> Am I the only one who is sick and tired of all this "honoring" one of the biggest bandits in history? I'm a lot less interested in MS-bashing or Gates-bashin

> Am I the only one who is sick and tired of all this "honoring" one of the biggest bandits in history? I'm a lot less interested in MS-bashing or Gates-bashing than I was ten years ago. I once thought it was critical that Linux fulfill the destiny I thought it had, of becoming the dominant desktop OS, and that Microsoft was going to spoil that utopian future. (Instead we get a just-OK future where Apple makes BSD/NeXT a popular but not dominant alternative, and desktop OSes are rendered as irrelevant by the browser as some people once they they would be by Java.) Gates is on his way out, and without realizing my worst nightmares of locking everyone into having to use Microsoft Everything whether they want to or not. I do like your concise list of all his advantages -- handy for when people claim that there's no such thing as fortunate circumstance.