'm old enough to be tired of the Internet know-it-alls who weren't even a wet spot on the sheets when I was writing systems software. I don't wrestle with pigs and I don't 'argue' with people who are obviously more interested in parading stupid postures than learning.

I don't participate in the "fan" wars ... Mac vs. PC ... "C" vs. Assembler ... UNix vs. the world ... whatever. It's stupid. To claim that Microsoft software's "quality is superior" is a laughable stance ... and completely begs the questions of how "quality" is measured and "superior" to WHAT? It's utter nonsense.

[no limit]

26. Interesting read, thanks for posting that link

I got the $50 figure from the movie pirates of silicon valley. I could be misquoting it, I haven't seen that movie since it originally aired on TBS almost 10 years ago. Not sure if you've seen it but it was a great movie.

But in the end this was still Microsoft's product. They bought the rights to it, they owned it. So to say they made a fortune off a product they didn't own is misleading at best.

This is not about fan wars. I work on linux web servers and have absolutely nothing bad to say about them, my main CentOS web server has been up for over 100 days now. But lately I have been moving toward a microsoft certification track for various reasons. So I have no bias either way, my apology if it came off as if I did.

You make a fair point that saying superior on my part was kind of dumb. My point here is simply that the products Microsoft makes are quality products. Someone above tried to suggest Open Office is better than Microsoft Office. Although I admit my reply was a little dickish the point is this is flat out false. You don't really seem to be disagreeing with me on anything here yet you are hell bent on attacking me. I'm not sure why that is.

[Fovea]

40. I ran CP/M on a Commodore SX-64 -- true basic, i think

Had an acoustic coupler for Comu$erve. Everytime I hear about Govt regulating the internets I think of them.

Remember SpinRite? J++? DoubleSpace? Win3.11? Visual Basic 1.0? MFC? I will never forget them.

Software heaven was

FORTH FIDO PAL ASPECT TurboPascal TurboC++ Interbase (writing meta data and triggers in notepad or edit) OWL and the BDE.

I worked on the first national multiple listing service, before the internets.

Those were the days.

[TahitiNut]

45. Yup. I was once (late 70s) a Z80, CP/M, Macro Assembler, T-Pascal, ( etc.) wonk/guru ...

... in my 'spare' time (when I wasn't doing systems programming or operational analysis). I had all the source code, data books, and engineering drawings for that micro. In my day job, I wrote (almost single-handedly) a functional (production) prototype Relational Data Management System for worldwide financial planning and analysis (at a Fortune 10 corporation) before 99.99% of today's senior 'experts' ever heard of a relational database. In my "spare" time I wrote a 3270 terminal (asynch) emulator for a Z80-based micro that became a production standard replacement internally.

I wuz akchewally wunce an eggspert ... forgot most of it. :shrug:

[PeaceNikki]

19. I do, too.

I've personally heard him speak. He takes The Gates Foundation very seriously and I am in awe of what they have done and continue to do with it. And as much as people loathe him, the world of technology would be a very different place if not for Microsoft.

:thumbsup:

[donco6]

28. Me too.

He could just sit back and do absolutely nothing. I think he's really trying to do some good things with his money. That's pretty cool.

[meegbear]

5. Later Bill!

I may not always like your products, but I tip my hat to you.

[Burma Jones]

7. As hyper rich guys go, he and Warren Bufett are pretty good....n/t

[SheilaT]

9. In fact, it might have been Warren Buffet

who influenced Bill Gates to start giving his money away.

I think it was ten or so years ago that Gates said that after he died the bulk of his wealth would go to charitable causes and someone (I for seem reason think it was Buffet) pointed out that he was still a relatively young man and that if he really meant it about doing good then he'd start giving away his money a whole lot earlier. Apparently Gates thought it over and concluded that the right thing to do was to start using at least some of his vast wealth for good as soon as possible. And he has.

Yes, he's been a ruthless businessman, and yes, not all Microsoft products are as good as they could be (the latest version of Word is just awful) but they did put computers into the hands of the masses and that has transformed our world.

[Mythsaje]

15. As mega-rich fuckers go, Gates isn't half bad. n/t

[NeedleCast]

22. while Some of MS business practices were

questionable I'm glad that Bill has taken the course of being an (apparently) fairly philanthropic person. Gates is the ultimate nerd-done-well to some of us IT geeks out there.

[no limit]

23. No kidding. The fact he was able to take an OS that he got for $50 and turn it in to MS is admirable

[EV_Ares]

27. Gates vs. GM

At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."


In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:


If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:


1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.


2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.


3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and re-open the Windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.


4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to re-install the engine.


5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.


6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.


7. The airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?" before deploying


8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.


9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.


10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

[OhioChick]

30. Good Riddance!

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

Published January 7, 2007


Ebocha, Nigeria - Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.

An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights."

The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.


More at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,1211879.story

<snip> "In addition, The Times found the Gates Foundation endowment had major holdings in:

Companies ranked among the worst U.S. and Canadian polluters, including ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Co. and Tyco International Ltd."


Also see post #40.

oh, yeah. testing drugs in africa, on kids, too. it's great.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3502451#3504087

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

44. I Have The World Of Respect For Him.

He is extremely charitable and has helped more people than you could ever dream of doing, with all due respect.

[Missy Vixen]

46. Bill Gates isn't perfect

but at least he (and his wife,) are trying to leave it a better world than they found it. It's hard for me to believe that there was not swift and decisive action as a result of the findings of the Forbes article. If you'd like to read more about the foundation, please go to http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm.

A personal anecdote: We live ten miles from Microsoft's world headquarters. One of the area "hangouts" is Burgermaster in Bellevue, WA, which makes the best cheeseburgers in the area. I've been going to Burgermaster since college; we visit there a couple of times a month now. One of their carhops was telling us Sunday afternoon that she'd just seen Mr. Gates a couple of days ago. He visits often. He's polite, friendly, doesn't complain if he has to wait, and is generally a nice person to wait on.

This may not seem like a big deal until she mentioned that they also see Seahawks, Mariners, and numerous other prominent personalities from the Seattle area on a regular basis. She also said she believes he's almost "relieved" at being treated like just another customer.

Again, he's not perfect, but he makes an effort to just be one of the crowd here.

Julie

[Toucano]

53. Carnegie, Melon, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Getty, Gates

Ruthless businessmen, decent philanthropists.


The list of ruthless businessmen who weren't philanthropists is much longer, though.