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Bill Gates Interview w/ Spiegel
DaVinciXL writes "Bill Gates just gave the German magazine "Spiegel" an interview which can be read (in English) on the magazine's website. Gates speaks about issues of computer security, competition, software bundling and how he lives with the downsides of his wealth and fame." He does a pretty good job of answering a lot of hard questions.
Giving to charity is easy if you've already fleeced the middle class, isn't it?
People who cite Gates' charitable donations as a sign of his character are ignoring where the money came from as well as his true motives (tax write-offs, obviously).
This may sound like flamebait, but I've often wondered if a lot of the vitriol comes not from genuine hatred of him and his products but out of envy that he and his company are one of the most successful and richest companies in the world. To the anti-corporation, anti-money, dorm room students who post on here, that is something to really hate. Even Steve Jobs says the battle was won, Microsoft won it, and people should move on (and that a victory for competitors doesn't have to mean a loss for Microsoft).
I know this doesn't apply to everybody here...but I'm guessing most.
Or maybe he did answer the questions; you just didn't get the answers you wanted to hear from Bill Gates.
Gates also contributes a lot of money to charity
Gates contributes to charity exactly what he is required to, to avoid taxes, and not a penny more. And even at that, his contributions are often cynically directed to further his business goals, such as PR in India just as India had announced official support for Linux, or purchasing vaccines at high prices from multinational drug corporations who are on the same side of the table as Gates on forcing the US IP regime on the rest of the world, or contributing to education by purchasing Microsoft software.
Gates is a mizer through and through, with a heart of ice.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Wealth doesn't work that way.
If I make 35 bucks a month, there's no way in hell I'm going to spend even 10% of that on charity. I need all of it and more to survive in my cardboard box.
If I made several hundred million, or several billion a year (whatever the current numbers are), I'd gladly donate 50% or more to charity, because I can't possibly spend it all, and inheritances don't do children any favors.
What about your other points? I count two really good Microsoft products, and they both have Halo in the name -- and I really, really wish Microsoft hadn't bought Bungee, so we'd have the Linux port that was planned.
And, if you look at Gates' history, it's a combination of good strategy, good planning, and outright lies and bullying that got him where he is today.
I mean, the first program Microsoft sold was a version of BASIC for a new kind of computer (the Altaire?), and they got it there with a bit of Vaporware. To be specific, they called the manufacturer up shortly after the new box was released and said "We have a version of BASIC for your new machine," effectively beating all competition, because in reality they didn't have a line written of that BASIC interpreter, and spent the month between when they made the call and when they had to demo it frantically developing.
And this was when the company was (I think) less than five people, with Gates the main guy. He probably personally made that call.
Let's not forget things like the original Windows, which from what I remember at least copied concepts from Apple (who copied them from Xerox), but also (I think) copied code from Apple (who originally wrote it).
Or all the things that have happened since, the vaporware, the bundling, the changing of APIs specifically to cause one competitor's software to stop working, the total disregard for essential things like security and reliability until Linux/Mac became a sufficient threat...
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......