Slashdot Mirror
The Softening of a Software Man
theodp writes to tell us that New York Magazine has an interesting editorial stating that no one is afraid of Microsoft anymore. The article argues that Microsoft has noticeably been adrift in the wake of Gates' philanthropy, which some cynics suspect is a Rockefeller-like attempt to 'fumigate his fortune' as he makes a play for the history books. From the article: "Like the robber barons, Bill Gates has moved from trying to take over the world to trying to save it."
Gates would like to go to his grave with some RESPECT. Besides the financial people watching his money, the tech community will have him go down in history as the one who made bad engineering acceptable.
When he took such an obvious path as creating a nonprofit organization (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and pumping in record billions of $$$ to avoid tax and into a country that is a outsource heaven. Really, who didn't see this coming. But some will give him credit for it. OOps did I mention the Bush proposal to eliminate the federal dividend tax right when Gates cashed out on a 99 million US dollar dividend. These people all have hidden agendas.