From: Terry Donaghe (Terry@Donaghe.com)
Date: Tue Jan 23 2001 - 14:46:55 MST
READ BEFORE PROCEEDING: I am not and have never been a Microsoft employee.
I am not in love with Microsoft nor am I Bill's bitch. Similarly, I have no
ill feelings towards Unix/Linux/Other alternatives other than a strong
dislike for the actor portraying Larry Ellison...
This is relevant because I feel that the seething hate that Mr Leitl and
other have directed toward Microsoft is somewhat irrational...
Notes inline:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of
> Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
> Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 1:03 PM
> To: extropians@extropy.org
> Subject: Re: Programming project required
>
>
>
> He throws his money around indiscriminately, or, worse, by
> supporting causes
> which help MS.
>
Let's see... from the gatesfoundation.org website
$1,000,000 over 12 months to provide capital grants and operating funds to
King County nonprofit health and human service agencies.
$10,000,000 over 5 years to create small high schools and redesign existing
large high schools with special focus on the lowest performing high schools
in New York City.
$2,000,000 over 12 months to support the "Moving Women and Families Forward"
Campaign.
$10,000 over 12 months to support the Odessa Brown Children's Clinic serving
children and adolescents in Central and Southeast Seattle.
$5,100,000 over 2 years to provide superintendents and principals from
public and private schools access to quality leadership development focused
on whole systems change.
Oh no!!! It's EVIL!!!! Evil I tell you!!!!
> Apart from that, the amount of damage the man and company
> have inflicted upon
> the world is unfixable in any amount of $$$s.
> IBM/Intel/Microsoft working
> together have created a reality which is rather far from
> being optimal. If you
> judge them, you're comparing merely stuff which currently
> exists, and not seeing
> the alternative branches which would now exist if not for a
> number of specific
> decisions, which can be traced back to the year 1978.
I'm sorry, but after seeing and hearing the alternatives such as Scott
McNealy and Larry Ellison, I'm not sure the world would be any better if
they were top dogs. This nonsense about "damage ... inflicted upon the
world" just doesn't make any sense at all. When I hear things like this, I
feel like you guys live in a totally different world than I do. The
statement about "not seeing the alternative branches which would now exist
if not for a number of specific decisions, which can be traced back to the
year 1978" implies some sort of evil conspiracy. That doesn't make any
sense. I posit that had a number of the chief competitors of your evil
monsters (IBM/Intel/Microsoft) not reacted so slowly/poorly to the PC
phenomenon of the late 70's, early 80's then the world WOULD be much
different now. They had their chance and lost. Microsoft/Intel/IBM was NOT
a sure thing back then.
> It should be given some thought, why so many computer people
> have such a strong
> reaction towards Redmond. Hint: sour grapes it ain't.
Most of the programmer types that I know who hate Microsoft generally do it
cause it's the "cool thing to do." Yes, MS has done some despicable things
in the past and are probably still doing some, but that doesn't make the
company evil, and certainly doesn't prove some sort of evil conspiracy
theories. Hatred for Microsoft seems to be some sort of religious
phenomenon in which logic and fact have no place. *shrug*
Terry
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