From: Noah Horton (nhorton@ectropic.org)
Date: Fri Nov 15 2002 - 13:11:16 MST
On Fri, 15 Nov 2002, Charles Hixson wrote:
> Yes. I believe that Mr. Gates has done very little of permanent worth.
> He has swindled others of their wealth, but I hardly consider that a
> positive benefit. The primary thing for which he deserves credit is
> improving the basic language. Unfortunately, even after improvement it
> is much worse than most reasonable alternative for almost all purposes.
I hate Henry Ford. That moron created a form of transportation based on
archaic fossil fuels that will ultimately doom the world to pollution and
dependance on the mid-east, etc. If it weren't for his capitalist
behaviors, superior alternatives like alcohol fuels and electric motors
would have thrived. He was a criminal and a con-man.
I consider that rant to be basically equivalent to what Bill Gates is
being charged with here. Yeah, in retrospect, we could have come up with
a better design for cars than what Ford popularized. Yeah, in retrospect,
we could have come up with a better design for an OS than what Gates
popularized. Yes, the infastructure of gas stations that Ford caused has
been an impediment to cars that use other fuels. Yes, the infastructure
of software that Gates caused has been an impediment to computers that use
other OS's.
I can already hear people flaming back regarding how Windows only
succeeded because of illegal practices. Well, let me point out something.
Up until (roughly) five years ago, MS had very little of the server market
share. Most common types of server software ran on the various flavors of
Unix, and most companies had a big installed base of those Unix boxes.
Yet Microsoft's market share has steadily risen despite that installed
base that was working against it. Companies had no reason to install
Microsoft boxes other than the merits of the OS.
Everyone loves the underdog, but that does not make the big players like
Microsoft evil.
I also have to just toss out that it is difficult to accuse Gates of such
unmitigated evil as some are trying when he also founded and endowed the
largest charitable organization in the world.
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