8 ms·

"I know most of you can't stand the guy" Really? I thought people took objection to Microsoft but generally thought of him as an intelligent, charismatic and,

"I know most of you can't stand the guy" Really? I thought people took objection to Microsoft but generally thought of him as an intelligent, charismatic and, more recently, very generous man.

jiggy2011 14y ago
Being somewhat more divorced from MS and his charity effort have helped his public image a lot over the last few years but I'm sure we can still remember the days of the slashdot borg icon etc.
- fakeer 14y ago
  People stereotype people. For instance I am just fine with Gates but sort of don't much like Jobs(don't hate though, or maybe I do). I love my Mac and hate Windows(though MS is credited with many others to put computer in the hands of many people). I can't stand anything written/said by GrubIgler but that doesn't make them &&&& and morons. They have a huge following, they must be good. This is how it works. I am sure all are(were) good.
  - pyre 14y ago
    | They have a huge following, they must be good. Good at what is the question. Not levelling anything at them specifically, but there are plenty of people with large followings that are basically 'good' at getting large followings and making money off of them (e.g. tele-vangelists).
    - fakeer 14y ago
      >>Good at what is the question. Good at whatever the people following them liked in them or found worth the attention. It can be anything - good voice, other skills or just the looks. Anything. It depends on the person following what good was in the guy he/she follows.
- bpatrianakos 14y ago
  I don't remember the Slashdot borg icon (I was 10 in '96 when we got AOL, our first internet service) but I do remember the song 'Bill Gates Must Die', Micro$oft as a derogatory term,the blue screens of death, IE, antitrust, my printer doesn't work (again!), and on and on. I was just a kid but I remember the sentiment being that because of Bill Gates' ruthlessness as a business man the entire computer industry was suffering from a lack of any real competition, a stranglehold on vendors, customer lock-in, and on top of it all you always had to buy a new computer to upgrade to the newest Windows and it would only work for like a couple of months before everything stopped working one by one. I'm not stating all this as fact (though some of it is), that's just the sentiment others around me had at the time (like 1995 - 2001). Since his departure from MS though I personally see him as a much kinder, gentler, and even more brilliant man than ever before. It's strange because there was a time when I loved to hate the guy but now that he's gone and seeing what Microsoft is doing these days I almost feel like "damn, I wish Bill Gates would come back, that guy was smart". Maybe this is a totally crazy thing to say but I'll say it: I feel like it's the same feeling people who followed politics in the 90's feel about Bill Clinton. They may have been pissed at him for reasons XYZ at the time but now many have a much different memory of him and kind of yearn for him to come back (if it were possible). Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
afandian 14y ago
There are plenty of intelligent and charismatic people who are loathed by many. BillG is amongst them. And bearing him a personal grudge for the actions of the company he ran isn't unreasonable in any case. Where did all his generous cash donations come from? Just being good at selling software?
- rbanffy 14y ago
  > bearing him a personal grudge for the actions of the company he ran isn't unreasonable Isn't it a bit of a contradiction? He ran a company that engaged in actions that harmed society. Doesn't he deserve some credit?
  - adventured 14y ago
    How did Microsoft harm society?
    - rbanffy 14y ago
      Monopoly abuse and other anticompetitive actions that ultimately inflated prices. Why do you think the DoJ got involved?
      - acheron 14y ago
        The DOJ "got involved" because Microsoft didn't want to play the lobbying game, so the government decided to teach them a lesson. http://washingtonexaminer.com/carney-how-hatch-forced-microsoft-to-play-k-streets-game/article/2500453 http://washingtonexaminer.com/carney-how-hatch-forced-micros...
        tanzam75 14y ago
        Well, they learned their lesson. Microsoft is now a prolific spender on DC lobbying. In the tech world, they are matched only by Google. Bill Gates used to be a Congressional page, and his father was a lawyer. So I'm surprised he had such a naive viewpoint of the justice system. He ought to have known that it was more political than that. The irony is that Bill Gates, a staunch Democrat, was hounded by the Clinton DOJ. It ended up being the Bush administration that rescued his company by terminating the lawsuit and signing that consent decree.
melling 14y ago
No, I hate Microsoft because they destroyed Borland, Lotus, WordPerfect, etc. They gobbled up everything (Visio, PowerPoint, etc). They killed off Netscape the company, stuck us with IE6 for a decade by "making it part of the operating system." They embraced, extended, and tried to extinguish everything they could. (e.g. Java->C#, OpenGL->DirectX). Bill, however, I greatly admire. He took no prisoners. :-) I've got his book on my shelf somewhere. It's 20 years old now. I should go back and read it.
- bdcravens 14y ago
  Apple has arguably destroyed/killed off RIM. Microsoft's "destruction" is today's startups' "disruption". (At least in HN circles I think we applaud AirBNB or Uber doing damage to the hospitality or transportation industries). Twitter and Google are gobbling up and often times killing products of value. I think Microsoft did a lot of things we value: disrupt and grow. Looking back, I think we see it through a different lens, but modern startups (or those who have eclipsed that label to be "big") can be Microsoft (or at least little Microsofts). Probably the only thing separating Microsoft from many companies is the presence of a moral compass at the company level.
- jimmaswell 14y ago
  What's wrong with how they handle c#? I prefer it to Java and it's often considered superior.
- recoiledsnake 14y ago
  Most of the companies you list failed to keep up with the changing marketplace and withered off by being complacent, while Microsoft doggedly kept improving their initially poor offerings(remember the adage, the 3rd version of a Microsoft product is when it gets real). IE5 was actually better than Netscape at the time which got bogged down in a rewrite. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html With more nimble competitors like Intuit with Quicken, Microsoft didn't make too much headway with Money. Same with Adobe. To see an example of this playing out now, look at the Xbox versus Playstation. Sony(and Nintentdo) has been scoring a lot of self goals lately.
snogglethorpe 14y ago
> but generally thought of him as an intelligent, charismatic and, more recently, very generous man. Er, Bill Gates is definitely a smart guy, but he's never been known as charismatic, or even nice. His reputation at MS was pretty nasty. [I'm talking about his "inside" reputation, to employees; his "outside" reputation tended to be conflated with that of MS (this is very different, for instance, than Steve Jobs, who left a pretty strong impression even on the general public).] Of course, he's doubtless mellowed with age and with his new post-business role.

"I know most of you can't stand the guy" Really? I thought people took objection to Microsoft but generally thought of him as an intelligent, charismatic and, more recently, very generous man.

jiggy2011 14y ago

Being somewhat more divorced from MS and his charity effort have helped his public image a lot over the last few years but I'm sure we can still remember the days of the slashdot borg icon etc.

fakeer 14y ago
People stereotype people. For instance I am just fine with Gates but sort of don't much like Jobs(don't hate though, or maybe I do). I love my Mac and hate Windows(though MS is credited with many others to put computer in the hands of many people). I can't stand anything written/said by GrubIgler but that doesn't make them &&&& and morons. They have a huge following, they must be good. This is how it works. I am sure all are(were) good.
- pyre 14y ago
  | They have a huge following, they must be good. Good at what is the question. Not levelling anything at them specifically, but there are plenty of people with large followings that are basically 'good' at getting large followings and making money off of them (e.g. tele-vangelists).
  - fakeer 14y ago
    >>Good at what is the question. Good at whatever the people following them liked in them or found worth the attention. It can be anything - good voice, other skills or just the looks. Anything. It depends on the person following what good was in the guy he/she follows.
bpatrianakos 14y ago
I don't remember the Slashdot borg icon (I was 10 in '96 when we got AOL, our first internet service) but I do remember the song 'Bill Gates Must Die', Micro$oft as a derogatory term,the blue screens of death, IE, antitrust, my printer doesn't work (again!), and on and on. I was just a kid but I remember the sentiment being that because of Bill Gates' ruthlessness as a business man the entire computer industry was suffering from a lack of any real competition, a stranglehold on vendors, customer lock-in, and on top of it all you always had to buy a new computer to upgrade to the newest Windows and it would only work for like a couple of months before everything stopped working one by one. I'm not stating all this as fact (though some of it is), that's just the sentiment others around me had at the time (like 1995 - 2001). Since his departure from MS though I personally see him as a much kinder, gentler, and even more brilliant man than ever before. It's strange because there was a time when I loved to hate the guy but now that he's gone and seeing what Microsoft is doing these days I almost feel like "damn, I wish Bill Gates would come back, that guy was smart". Maybe this is a totally crazy thing to say but I'll say it: I feel like it's the same feeling people who followed politics in the 90's feel about Bill Clinton. They may have been pissed at him for reasons XYZ at the time but now many have a much different memory of him and kind of yearn for him to come back (if it were possible). Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

afandian 14y ago

There are plenty of intelligent and charismatic people who are loathed by many. BillG is amongst them. And bearing him a personal grudge for the actions of the company he ran isn't unreasonable in any case. Where did all his generous cash donations come from? Just being good at selling software?

rbanffy 14y ago
> bearing him a personal grudge for the actions of the company he ran isn't unreasonable Isn't it a bit of a contradiction? He ran a company that engaged in actions that harmed society. Doesn't he deserve some credit?
- adventured 14y ago
  How did Microsoft harm society?
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    Monopoly abuse and other anticompetitive actions that ultimately inflated prices. Why do you think the DoJ got involved?
    - acheron 14y ago
      The DOJ "got involved" because Microsoft didn't want to play the lobbying game, so the government decided to teach them a lesson. http://washingtonexaminer.com/carney-how-hatch-forced-microsoft-to-play-k-streets-game/article/2500453 http://washingtonexaminer.com/carney-how-hatch-forced-micros...
      - tanzam75 14y ago
        Well, they learned their lesson. Microsoft is now a prolific spender on DC lobbying. In the tech world, they are matched only by Google. Bill Gates used to be a Congressional page, and his father was a lawyer. So I'm surprised he had such a naive viewpoint of the justice system. He ought to have known that it was more political than that. The irony is that Bill Gates, a staunch Democrat, was hounded by the Clinton DOJ. It ended up being the Bush administration that rescued his company by terminating the lawsuit and signing that consent decree.

melling 14y ago

No, I hate Microsoft because they destroyed Borland, Lotus, WordPerfect, etc. They gobbled up everything (Visio, PowerPoint, etc). They killed off Netscape the company, stuck us with IE6 for a decade by "making it part of the operating system." They embraced, extended, and tried to extinguish everything they could. (e.g. Java->C#, OpenGL->DirectX). Bill, however, I greatly admire. He took no prisoners. :-) I've got his book on my shelf somewhere. It's 20 years old now. I should go back and read it.

bdcravens 14y ago
Apple has arguably destroyed/killed off RIM. Microsoft's "destruction" is today's startups' "disruption". (At least in HN circles I think we applaud AirBNB or Uber doing damage to the hospitality or transportation industries). Twitter and Google are gobbling up and often times killing products of value. I think Microsoft did a lot of things we value: disrupt and grow. Looking back, I think we see it through a different lens, but modern startups (or those who have eclipsed that label to be "big") can be Microsoft (or at least little Microsofts). Probably the only thing separating Microsoft from many companies is the presence of a moral compass at the company level.
jimmaswell 14y ago
What's wrong with how they handle c#? I prefer it to Java and it's often considered superior.
recoiledsnake 14y ago
Most of the companies you list failed to keep up with the changing marketplace and withered off by being complacent, while Microsoft doggedly kept improving their initially poor offerings(remember the adage, the 3rd version of a Microsoft product is when it gets real). IE5 was actually better than Netscape at the time which got bogged down in a rewrite. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html With more nimble competitors like Intuit with Quicken, Microsoft didn't make too much headway with Money. Same with Adobe. To see an example of this playing out now, look at the Xbox versus Playstation. Sony(and Nintentdo) has been scoring a lot of self goals lately.

snogglethorpe 14y ago

> but generally thought of him as an intelligent, charismatic and, more recently, very generous man. Er, Bill Gates is definitely a smart guy, but he's never been known as charismatic, or even nice. His reputation at MS was pretty nasty. [I'm talking about his "inside" reputation, to employees; his "outside" reputation tended to be conflated with that of MS (this is very different, for instance, than Steve Jobs, who left a pretty strong impression even on the general public).] Of course, he's doubtless mellowed with age and with his new post-business role.