[OT] Linda McQuaig on Bill Gates

[Colin McGregor]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 9:47 PM, Thomas Milne
<tbrucemilne-TcoXwbchSccMMYnvST3LeUB+6BGkLq7r at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 8:34 PM, CLIFFORD ILKAY
> <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> On 03/22/2011 08:18 PM, James Knott wrote:
>>>
>>> Thomas Milne wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Stephen<stephen-d-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On 11-03-22 07:35 PM, Thomas Milne wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've been reading The Trouble with Billionaires by Linda McQuaig and
>>>>>> she includes a section on Bill Gates. I had never read any of the
>>>>>> history of Bill Gates and CP/M and Gary Kildall. Definitely a story
>>>>>> worth looking up, I can't believe how much of Bill Gates' success is
>>>>>> based on the work of others. Pretty much _all_ of it. According to
>>>>>> McQuaig, under todays copyright and patent rules, Gates would have had
>>>>>> a very different experience.
>>>>>
>>>>> Has Microsoft ever been innovative?
>>>>>
>>>>> Once you get past the paper clip, Bob, and the blue screen of death,
>>>>> it is
>>>>> pretty tough to credit Microsoft with any innovation at all.
>>>>>
>>>> Exactly, I knew he had been accused of being a thief, but I had no
>>>> idea how far back it went. From day one his is a story of privilege
>>>> and luck. He even went to what was probably the first school in the
>>>> world that had its own PC...his hand was held every step of the way by
>>>> his mommy and her connections.
>>>>
>>> Did she mention how he used the Harvard computers to develop BASIC for
>>> the Altair 8800, even though those computers were not supposed to be
>>> used for commercial purposes? Or how he used to dumpster dive for code
>>> written by others.
>>
>> I also heard that he tore the labels off mattresses, jaywalked, and mixed
>> colours with whites in the wash.
>
> Okay, he never murdered anyone...but the billions of dollars that he
> has amassed and hero status are not deserved, which is the point of
> all this. He cannot claim to be a 'self-made man' or that he was the
> progenitor of the home PC revolution.

I don't have an issue with say Warren Buffett
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett) whose fortune, amassed
by very shewed investing, is almost as large as Bill Gates. I don't
have any significant issues with Larry Ellison
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ellison) of Oracle database fame
and who is also one of the top 5 richest people in the world. The
difference between Mr. Ellison, Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates is that
while the first two can/do play HARDBALL I don't have the impression
either has ever shown total open contempt of the rules to win.
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist / software pirate and a firm that
always seems to be using their dominance in one area to @#$% customers
in other areas.

> I've never put much stock in the whole 'great man' theory of history
> anyway. Even someone like Einstein had to base his ideas on the
> thousands of years of scientific progress before him.

One of my favorite quotes from Sir Isaac Newton is "If I have seen
further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.".

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