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Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Dies of Cancer At Age 65 (cnbc.com)
CNBC is reporting that Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen has died from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Vulcan Inc. said in a statement Monday that Allen passed this afternoon in Seattle at the age of 65. From the report: "While most knew Paul Allen as a technologist and philanthropist, for us he was a much-loved brother and uncle, and an exceptional friend. Paul's family and friends were blessed to experience his wit, warmth, his generosity and deep concern," [Paul Allen's sister, Jody Allen] said in a statement. "For all the demands on his schedule, there was always time for family and friends. At this time of loss and grief for us -- and so many others -- we are profoundly grateful for the care and concern he demonstrated every day."
Earlier this month, Allen revealed that he had started treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the same type of cancer he overcame nine years earlier. The longtime CEO left Microsoft when he was first diagnosed with the disease. Allen also ranked among the world's wealthiest individuals. As of Monday afternoon, he ranked 21st on Forbes' list of billionaires with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion. UPDATE: Added a link to a statement from Vulcan Inc. on behalf of the Allen Family and Paul G. Allen network.
Earlier this month, Allen revealed that he had started treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the same type of cancer he overcame nine years earlier. The longtime CEO left Microsoft when he was first diagnosed with the disease. Allen also ranked among the world's wealthiest individuals. As of Monday afternoon, he ranked 21st on Forbes' list of billionaires with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion. UPDATE: Added a link to a statement from Vulcan Inc. on behalf of the Allen Family and Paul G. Allen network.
He spent his money is such great and geeky ways, I often thought that if I was that rich I would be living exactly his lifestyle. RIP Paul Allen, you left this world much too early.
Signature deleted by lameness filter.
Now he's living In The Cloud.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Allen had nothing to do with systemd!
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
I thought that was one of the Cancers we had beaten?
Thanks, if comments were editable on slashdot I would correct that.
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He is now burning in hell for Microsoft and Windows
Windows, Anonymous Coward? Allen left Microsoft in 1982. Windows 1.0 launched in 1985.
("The" Windows - Windows 3.1 - Didn't launch until 1992, a decade after Allen had left.)
He ran a monopoly
Hey Anonymous Coward, which monopoly did he "run?"
He was co-founder of Microsoft, but he left there over 36 years ago.
The zombie apocalypse has to start somewhere, right?? Well, you're seeing it.
Microsoft created Windows and Allen co-founded Microsoft - he cannot wipe that blood off his hands!
But you can wipe Windows off your hard drive, so I don't get your point. Paul Allen was a great guy in many, many ways.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
The book Paul Allen wrote avoids a full report, but gives the impression that Bill Gates was so angry, Paul Allen left the company because interacting with Bill Gates was bad for his health.
Quotes from the book, Idea Man by Paul Allen.
Page 49:
THREE DECADES AFTER teaching Bill and me at Lakeside, Fred Wright was asked what he'd thought about our success with Microsoft. His reply: "It was neat that they got along well enough that the company didn't explode in the first year or two."
Page 96:
When Bill pushed on licensing terms or bad-mouthed the flaky Signetics cards, Ed thought he was insubordinate. You could hear them yelling throughout the plant, and it was quite a spectacle-the burly ex-military officer standing toe to toe with the owlish prodigy about half his weight, neither giving an inch.
Page 177:
Bill was sarcastic, combative, defensive, and contemptuous.
Page 180:
"For Bill, the ground had already begun shifting. At product review meetings, his scathing critiques became a perverse badge of honor. One game was to count how many times Bill confronted a given manager; whoever got tagged for the most "stupidest things " won the contest. "I give my feedback," he grumbled to me, "and it doesn't go anywhere."
That is not at all true. I graduated from high school in 1973 in Seattle and have had many friends that have worked for Microsoft. Allen argued against lying to IBM that they had an operating system and argued for fixing bugs rather than adding features before he was forced out of Microsoft in 1982. Paul Allen was on the side of users.
I never knew him, but I know the effects he had on my world.
I'm a IT professional who cut his teeth on Windows 3.11. Everyone has their issues with how windows work, but you have to admit he along with Bill Gates had a huge influence on the tech industry.
As a sports fan in Washington, he was a person who brought a SuperBowl win to the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks have been run very well and you can see it in the product. You never needed to worry about the franchise in his hands.
I know these might seem like simple statements, but this is how I knew him. And he will be missed.
He was also a huge patent troll with his Interval Research. It did a lot of harm to the industry, but so did Microsoft, so I guess that should be expected.
Uh... didn't anybody INHERIT Allen's money? Wouldn't that place one or more new people ABOVE Trump on the list?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
repeatedly screwed his users
With an Allen wrench, I presume?
Ezekiel 23:20
If only the market forces were strong enough, they'd turn me into a cancer research biochemist overnight! / sarc
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
My guess: He spread his estate out among several people and a number of charities. Enough so that all of the beneficiaries end up below Trump.
Have gnu, will travel.
Allen argued against lying to IBM that they had an operating system and argued for fixing bugs rather than adding features before he was forced out of Microsoft in 1982.
So he opposed all the things that made Microsoft successful. Bill must be glad he pushed him out.
You can't take it with you.
But you can leave a legacy behind.
The man who dies rich, dies disgraced. -- philanthropist Andrew Carnegie
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
But you can wipe Windows off your hard drive, so I don't get your point. Paul Allen was a great guy in many, many ways.
Agreed. Even if you could "blame" him for all or part of Windows, he did start the Museum of Pop Culture. If you are ever in Seattle, it is a must see. I mean, they have what is probably the best Star Trek museum display anywhere (which is saying a lot since the Smithsonian has a very nice one as well), including most of the original series set pieces and I believe one of the only actual Enterprise models used for filming. In my mind, that gives him a great deal of geek cred. Plus, as I understand it, he either loaned or donated many of the guitars on display in the various music exhibits in the museum.
Your post is a serious be joke. Allen left Microsoft in 1982, and indeed was a true philanthropist. Based on the timing of his departure it is entirely possible he left Microsoft because he saw what Gates was planning to do and wanted no part in it. Paul Allen was the real technological talent at Microsoft, back when it was a decent company that produced a decent product.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Man what a shock! I was lucky enough to be working at a Seattle startup that Paul bought back in the 90s ( doing VoIP SOHO phone systems ). He liked to swing by office on a regular basis as we were just a few blocks from Dicks hamburgers on Mercer St (his favorite). He was really an engineer's engineer. We'd give him a status report on how things were going and within a few minutes he was up at the white board spitballing technical solutions to ASIC or network problems. I especially remember him coming by the day he bought the Seahawks. Paul was a big physical presence ( 6'2" 250lbs in those days ), but he kept going on about how after meeting the Seahawks players, he never felt so physically small in his life. Ignore the internet trolls. Paul was a good guy. He was a humble, modest, down-to-earth guy. There was always a pick-up basketball game on his court on Thursday nights. Jam session over at his place were legendary ( I never got to play with him, but every musician that I know that played with him was impressed with his guitar playing ). He left a huge legacy in the pacific northwest. We'll miss you Paul!
Did he ever have a chance to collect his Social Security?
Good question. If he thought he was going to live into his 70s and beyond, he would have delayed his benefits to increase his monthly payments. On the other hand, if he didn't think he was going to live long, he may have started his benefits at the minimum age of 62, or earlier if he qualified for them on a disability basis.
He never married, so there is no survivor who can receive benefits. He also has no children. According to his wikipedia page, his only family is his sister Jody.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Well if he donated guitars and liked Star Trek then he must have been a good guy.
Is she single?
I've always wanted to meet a rich older woman too proud to let me work.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
"My thanks for that, probably wouldn't have happened minus Mr. Allen."
So, aside from being a Patent Troll, Allen was also responsible for APK?
Oh, the shame...
Captcha: unclean
Rather than what, MCP? That phrase means nothing, unless your "user" includes software developers.
I worked for Paul from '85 through '90. Occasionally, at random, he'd just invite a bunch of us to his house. As far as I could ever tell, not a mean bone in his body.
What a ray of sunshine you are.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Rest well, Mr. Allen.
He used to have the nickname "Doctor NetVorkian" because many of the things he invested in promptly tanked in one way or another after his investment. He had a lot of bad luck with his investments.
For those who don't understand the joke, a certain Dr. Kervorkian became notorious for helping ill patients commit suicide.
Sig for hire.
My favorite story about Allen is how, while flying to Albuquerque to demonstrate their BASIC interpreter to MITS, he realized they had not written a loader, and he had no way to load the interpreter onto the machine.
He wrote a loader in assembly language on napkins during the flight, and when he arrived at MITS, keyed it in by hand using front-panel switches. It ran correctly the first time.
I also thought the way he had a vanity band where he paid famous guys to hang out with him and play in a pretend band was just the saddest "rich guy" stuff I've ever seen.
He bankrolled Dreamworks SKG.
Did they try turning him off and on again? It might just be a routine BSOD.
@CohibaVancouver: "He was co-founder of Microsoft, but he left there over 36 years ago"
He was in remission from Hodgkin’s lymphomas for a long time. The story online is that he left Microsoft after he overheard Gates and Steve Ballmer discussing what to do regarding his shares after he died. ref
He funded the Allen Institute for Cell Science as well as other specialised institutes for Biological sciences. Full props to him for doing so.
Honestly Microsoft was never a decent company. They rose to prominence with vendor lock-in and exclusivity contracts on both BASIC and DOS, stealing a certain amount from CP/M, blocking DR DOS....come on you can say Paul Allen became a good guy but you can never say Microsoft was anything in the early days other than a manipulative company offering vendor lockin to PC OEMs.
It's comments like this which is why I browse at -1. Seriously entertaining stuff. The only thing funnier than an internet toughguy is an internet toughguy with a grudge and the mentality of a 5 year old whose favourite toy just got broken.
Don't you mean your great-..-grand father ? Also do families have points of view? Did I miss collectivist world-view 101 and inherited guilt intro course ?
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Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now you fucking stupid bastard!
First thing I thought of when I saw this headline.
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But you can wipe Windows off your hard drive
Not that I blame Paul Allen for it, but that's what "secure boot" is meant to "fix".
Was that the Dickâ(TM)s in Queen Anne? If so that really humanizes him, I remember eating there all the time after jamming at the Jambox with band nearby when I lived in Seattle. You picture these world shaping ubermenschen with guys like that, but I guess death and Dickâ(TM)s special sauce unite us all.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
You are an idiot. Ticketmaster wasn't a monopoly just because Pearl Jam wanted them to lose money and they didn't go for it. That's not how businesses work.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
The fact that Trump acting like a a-hole has tarnished the Trump brand so badly that nobody wants to license the Trump name anymore doesn't make it a good guy... it just makes him an a-hole. Yes, as a general principle, people that view the presidency as a money-making opportunity should not be trusted. Based on Trump's own statements, I believe he did view the presidency as a money-making opportunity! He's just too egotistical and stupid to know when he's damaging his own brand.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Is that why her claim pissed off Indians so much that several of them went on TV to denounce her attempt to pretend she's not one of the whitest people on the planet?
he could have shaped a whole different Microsoft ecosystem if he'd had his way and Xenix had become the base of Microsoft's post-DOS operating system
Hey Anonymous Coward, MS-DOS booted off a 720K floppy disk, with the second 720K drive for your "programs and data." My first "IBM Compatible" PC had something like a 7 MHz processor and an 8086 chip. No way I could've run Xenix on that thing.
He's 70+. He doesn't care.
Everything you write is true, but Trump was still the better choice of the electable ones. But I'm in CA, so vote was wasted no matter, hence Vermin Supreme, the best candidate.
The only thing that mattered was the Supreme Court. Which is done now, will be double done when Ginsburg kicks.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Yep, same Dicks. ( for those that don't know Seattle, Dicks is the cheapest best burgers in the area ). He and Vern Rayburn would drive over at lunch for a "status report" meeting just so they could walk up the street to Dicks. Paul's only concession to being a billionaire at that time was he had a low profile security guy that would follow him around and just blend into the background. Other than that, you would never know that the two 40-year old guys sitting at the next table having a burger were anything but a couple of business guys on their lunch break. Back in the day also used to see Randy Hansen walking around lower Queen Anne ( I think he had an apartment in the area ).
the open source community doesn't want to make Linux adoption easy
You appear to be terribly misinformed and/or malicious.
The open source community is broad and multifaceted but very definitely includes people that want to make Linux adoption easy.
It's well over a decade since installing Linux was anything other than a doddle, and it's also used every month on their own personal computing device by around 2 billion people.