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Bill Gates to be Knighted
gexen writes "According to an article in the Telegraph Bill Gates is going to be knighted by the Queen of England for "services to the global enterprise." She's just handing them out like candy these days!"
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I refuse to kneel before Gates! Fight the Aristocracy!
You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
charged with keeping the Kingdom secure. ;) FP?
I knight thee!
Arise, Sir Plenty of Bugs, Sir Mega of Lomaniac, sir Screen of Blue, Sir Embrace of Extend, Sir 640 of K....
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
With a name like William Gates III it was only a matter of time!
I forget what its called but Bill Gates cannot be "Knighted" with full title as he is not a british subject , its kinda like being knighted "lite"
Don't you need to be British to become a knight?
Satan is getting knighted tomorow.
Since I'm pretty sure no one could possibly appreciate the numerous bugs and issues caused by Microsoft... I've decided billy must be hittin' it in order to get knighted... will he stop at nothing!?
Knighthood is just like awarding the Hollywood Star. They should display icons of all the knights down the Thames.
We need to create a rewards system that rewards not celebrities but progressives. The Martyr Award or the like. Give it a sexy title... and *poof* suddenly being a progressive is hip.
The Custom Mary
As stated in this news release
The honour does not allow them to use the title sir.
No Sir for you! [Mr Gates]
This is just an excuse to get a sharp object hear his neck...
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
I thought that they had trouble keeping the respect in the eyes of the population?
What are they thinking? Will the British population react favorably to this?
I knight thee for thy geek prowass, in spite of thy buggy insecure software, in spite of thy pending antitrust litigation, I knight thee for thy introduction of technology which will allow geeks around the world to stream Monty Python sketches over the web and share them with their geek brethren, in spite of the fact that you stole the concepts behind it from your competitors and insisted on including crippling and inherently broken DRM.
-- The Queen Mother
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Sometimes it really sucks being British - having some clueless hereditary monarch handing out gongs to media moguls, software barons and dodgy heads of state.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
If you'd bothered to read the article, you'd know that it's Gordon Brown's work, not Blair's. The article states that the Blair camp is pissed off about it.
Probably around the same time you kiss a girl. So, never.
After all, it's not the Queen's fault - she gets told who's to be knighted by the PM, although it seems this time the Chancellor has stuck his oar in...
I always did think Labour were too damn close to WBG the III. At least he doesn't get to call himself 'Sir', not being British...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
If I were Bill Gates, I would not accept invitations to kneel before someone with a sword.
Thanks, I just found this doing a search "Citizens of countries which do not recognise the Queen as head of state sometimes have honours conferred upon them, in which case the awards are "honorary" - the holders are entitled to place initials behind their name but not style themselves "Sir ...". Examples of foreigners with honorary knighthoods are Bob Geldof and Rudolph Giuliani, while Arsene Wenger and Gerard Houllier have honorary OBE's. Recipients of honorary awards who later become subjects of Her Majesty may apply to convert their awards to substantive awards. There is no law preventing foreigners from holding a peerage, though only Commonwealth citizens can sit in the House of Lords. However, the Canadian prime minister was able to advise the Queen not to grant Conrad Black a titular honour while he remained a Canadian citizen. "
Knighthoods and other decorations have very often been sold to the highest bidder one way or another. It's not even particularly offensive, but a good way of paying for the monarchy. I'd rather that Bill gets a knighthood by paying for it in cash than for making large contributions to the political party in charge, which is the other way it happens.
"All hail to Sir Borg^h^h^h^hBill!"
Ceci n'est pas une signature
If Yasser Arafat can win the Nobel Peace Prize Bill Gates can be knighted. All signs that the apocalypse is at hand.
According to this latest news, the ceremony will be performed by a robot likeness of the Queen. The robot will be running Windows XP and connected to the Internet, whereby a populist vote of Internet users, the sword will be either flat-side or edge.
Tomorrow's news: Script-kiddies cut head of software giant head.
We are the knights who say......
Let's see... Mr. Gates has donated billions to charities, AIDs research, etc. How much has Linus donated?
When I read this article, I get a mental image of Bill Gates thinking how awesome it would be to be officially titled "Sir Bill Gates". I then picture him dialling the extension for his publicity department and asking them to "get on it right away".
There are probably hundreds of people in the IT industry more worthy of knighthood than Gates... think of people like Wozniack, Torvalds, Stallman, Page... guys who made REAL advances in computer science without greed as a primary motivator.
Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
Bill Gates is unquestionably a great and accomplished man. The height of Nerddom. Probably a better choice than the handfull of rock stars...
The constitition says in part "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. "
does this mean congress has to vote on it? or already has?
for me to succeed, it doesn't matter if MY point of view is right or wrong, there must just be reasoned replies.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
At least torvalds doesn't donate money he didn't earn in a fair way
...instead of the flaming and crude jokes that I know are going to happen anyway, is a serious discussion of exactly what Bill Gates has done to earn an honor of this magnitude.
What I mean is an examination from an alternative viewpoint, not for the sake of making a favorable impression of Microsoft -- but as an academic exercise.
I'm well aware that Microsoft, especially on this forum, is seen as one of the most evil entities to ever exist. With that in mind, I'm going to rush right into Godwin's Law and make the following comparison with Hitler's Germany: In just a few years, Hitler managed to transform Germany from an highly agricultural, economically decrepit country into a modern, industrial, profitable one. This was all before the Holocaust, and during that period, he enjoyed immense public support.
Now examine Microsoft. They are a convicted monopolist, and continue to enjoy unparalleled control over the domestic software (and to an extent, hardware) market. But what has arisen from this that would lead their chairman to be considered for an honorary knighthood? Thrust aside the seething hate for a second and just look. What accomplishments have arisen? Computers running software whose price/performance is fantastic? One of the easiest-to-develop-for video game consoles ever? Highly capable web servers that run some of the busiest sites--Dell.com, Nasdaq.com, MSNBC.com? Software conformity (and all the positives and negatives that result)?
As I said, this is intended to be an exercise, not a trumpeting endorsement, in the interests of shedding new light on this piece of news.
The coolest voice ever.
Ok, so the English Queen is giving an honorary title to the man most disliked by Linux fanatics and for that she is said to be giving out titles like candies. Grow up!
I may not like the way Microsoft does think (somewhat arrogant) but give credit where it's due. Mr Gates' contributions in my mind are as follows:
1) Making IT not just for the geeks and the super rich but making it affordable for hundreds of millions of IT illiterates to learn how to use a PC. (I agree Macintosh and others were better but point 2 is the reason why MS succeeded).
2) Standardizing the way GUI applications work so that ordinary folks can get productivity out of them instead of endless tweaking and fumbling. (of course, sometimes it crashes and those @#$%^*!! words start flowing)
3) Bill is a philanthropist and a marvellous example compared to many other rich folks.
Let's be rationale, we may not like some aspects of a company or a person but don't throw out the good parts. That is character murder and a sign of immaturity on our part.
Reality is what we taste, smell, see, hear and touch yet we cannot comprehend it...only approximate it.
Steve Ballmer for services to the global entertainment. Sheesh...
When queen liz slips.
Anyone here in the UK? someone tell her you have to swing REEEALLY hard.
thanks
A school in the Netherlands awarded Bill Gates an honorary doctorate. So he already has the highest scientific achievement you can get without doing anything for it. Of course, it is pretty telling that it is not a school of computer science that awarded him this title, but a school of management - and, as it is, in the Netherlands this school is considered to be more a "school of networking": it does not teach you anything, but boy can you be assured of a good job if you finish it. "Nobby parents get nobby children high-paying jobs that do not require any skills". Fits Gates well, I should think.
exactly what Bill Gates has done to earn an honor of this magnitude.
Giving loads of money to good causes always helps.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
It probably has something to do with all the money he's donated to AIDS research and educational grants (warning, this link is to the gates foundation website so is certainly biased, but it does list the monetary amounts they've donated to various schools) in recent years.
I'll admit that he's not the best philanthropist, but he does donate a lot of money to a lot of organizations. He could just swim in it all day like Scrooge McDuck, so he deserves some definite props for doing what he does.
Don't sell him short just because he's mostly evil...
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
Hopefully they're knighting him just as a preparation for sending him out on some stupid crusade from which he'll never return.
We are the knights who say NI!
and we require a.... a.. beowulf cluster of sony playstation 2's
Microsoft announces "Windows XP knights edition". This package includes built in firewall and preloaded with Apache too keep the kingdom safe from intruders. Updates will be totally automatic because everyone can trust "sir bill". This little baby definately comes with a kings ransom as MS stopped taking the firstborn last month. We will settle for bleeding the kingdoms gold one upgrade at a time. Act now and get a personally signed version in a box that looks like the Gates family crest.
You have to be kidding me. Hell really has frozen over.
Got hosting
"No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
Here, read it for yourself: Constitution for the United States of America.
There are just so many ways to look at this (specifically where Bill Gates is concerned), that this could keep constitutional lawyers happy for years.
He's in a position of profit and trust, but is it Under the States? Is geographic location, making that much money, and having your software so deeply enshrined in so many State governments enough to make that connection? Note: Office does not specifically say POLITICAL office...
Oh yeah, HUGE can of worms.
Tips for gaining karma:
1. Post a question containing a (albeit incorrect) supposition (get karma).
2. Answer one's own question (get more karma).
Then when karma is got:
3. Post TK and GNAA trolls at +2 (karma has to be used for something).
When will the Linux-worship end???
I think Muslim and Christian Fundamentalists talk about each other this way too
fanatics OF ALL FLAVORS are stupid, period
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
> Let's see... Mr. Gates has donated billions to charities, AIDs research, etc. How much has Linus donated?
His lifework.
And you're forgetting that he donated it for FREE.
Imagine how much money would have been spent on Linux if it wasn't free? SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and all those other Distros make up a large section of the IT market just on CD SALES and SUPPORT for what is essentially a free product.
MSFT got rich on selling the same product that Linus gives away for free.
Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
In Europe, there's nothing strange in being a knight and a robber at the same time - the castles of the Raubrittern (robber knights) are actually a tourist attraction of the Rhine valley. If you want to try to convince Her Majesty to change Her mind, you have to prove that Bill Gates is a coward - but if you'll just say "Your Majesty, this man is a criminal!", the response would be "so fscking what, my dear subject?".
Hitler was Time Magazine's Man of the Year once.
Like someone else said previously, Yasser Arafat has a Nobel Peace Prize.
Milli Vanilli once had a Grammy.
George W. Bush has made a mockery of the US Presidency.
From Wikipedia.org:
It's generally accepted that when the constitution speaks of "The United States" as if it were an entity, it is referring to the Government. He's a private citizen, he can get the knighting. Doing so will ensure we never have to worry about President Gates though. ;)
how much has Gates' earned by circumventing laws and price gouging governments and nations around the world? Hence a lot of people!
How much has Linus taken from the same people?
A tax rebate is when the government decides to give back money from you it shouldn't have taken. Here, Bill Gates through immoral and illegal actions has garnered billions and is "generous" to give back. Forgive Linus for not going through that route but instead helping create and organize the production of Linux, a product that'll continually give back to the public.
Consider that for each person that is using Linux but wouldn't have heard about FreeBSD or some other free system and would instead of had to pay for Microsoft. How much money is that? How about governments and organizations that are now saving from the microsoft tax?
I'm in no way saying he should be knighted. But his donation of time has resulted in quite impressive results. It's just not a fair comparison to say he hasn't donated large sums of money when you consider how Bill got his money.
In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey
Linux helping Windows boot faster, Spirit on the way to working again, Opportunity successfully landing and now Bill Gates being Knighted. At this rate Beagle 2 will come back to life, Duke Nukem Forever will get a release date and this story won't be duped!
What a week!
that Bill Gates has done more for the world than, say, Mick Jagger or Elton John. He runs both an incredibly successful company and gives away gobs of money to charities.
Hated? Yes. Undeserving? No.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
Maybe we will get lucky and the Queen might "crash" when she is using the sword to knight him.
I wonder how much this cost Bill?
Yes, this is the way it usually works.
If you steal millions from widows and orphans and then endow an orphanage you are a great man and a philanthropist.
If you dedicate your life to directly aiding widows and orphans you're a bum who never amounted to anything.
It really doesn't take too much reading of history to discover that this principle is almost invariable.
Or you can just take the shortcut and read Mark Twain's essays.
KFG
Well, during the dark ages the baron who robbed the land they owned and lived well by stealing the hard work of peasants also got dubbed with titles.
She's going to take the opportunity when she's got a sword on his shoulder, to lop off his head. I don't feel like stopping it ;).
Mod "Overrated" instead of replying "I disagree with you," you coward.
>Bill Gates is unquestionably a great and accomplished man. The height of Nerddom.
Look up the word 'Insightful' you crack smoking mods!
Yes. Microsoft people think criticism comes only from envy and can't get over that speed bump. I've seen "Pirates of Silicon Valley" too, but that was a movie. From what I read, Bill's mother was on the board of directors of the same charity as the CEO of IBM and said "I know someone who can find you an OS for that new PC thing". Bill went out and bought one, mostly changed the drive IO parameters, and MS-DOS was born. What has always been at the front of my mind is how could someone NOT make a billion or two riding on the coat tails of that wave?
Yes, Microsoft did successfully break from IBM. But did he personally invent and write Windows? I don't think so. So "the height of nerddom". I don't think so. The guy is no Edison.
But weaselly-schrewd lying, cheating, world-class FUD spreader of a hard ball businessman, yes. The guy is a throwback to 19th Century robber barons. Which, come to think of it, probably makes him a good candidate for knighthood.
I bet all Gates' friends back at the D&D will never believe this.
"Sir Bill Gates, level 15th Paladin...a true warrior for the people if I do say so myself" - Bill Gates
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
Knighting Steve Jobs would be about the same.
He's the marketing dude.
I think you might be mixing him up with Steve Wozniak.
---
...use a lightsabre instead.
... oh dear..."
"I knight thee in the name of... ZZZWURTCH
So if he succeeds with all his DRM plans, does he get crowned?*
(*hit on the head)
=Smidge=
No, if a withered narcissist like Mick Jagger can be knighted, Gates certainly deserves the honor. It's a shame, though, that the British are honoring him when, frankly, he deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It galls me to write this, but it's the truth.
[this
A good result of this: Bill Gates will not be allowed to run for president of the US. (Presidents of the US may not have British noble status)
Whats next, the Magna Carta?
Cite (scroll down).
Gates has thumbed his nose at the political classes in America in ways that the rest of us only dream of being able to do. Part of the reason for the rage and fury of the DOJ case. Many other IT luminaries (i.e. Ellision and Jobs) line up for their blowjobs from politicians regularly.
---
>Antitrust aside, MS is not built on crime and in modern
>times that is about the only thing that would make him
>not be Knighted
Ummm, lets see. Try stepping back a decade or two and reconsider this position.
They illegally broke the back of DRDOS and OS/2 for that matter. Doing this is one of the key things that made them a monopoly that so many grant was "naturally" acquired. WIthout the monopoly none of the rest would follow.
Well, actually Edison was no 'Edison'.
Most of his 'inventions' were the work of others (his employees or other researchers).
Edison wasn't really an inventor, he was an entrepreneur that made those inventions work in the marketplace - just like Bill Gates did with PCs.
The article specifically said he was getting an honorary KBE (Knight Commander).
As long as he hops the pond and stays... I'll be happy. (not bloody likely)
:)
I have this sick image of Bill Gates storming onto the stage in full armour to show off Windows' new OS.
I also have a rather satisfying image of him tripping over a stuffed pengiun and crashing down.
Then maybe there's a really off chance that after he's knighted, the'll sue the fsck out of him an... there are all kinds of things that can be done to a knight of the realm if he's been really bad. (Then again, this is just my hopes.)
Although, in his defense, him and his wife have done a lot of good human betterment stuff. If you look past the whole Microsoft thing, the're actually good people. And no, this isn't a troll!! Just look at their foundation.
-=fshalor
Remember that not only is Bill Gates the self-made, richest man in the world, but he is also one of the top philanthropist of all times due to the charitable gifts of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has already given away billions. So, it's not too surprising that he is knighted. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.
I'm definitely not a Microsoft fan (I'm a Unix admin). But give the guy some slack. I think some people take this anti-Microsoft thing too personally.
Like many posting here, I would dance around the flames if Microsoft were to crash and burn. That being said, the money that Gates has contributed to research for a malaria vaccine - probably the world's most pressing health problem, and one that is shamefully underfunded by our government - could potentially save the lives of millions.
So, if I go make my billions by say, creating a monopoly on electricity and holding the world's energy hostage, with the decline in service that a monopoly implies (and Bill Gate's monopoly has demonstrated), such as power outages induced by any script kiddie with a home built circuit, random crashes of the power grid for no apparent reason, etc., and amass my billions despite having been convicted and hand-slapped for misusing my power monopoly to gain 70% market share in television sales (by, say, randomly cutting power to my competitors factories), but I turn around and give a few hundred million of my stolen billions to malaria research, does that make my a nice guy worthy of knighthood?
Does the fact that I gave 0.01% of my stolen money away make me a good person, or worthy of the kind of fawning I see here?
In the eyes of any clear thinking person, no, it does not (regardless of how much "good" that stolen and donated money might provide, the money, along with the other billions that dwarf it, would have done much more good had it not been stolen in the first place).
In the eyes of the British Crown (or at least Tony Blair, who is likely far more behind this than a 70-year old lady), apparently yes.
This is disgusting. The man has done more to harm computing over the last 20 years than any hundred other people, he has destroyed thousands to feed his apparently bottomless avarice for money (always unethically and often illegally) and only began giving to charity after his family shamed him into it. He is an unrepentent monopolist who continues to wreck havoc upon the industry, and whos shoddy products have been a disservice, not a service, to global enterprise.
Bill Gates should be ashamed. Great Britain should be ashamed. Frankly, anyone with a knighthood should be ashamed.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Won't Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Bill Gates III KBE be surprised when the Queen summons them to fight for Great Britain in her next war.
I guess the British are concerned with Information Warfare, after all.
I understand the first sentence above. I understand the second sentence. Why does the first demonstrate the second, though?
If you mean Margaret Thatcher, she is already a BaronessThe vast resources of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are being used to battle diseases that have cursed mankind since the beginning of history. Particularily malaria and polio.
We are close to completely removing polio from the face of the earth, as we have done to the other ancient horror, smallpox.
Granted: the Gates legal team created the foundation to shelter the family wealth from taxes, and the wealth was created in less than honorable ways.
But, it is currently being directed successfully towards a goal that will benefit all humans now and in the future.
This is why the nerd king is being recognized as Sir Bill.
"Bill Gates has led one of the planets most profitable companies for over a decade. He deserves a Knighthood."
And Mussolini got the trains to run on time. What's your point?
Eh, whatever. She ain't my queen...
Although, in his defense, him and his wife have done a lot of good human betterment stuff. If you look past the whole Microsoft thing, the're actually good people. And no, this isn't a troll!! Just look at their foundation.
Yes, let's look at the Bill Gates Foundation
--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?
American Weblog in London
The Gates Foundation has an endowment of approximately $24 Billion. When you put $5 in the collection plate, you have, perhaps, paid for one meal for one homeless person. When you donate $24B, you can, among other things, spend more than $65,000,000 per year to treat AIDS in the developing world.
Look, you don't have to like Bill G's company or the software they make, but until you've figured out how to earn a few billion and donate it to charity, you should not try to insult the generosity of those who have.
Sounds like the company of those who refused is a lot better than those who accepted...
Melinda: If you dont fund my organization, you wont even get to see my boobs!
Bill: awww, but I dun
Melinda: not another word, or you wont have chances at sex again for another 3 years
Bill: Fine, god dammit. you stupid bitch, I'll fund your little useless cause
Melinda: and you can get more potential customers and more publicity!
Bill: Wow, did I tell you how beautiful you are?
prolly went down something like that.
Don't be such a tightass. Bad people? Let's play devil's advocate here. Round up all the OSS developers. Every single individual. And tally up how much they've donated to charities, schools, museums, communities, universities, third-world aid efforts. Now round up Bill Gates and do the same with him. Bill Gates outdoes all of them combined, even if you don't include the value of the software he's donated. Bill Gates is the greatest philanthropist in the history of the world. No joke. Even if I grant you his illegal and/or underhanded, ruthless business practices, at worst he is a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from the well off, giving to the poor off (and keeping a healthy chunk for himself - although he has pledged to eventually give away close to everything he's earned).
If I were in the software business, I would hate Microsoft for what they are and what they symbolize. If I were some starving person in Ethiopia, I would be saying, "fucking finally, someone is willing to put their money where their mouth is."
So far, most of the comments have overlooked the most important bit of the original article.
For all you folks over the pond, a bit of recent UK political history starts here:
The person who nominated Gates for this award is Gordon Brown, currently the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Brown and Blair have a love hate relationship based on the fact that Brown believes he was stitched up by Blair over the Labour party leadership prior to Labour's victory in the 1997 election.
This animosity is kept quite on the whole because no government in the UK will dare to show a division of support for its leader as it's a great turn off for the voters as several Tory opposition leaders have found over the last 8+ years.
Blair is in a very vulnerable position for the first time in years as the shit is heading for the fan re: Iraq and Brown sees this as a good time to position himself for the take over if Blair goes down. The entrepeneurs conference Brown has set up is basically (as the article suggests) a "look how important I am and how powerful my friends are" day. Incidentally, the conference's most notable claim to fame is the lack of speakers who have started the business they currently run.
Personally, I find the concept of being lectured on entrepeneurship by people who have taken on the CEO post at a multinational or run their own predatory destroyer of start-ups, small businesses and competitors insulting in the extreme and hope Brown fall flay on his face despite my intense dislike for Blair.
I don't know whether there's a mechanism for objecting to honours in the UK but if anyone does, now may be the time to speak up.
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.
Right.
...... sometime in the unspecified future.
"Even if I grant you his illegal and/or underhanded, ruthless business practices, at worst he is a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from the well off, giving to the poor off (and keeping a healthy chunk for himself - although he has pledged to eventually give away close to everything he's earned)."
He takes from the rich
And gives to the needy
He keeps a little bit
But I'm not greedy!
-or-
They robbed the rich
And gave to the poor
except what they kept for expenses!
Let me crush your world image right now. ANYONE can promise to do ANYTHING thing
If you want to talk about how wonderful Bill Gates is, please just TRY to restrict yourself to ACTUAL activities.
And that "close to everything he's earned".... well, that all depends upon what YOUR definitions of "close" and "everything" and "earned" are and what HIS definitions are.
"If I were in the software business, I would hate Microsoft for what they are and what they symbolize."
Translation: If you were trying to support yourself and your family by doing honest work...
"If I were some starving person in Ethiopia, I would be saying, "fucking finally, someone is willing to put their money where their mouth is.""
Translation: If you were the object of his generosity....
So, it all comes down to whether you are the victim or the benefactor.
Let's try looking at this in a more enlightened mode, eh?
Look at the whole process. He breaks laws and amasses a HUGE personal fortune. But then he gives away a portion of that fortune. A small portion. A portion he will not even notice.
Now, to me, that doesn't seem like a person or behaviour that is "good".
I don't recall Robin Hood living in a castle with servants and such, all paid for by his "steal from the rich and give the table scraps to the poor".
So Bill Gates is being knighted and the media is aghast. This whole situation can be remedied quickly. When you donate $26 freakin' billion dollars for charitable causes, like Mr. Gates has, you may complain.
26... billion... dollars...
That's WELL over half of his liquid worth, and it nears 3/4 of his liquid wealth, which is currently sitting somewhere near $40-42 billion. And he's the "anti-christ"?
OBE has long been interpreted as "Other Bloke's Effort". This is an area where Bill excells.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Ok, tell me what Bill Gates has been convicted of in criminal court. Now tell me what he has been convicted of in Civil court. Don't tell me suits brought against him. Tell me convictions, because I can bring a suit against Playboy for making me too horny, but that doesn't mean I am going to win, or that Playboy did anything wrong.
Quit your bitching, Bill gates is probably a better man than you, and by the standards of Knight Hood, he definitely ranks up there with what has been knighted in the past, using intelligence and guile to achieve wealth and power, has always been the definition of Nobility, so try not being such a liberal baby for a minute and just accept, he's doing better than you, and no one gave it to him.
Anonymous Cowards - Oh God, How I hate you
I'm not disagreeing with your point - open platforms can always outmaneuvre the competition - but the downside of open platforms is that evolution prefers an ugly hack delivered today to an elegant design delivered tomorrow.
Bill Gates won't be a "sir" as he isn't a british subject - he'll be Bill Gates KBE (Knight of the British Empire), but not "Sir Bill Gates" (I'd have more chance - mind you I'd need to change my name to William Gates, and do something worth getting knighted for... but you know what I mean).
As to does he deserve it? I don't see it personally, but then I miss the "Golden Age" when computers were all different (Amiga, Atari, Mac, etc). "Which version of XP do you want?" (Home, Professional, Media, Tablet) isn't quite the same really. As we have Billg to thank for the near monoculture of modern IT I find it hard to applaud.
> Illegally? How so?
Microsoft added a message to Windows that gave a warning about incompatibility with DR-DOS. But Microsoft's own testing had shown DR-DOS's compatibility to be essentially perfect. The message was a lie, intended to defraud the public.
Microsoft also added intentional (and encrypted) incompatibilities to Windows 95, while keeping DR-DOS out of the Windows 95 test program. It was a deliberate act of sabotage.
But there are more recent examples of Microsoft's criminal activity:
Sabotage:
> "Strategic Objective [is to] kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market" -- Microsoft Pricing Proposal for VJ++ 6.0
Fraud:
> "As i [sic] told charlesf [Fitzgerald] on the phone, at this point its [sic] not good to create MORE noise around our win32 java classes. Instead we should just quietly grow j++ share and assume that people will take advantage of our classes without ever realizing they are building win32-only java apps." -- Armstrong Decl., Ex. 23.
Extortion:
> Gates wrote, "Apple let us down on the browser by making Netscape the standard install." Gates then reported that he had already called Apple's CEO (who at the time was Gil Amelio) to ask "how we should announce the cancellation of Mac Office...."
> In Waldman's words: Sounds like we give them the HTML control for nothing except making IE the "standard browser for Apple?" I think they should be doing this anyway. Though the language of the agreement uses the word "encourage," I think that the spirit is that Apple should be using it everywhere and if they don't do it, then we can use Office as a club.
Almost every one of Microsoft's "victories" has involved similar illegal behavior.
The sabotage of Java alone has delayed the introduction of e-commerce by years, resulting in a loss of as much as $100 billion per year for the U.S. economy. And when you take that much wealth out of the world, people die.
Bill Gates doesn't deserve a Knighthood. He deserves to be in jail.
In other words, if you go to church every Sunday and put $5 in the collection plate, you've given $60.
And tell me: do you go to church every Sunday and put $5 in the collection plate?
Which would be MORE than someone with ONE billion dollars giving away one hundred thousand dollars.
$100,000 > $60, even if the people donating the money have disparate incomes.
I'll be honest, the only donation I've ever made in my entire life was to the ACLU, and that was only $20. I'm a college student with no income to speak of, but Gates still has me beat (looking at this a little more objectively).
Also, keep in mind his Gates Foundation has a huge bank account (someone mentioned on the order of $45 billion, though I haven't verified that). Given such a large account, it can and probably will be a self-sustaining charity.
This would mean the Foundation living and donating off interest. It would also mean never needing future financial input. $60 could never hope to do that, even if it is the same percentage of income.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
What was your previous drivel about a few hundred thousand dollars? How about $5 billion? Enough for you, or are you Anti-Billy-G Blinders still on? I can't believe you were modded up.
My goal in life is to become the very first combination Knight/Saint/MCSE!
Aging Pope 'Just Blessing Everything in Sight'
Bill Gates is the man who made computers accessible to the common people. He certainly deserves credit for that.
I think, in the UK - which is what we're talking about right? - that honour must go to Sir Clive Sinclair.
Having said that, credit should also go to Commodore and the BBC (BBC 'B'), not to mention Alan Sugar of Amstrad (and, trust me, I tried not to - I still haven't forgiven him for killing off Sinclair and the QL!). Don't get me wrong, I'm not makingany value judgements about the quality or otherwise of any of these system - just the ability to penetrate the market and get into peoples homes, schools and businesses. Bill Gates was pretty late to the party, with his then chums at IBM.
"Linux is a serious competitor"
- Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Microsoft Corp.
I was mod'ed up because it was "insightful". Deal with it.
.52% of $50,000.
....... $5.2 MILLION per year.
I was using those numbers as an example of how the PERCENTAGE works out.
Here they are again, slightly corrected.
Someone making $50,000 a year give $5 a week at church.
$5/week = $260 / year
Which is
Now, if we're talking about $1 billion, then the $5 equivalent is
So don't let the SIZE of the numbers fool you (as they obviously have with you). Look at all the factors. What percentage of his wealth he donates and what form the donations come in. It's easy for him to transfer a lot of Microsoft stock to his foundation because Microsoft gives him a LOT of stock.
Forget this list. Like a lot of "you owe Microsoft" style posts, it consists of accomplishments that are debatable either because their accuracy or whether they really stand out above their competition.
Microsoft's (as both a separate entity and alter-ego to Bill Gates) real contribution is in its history. Once again, Microsoft advocates often miss the mark by starting their list with "Internet for the masses" or the beginnings of Windows (with both points being dubious). It goes further back than that.
Microsoft's biggest contribution to computing is being a conduit for the process of making computer hardware a commodity. Kind of an odd turn of events since they were entirely a software company at this point. And likely more accidental than planned.
At this point in history, microcomputers were coming in to their own. They were no longer toys for hobbyists but rather important business tools. It hadn't taken long for IBM to notice that a market they had resoundingly ignored was quickly growing. IBM backpedaled and rushed out their own entry - the IBM PC. It was such a success in the business market that soon became a defacto standard. It might be worth pointing out that in IBM's rush to market, their IBM-PC product was heavily dependent on off-the-shelf components and and a licensed operating system from a small outfit based in New Mexico.
Enter Compaq. Compaq was the first to produce a legal IBM-PC clone in their Compaq Portable product (although not the first clone to market or first "portable" computer). This was done through a meticulous and expensive reverse engineering process. This was a necessary step since the hardware involved was available but the underpinnings of the IBM-PC, its BIOS, was not. The investment paid off - Compaq had a fully functional clone which launched the company to becoming one of computing's major players.
However, Compaq's success would have been questionable if it wasn't for Microsoft. The reason to go through this tedious reverse engineering was to create a machine that functioned just like an IBM-PC. The BIOS was one piece. The operating system was another. But unlike previous microcomputer products, the OS was not owned by the manufacturer. Compaq licensed the same OS, Microsoft's DOS, that ran on the IBM-PC.
I find it hard to believe that Bill Gates foresaw this turn of events. It is very likely that he simply saw software as being as important as hardware, that the microcomputer would take off, and that getting a portion of each IBM sale would lead to more profit than an outright buyout of DOS. Or maybe Bill reflected on their success with BASIC and did, in fact, see a day when their OS could be licensed in the same manner.
In any case, Compaq was the first of many. More clones came to market. This challenged IBM's product and lead to a situation where the "IBM-PC" became a compatibility standard as much as an available product. Clone companies continued to compete on price and features as the "IBM-PC" market shifted away from IBM's proprietary product to a commodity.
And Microsoft collected a fee for each "IBM-PC" sold.
There are a couple interesting points worth stressing here.
IBM began this process, albeit unintentionally, by relying on off-the-shelf parts that any other manufacturer could also purchase. IBM then attempted to protect their product with proprietary firmware. There are some echos of this behavior in today's computing environment.
Microsoft rode the wave of the hardware market becoming a commodity. Whether this was luck or not might be open to some debate but they
This post will probably never be seen, but Bill Gates has given nothing to charity, only his foundation has. This makes a big difference since he can write all this off as charitable donations. Oh yes, and guess who sits on the board of his "charitable trust?" Right. His family. They draw very nice salaries plus expenses. You paid for it! For example -- the donation to the Boys and Girls clubs. $100 million, they claimed. In fact, it was something like $80 million dollars in software and $20 in cash. So he is out of pocket only $20 million, but he gets a writeoff of the FULL RETAIL VALUE of the software! In other words, if he's writing the "$100 million" off at 50% deduction (1985 it was 50%, in 1986 it was 100%), then he just made $30 million off the backs of joe taxpayer. That's YOUR money he's "donating." We should all gather around him and say "Thank you sir, may I have another?!?" The worst part is that people actually think that he's giving significantly to charity. According to Salon, he gave $600 million since 1994. That's right, that was his first charitable donation. 1994. That's not even $80 million a year if you add it up on a company which will soon have a thousand times that much in the bank. How many years was he a BILLIONAIRE before he gave his FIRST charitable donation? If we had any sense, we'd be running this guy off the plan for our new "never return" Mars mission. Yes, he's very clever. Yes he's managed to use every single rule, and break many, to his advantage. But the idea that anyone would honor this criminal astonishes me.
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
Monopolies are not per se illegal under British Law. The top people at De Beers (world diamond monopoly based in London) cannot travel to the US because they are under indictment for illegal trade practices.
BTW he won't be Sir William since he is not a British subject. Neither is Speilberg Sir Steven. However, the difference between an honorary knighthood and a "real" one eludes me.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
To everyone saying the standards of knighthood have fallen:
the main standard for modern knighthood is CHARITY. to maintain a knighthood you have donate a huge percentage of your time and money to charitable causes.
Bill has given over 20 billion dollars to charity. He is among the highest individual contributors to aids charities.
disliking the software is one thing, but slamming him getting a knighthood like this is just lame. STFU.
Bob Geldof's knighthood is not honorary. He is addressed as Sir Bob Geldof. Giuliani, and others such as George Bush (Snr, not GWB), Steven Spielberg, and Alan Greenspan are honorary.
Its just an honourary title, its not a true knighthood. ... Gates is not a citizen of a commonwealth country, he is not a subject of the queen, so he isn't eligible for a true knighthood.
But what the heck, he deserves whatever he gets, have any of you donated $26billion to charitable foundations lately?
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
All that they can. Their time, their "IP" (If you actually believe in that), their minds. The resources that they do have they give.
Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!
Maybe she just wants the opertunity to get a sword near his neck.
"I dub thee... Blue scream of death!" *WHACK*
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
Couldn't it be called "Knighthood CE?"
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
And yet IBM has done things just as evil if not more so, yet they're championed here on Slashdot because they had no other choice but to embrace and push Linux once NT was taking off, and they had no product of their own to push.
Err... KBE
/usr/games/fortune
Just on a technical note: he isn't permitted to prepend his name with the title "Sir" unless he is a subject of the Crown.
see here for an overview of the full british honours system
How history gets twisted! Microsoft wrote OS/2! To say they broke its back is ridiculous! They spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing and marketting it, IBM spend a billion on marketing. They couldnt sell it.
Back before the phrase was "developers developers developers" and "windows windows windows", the original chant was "os/2 os/2 os/2". Steve Baller would come running down the hall by my office (i was an MSDOS developer) shouting "OS/2 OS/2 OS/2" letting us know our project was doomed.
Jesus, you'd think that Bill Gates spent his days stomping on puppies and biting the heads off of kittens with all this burning hatred for the man. Seriously, fuck you people. The guy donated 26 billion dollars to malaria research. That's a good thing, regardless of your groupthink. Does it instantly make Bill Gates a good guy? Of course not. Does it make him deserving of Knighthood? I'd certainly say so. I'd say in the grand scheme of things the lives his donated money will save goes far beyond the bullshit of the software business and your sad personal worlds where Gates is hiding outside your window waiting to steal your computer and rape your mom. Grow up.
This is dependent on the time of knighting. Australia and NZ still have the queen as the head of state. In Australia the top honour used to be a knighthood officially into at least the eighties. Then the order of Australia was introduced to take over from knighthoods as the official top honour.
Basically like the court system at the time (upto 1986 the highest court/ court of last appeal in Australia was the british privy court. Canada had the same arrangement until 1949, and New Zealand upto last year) the honours system for rewarding outstanding acheivement actually extended upto british knighthoods. The australian government and states could recommend directly to the queen, people who should receive knighthoods, and the titles were officially recognised (by political protocol) with the official title of Sir Blogs.
An interesting quirk of this is that now if the queen was to award a knighthood to an Australian, like she is doing to Bill Gates, it would be a large outcry from people saying that it was undermining the Order of Australia as the top honour in Australia, instead of an award from a foreign head of state which is how the US will view the award to Bill Gates.
Edmund Hillary was knighted in an age where the top honour in New Zealand was a knighthood, and the NZ government of the time would have recommended his knighthood. He would also have been addressed by his title at all official events.
Bill Gates is the greatest philanthropist in the history of the world.
It's also important to remember that people like Carnegie and Rockefeller were even more reviled in their time than Gates, and far outdid him for pure sleaze and avarice. But their principal legacy was a number of magnificent philanthropic works, which arguably did far more to improve society than their business practices did to debase it. Howard Hughes is an even better example; his fortune went towards medical research and is the basis for one of the largest private funding sources in the nation.
I despise Microsoft and refuse to buy, use, or support their products whenever possible, and I don't respect Gates for the way he acquired his money, but I think the fact that he's using his fortune to make the world a better place far is far more important than his past misdeeds. In fifty years, he'll be remembered for helping improve Africa, not for a collection of lousy but ubiquitous software. Larry Ellison, on the other hand, will be known as "that asshole with the yachts."
Luke Chapter 12 41And He (Jesus) sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. 42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. 43Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; 44for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on."
That may be true.
Microsoft wrote OS/2! To say they broke its back is ridiculous! ... They couldnt sell it.
That is only part true and contains enough omisions to make it a deliberate lie. IBM also put lots of development into OS/2. They provided sane guidance but what they got from Microsoft was nothing compared to what it became. More importanlty, however, Microsoft did break OS/2 with anti-competive agreements with big PC makers that insured that OS/2 would always cost the end user more than Microsoft's offerings. Microsoft was convicted of breaking anti-trustlaws for that it is the main reason OS/2 lacked device drivers and never was adopted. It was a better system, it could have cost less and it is still better than Microsoft's current kludge, XP.
Today, free software is better and it will soon take over. Once again, IBM is on the bandwagon. They have always picked the best of breed. Microsoft's days are numbered because they can't lock out free.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
the difference between an honorary knighthood and a "real" one eludes me
The real ones are cheaper.
In the US, we probably won't see any more "heros". We're to set on worshipping money (see the rest of this thread).
Anyone is "good" as long as s/he has enough money.
Other cultures and nations might spawn their own "heros", but most of the US population will never hear of them, nor ever care.
The Canadian government, at least, would officially ask the British government to withdraw the nomination. It is the policy of our government that citizens, even joint citizens, may not accept foreign honours.
A few years ago, Conrad Black, a joint British-Canadian citizen, was nominated to be knighted. It might have had something to do with him being arch-nemesis of the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, but the knighting was blocked. So Conrad renounced his Canadian citizenship and went on to become Lord Black of Crossharbour.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Competitors exist, but this does not mean that those competitors have any control. Monopoly does not necessarily mean you're the only one standing, it means that you're the only one in control.
The courts didn't find MS guilty of being a monopoly as such, they found them guilty of abusing monopolistic power.
This MS continues to do. My problem with the courts is not that they officially slapped MS down, but that they didn't convict them of enough of their unfair practices, didn't deprive them of the fruits of their crimes at all, and the penalties which were applied barely even rate at "wrist slap" - and MS complained about them anyway.
And even if they'd been fined fifty billion dollars up front in one lump, they could have paid that out of cash and kept right on trucking with the tens of billions in cash that they had left over. Fifty BILLION dollars! Fifty billion DOLLARS! FIFTY billion dollars! (think of "Twins") Chump change, and they didn't even lose that. Many of their competitors were tricked or bullied out of EVERYTHING THEY HAD. Where is their recompense?
And some toff wants the instigator of this knighted!
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Which I'd guess was aimed directly at the British crown. Does this mean if Gates accepts, he's breaking the law? (obviously, IANAL)