forbes.com — For Microsoft the loss of Gates won't be nearly as profound. Gates narrowed his involvement at the company eight years ago when he gave the chief executive job to his college buddy and right-hand man Steve Ballmer. The reality of the last few years is that Gates has been mentally checked out, pursuing loftier goals at his foundation.
Jun 24, 2008 View in Crawl 4
oishiitorinikuJun 24, 2008
The man is one of the world's biggest philanthropists.Yes, I'm sure the world would be better of without him....
1of42Jun 24, 2008
I'm not a big fan of MS, but having family members who have worked with the Gates Foundation on a number of public health-related grants to do with Africa, I have enormous and deep respect for what he has done with his money. While the seething masses on Digg bitch and moan about how MS is ruthless, or how Windows is bloated, or whatever, Gates is putting money where it is truly needed. Why don't we all stop complaining about him and start pushing for other members of the super-rich elite to follow his lead?
oishiitorinikuJun 24, 2008
Are you serious?
1of42Jun 24, 2008
First, I don't lay the "lack of competition and choice" directly at Gates's feet - it is as much the fault of his incompetent competitors as it is his.Your argument is basically that there are gains that could have been achieved (though you never specify any) that weren't because of Microsoft. No specifics, just the kind of nebulous "MS IS EVIL AND SCREWS OVER EVERYBODY" crap that so many people spew. Not only is your argument not substantiated, but even if we assume that had MS not existed tech would be better off (no guarantee of that, given that MS was instrumental in bringing tech to where it is today, even if it has indeed been ruthless and lately become bloated) there are no guarantees that better tech would help the people Gates is helping now (the world's poorest) - certainly it has largely had little effect on them so far.Again, your posts smack of the pervasive and tragically stupid thoughtless anger towards MS and Gates. It's a shame, really.
merrJun 24, 2008
I'm pretty sure Ballmer has been ramming the boat into the rocks for a while now. He thinks if he keeps ramming hard enough, those rocks will move eventually.
Closed AccountJun 24, 2008
Bill Gates revolutionized the world and now making it a better place with his philanthropy. Before you judge him make sure you look at yourself first, ask what you've done, and if it doesn't compare to 0.000001% of what Bill Gates has done just shut up and move on.
eedesignerJun 25, 2008
That last sentence about MBAs says it all. When these clowns get control, forget about any new technology. There's a reason our science flunkouts go into business.
myztryJun 25, 2008
A US navy destroyer sights a blip on the radar directly in front. The captain gets on the radio to direct the other vessl to turn 30 degrees to port. To which the reply is "move 30 degress to the starboard."The Captain is furious. "This is the lead ship of the largest fleet in the world. yada yada.. IMMEDIATELY change course!"To which the reply is "This is a lighthouse. You're move Captain..."(The joke is better, but there is the gist)
pbr90Dec 7, 2008
Quality Control seems really to have suffered without Gates.Or perhaps too many features and services have been outsourced at Microsoft and there is no longer adequate cohesion and supervision.Neither Windows, nor products written for it seem to be what they once were, and far too many past products are unsupported reliably.