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It's awesome that Bill Gates decided to participate in the gift exchange. This is also quite assuredly one of the best ways he could have possibly advertised f

It's awesome that Bill Gates decided to participate in the gift exchange. This is also quite assuredly one of the best ways he could have possibly advertised for Heifer International. So, yeah, he's a regular dude in a lot of ways. He's also still a ruthless billionaire who created a company that was known for crushing its competitors. People are complicated, and just because he can be nice doesn't mean that he's not other things too.

commandar 13y ago
I really can't think of another person that I've had to reevaluate my opinion of as drastically as Gates. In the 90s he was widely seen as the face of the evil empire of Microsoft by the technorati, completely cutthroat and unfairly crushing anyone that stood in his way. But over the past decade, he's arguably been one of the single greatest contributors to good in the world. He's been a staunch and consistent advocate for the overall betterment of humanity. He's put his wealth and influence to use in beneficial, high-impact ways. He's directed his ruthlessness away from business and toward hunger, poverty, and disease. And it's making a very real difference in the lives of people around the world. He's gone from somebody I viewed as a reviled caricature of a man to one I can't help but profoundly respect. Yeah, people are complicated. In the Mr. Gates' case, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
- rodgerd 13y ago
  I loathe his business practises (albeit less evil than Apple's...), but the rest of his life seems admirable. He certainly stands well above such other tech billionaires as Jobs and Ellison.
  - gohrt 13y ago
    Steve Jobs (a) accumulated only about 25% of Bill Gates' wealth, and (b) died. I haven't heard news about where his money went, but I haven't heard they spent it paying people to self-flagellate or rape each other or overtake a nation by force. He just worked his whole life and bought a couple of nice houses and a nice car and traveled, and then willed away his money to his wife, who spends her time doing high-society philanthropic dabblings.
    - cma 13y ago
      I hold don't it against him, but you are mischaracterizing a bit to say he only bought some cars and a house: https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+yacht https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+yacht https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+plane https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+plane
    - scholia 13y ago
      When you say "bought a house", you mean "bought a historic mansion", then left it to rot while he lived somewhere else. It rotted to the point where it was eventually torn down. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Steve-Jobs-historic-Woodside-mansion-is-torn-down-2474921.php http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Steve-Jobs-historic-Wo...
      - _mulder_ 13y ago
        Historic?? It was 86 years old, hardly worth worrying about. If you want to see a real 'historic mansion', come to Europe.
        CanSpice 13y ago
        It was designed by a noted architect for a copper baron. It doesn't matter how old it was, the fact that a famous architect designed it means it's got history associated with it, therefore it's historic. There's no need to get ageist with your buildings. Yes, Europe has old buildings. That doesn't detract from the fact that buildings in North America, even if they're fewer than 100 years old, can be considered "historic".
        prawn 13y ago
        Context matters. It doesn't need to be a pissing match and "hardly worth worrying about" is a crappy attitude.
        scholia 13y ago
        _mulder_ was being sarcastic, I think. Always risky online....
  - mcv 13y ago
    While I'm no fan of many of Apple's business practices, I don't think they're quite as bad as some of the extremely anti-competitive stuff Microsoft pulled in the '80s and '90s. In person, however, Steve Jobs was apparently a tremendous jerk (he often parked in handicapped spots, to name just one small but telling example), whereas Bill Gates seems to be a pretty decent fellow.
    - snotrockets 13y ago
      I suspect the reason Appke's business practices weren't as bas as Microsoft's, was that they didn't have the marketshare. Had Apple had the marketshare of Microsoft, I'm sure they were just as Evil, if not more.
      - aneisf 13y ago
        That could be true, but I think we should try to keep our opinions grounded in reality.
      - scholia 13y ago
        Apple could get away with much worse business practices than Microsoft because it didn't have a monopoly, and was therefore held to much lower standards. Oracle even more so.
    - sanskritabelt 13y ago
      I remember huge fights on mid-90s usenet about Apple's anti-open source practices, up to and including Stallman trying to prevent FSF code from being ported to System Whatever, it was so bad. (But I'm not going to go digging through 20 year old gnu.misc.discuss flamewars)
    - rodgerd 13y ago
      Show me the bit in the 80s where Microsoft sued with a claim to have the exlusive right to develop GUIs, ever. There's a reason the FSF blacklisted Apple, but not Microsoft, for many years.
- simula67 13y ago
  Bill Gates' inspiration was John D Rockefeller, who lived a similar life : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
  - pionar 13y ago
    Not to nitpick, but he has said numerous times that his inspiration for his charitable work is Warren Buffett.
    - adventured 13y ago
      And Buffett's was Carnegie, Rockefeller and other titans of the industrial revolution that gave away a huge portion of their wealth, setting the standard.
      - pjmorris 13y ago
        I can't place the reference now, but I've read that Gates studied the lives of the big industrial titans - Carnegie, Rockefeller, Alfred Sloan at GM. He clearly found advice on building empires... but he also, I believe consciously, emulated the charitable aspects of their lives. I think he's a Buffett fan because they share an admiration of the earlier generation of American titans.
    - sliverstorm 13y ago
      Why can't it be both?
  - scholia 13y ago
    Bill Gates' original inspiration was his mother, Mary Gates, who did an enormous amount for United Way and other charities. Mary Gates -- She's Much More Than Just The Mother Of Billionaire Bill; This Former UW Regent Has Made A Career Of Community Service http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940109&slug=1888770 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=199... Not saying other philanthropists had no influence, but the idea of giving back was part of Bill's (privileged) background from birth....
- tombrossman 13y ago
  A quick browse of his foundation's Wikipedia page [1] makes me think old habits die hard. I hope all the positive press coverage is true (and not the work of extremely well funded PR agencies) but these questions keep coming up. I don't know enough about this to decide yet but I'd like to see some more impartial examination of the foundations net benefit to society, as I think the coverage so far is lacking. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation#Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation#Criticism
  - mseebach 13y ago
    These are extremely minor points in the grand scheme of things. Seriously, read the rest of the page, also. That's not saying that they may not be fair and relevant criticisms (but also not saying that they are - there's certainly pettiness in there). Nobody and no organisation is perfect, not by a long shot, and the inability to raise concerns at all with such a large operation would be a total failure of imagination.
  - pmelendez 13y ago
    Some of those criticism are arguable. For instance one of them is criticizing higher paids in AIDS research arguing that it taking away professionals from the regular care. Well, yeah, that's a side effect and a challenge but it happens in any area where you gives incentives.
  - njx 13y ago
    Does anyone know why he is associated with Monsanto? http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-dodges-questions-on-why-he-owns-500000-shares-of-monsanto/ http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-dodges-questions-on-why-h...
    - jordan0day 13y ago
      Who better to help feed the world's hungry than a giant ag company?
    - canvia 13y ago
      High yield GMO rice and wheat allows developing countries to feed themselves even when they lack ideal farming conditions. Monsanto might be evil but it appears that Mr. Gates believes allowing people to die from starvation is a greater evil.
- Cthulhu_ 13y ago
  And yet, the cynic in me will go 'Yeah, everyone will turn into a good guy / philanthropist if he's so rich he doesn't have to worry about anything, ever'.
  - seabee 13y ago
    Except there are dozens of counterexamples to that, of extremely wealthy people who do nothing or (at worst) the opposite of philanthropy. This might be a interesting read to soothe your cynical side: http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/12/12/working_for_extremely_weathly_people_what_are_the_positive_and_negatives.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/12/12/working_for_extr...
    - dobbsbob 13y ago
      A lot of them don't trust charities due to management scamming so Gates has built one of the first orgs other billionaire's feel comfortable donating to like Warren Buffet who signed over basically his entire fortune to Gates.
  - girvo 13y ago
    cough Larry Ellison, counterexample cough
  - jrockway 13y ago
    Like Steve Jobs?
    - jaynos 13y ago
      There are thoughts that Jobs donated, just did so anonymously. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/?_r=0 http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-...
- mburns 13y ago
  He made billions, essentially conquered his industry. Why bother being greedy into old age when he can buy a legacy and still live a billionaire's lifestyle. Best of both worlds.
  - avn2109 13y ago
    Does he live a billionaire's lifestyle? In the pure sense of Mikhail Prokhorov models-and-bottles, jet-boat-race-to-Monte Carlo.
    - hyperbovine 13y ago
      Less flashy perhaps, but he owns the obligatory private island, Porsche collection, and a couple hundred million worth of art and artifacts.
  - mistermann 13y ago
    If you or one of your children were one of the <who knows how many> lives he's affected in a very positive way you'd have a more mature perspective of the world instead of making flippant criticisms from the comfort of your living room. You're probably living in the top 10% at least of humanity, what have you done for the world lately?
    - mburns 13y ago
      And if you or one of your parents were one of the <who knows how many> lives he affected in a negative way... you'd still be allowed to make informed decisions and not be painted by a single circumstance because people are more complex than that. >you'd have a more mature perspective of the world instead of making flippant criticisms from the comfort of your living room. So instead of disagreeing with the merit of my opinion presented, you just throw insults at how I couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about. You have much to show me about maturity.
      - mistermann 13y ago
        I'm trying to, but I can't understand what you're saying in the first part of your comment, the "informed decisions" part. And point taken, I was indeed unnecessarily rude.
- menubar 13y ago
  I'm a really nice person especially around xmas time, but nobody hardly notices. I donate much more than 0.01% of my earnings to charities and nobody calls me a hero. Who the heck does this Bill Gates guy think he is?
  - commandar 13y ago
    You do realize that Gates (like Warren Buffet) is giving most of his wealth away to charities, right?
    - tcgv 13y ago
      That's not very hard to do when you're worth billions of dollars, because even if you give away 99% of your wealth to charity, you'd still be worth tens of millions of dollars at the end of the day. Regular folks can't afford to do that without putting their financial stability at risk. Nevertheless, I do respect Bill for his actions, and I believe all modern tycoons should feel responsible for making the world a better place through charity.
      - alecsmart1 13y ago
        Bill Gates earned his wealth in his own lifetime. He's self made and still wishes to give away most of his wealth. I don't understand how you can criticize someone like that. At the end of the day, he is parting from his hard earned money.
        dannypgh 13y ago
        By what definition is Bill Gates "self made?" He had a million-dollar trust fund going into life, which let him take risks and exploit opportunities that others could not have. http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ I think you do justice no favors by disregarding the microsoft employees (and acquisitions) that did the overwhelming majority of work to earn that wealth, not Bill Gates. Sometimes in violation of law, and sometimes via questionably legal business practices that forced many people who don't use their products to pay for them. But I guess in capitalism, owner-takes-all and might-makes-right, huh?
- rdl 13y ago
  Didn't Andrew Carnegie do basically the same thing? Alfred Nobel's good works were mainly posthumous IIRC, and Rockefeller was mainly his son, but Carnegie did good things late in his own life.
melling 13y ago
Not trying to defend the couple of illegal things that Microsoft did, but Microsoft was never the most agile company. There was plenty of opportunity for Lotus, Word Perfect, and Borland to get their acts together, for example. Apple always sold expensive computers so they were never a threat. Linux has been around 20 years and it comes in over 200 flavors. The reason we never had "The Year of Linux on the Desktop" isn't Microsoft's fault. Sun is gone because they tried to protect the past, and commodity hardware took them out. Google could probably do some serious damage with a Chrome/Android solution. At this point it looks like Microsoft is going to finally take a hit as mobile evolves into a real desktop replacement.
- commandar 13y ago
  >Google could probably do some serious damage with a Chrome/Android solution. Frankly, the evolution of rich web apps that we've seen over the past few years is exactly what terrified Microsoft in the 1990s and lead to the Netscape and Java antitrust suits.
  - pmelendez 13y ago
    >"Netscape and Java antitrust suits." I never understood what was the big deal on that matter. Netscape was a horrible browser and the only thing that MS did was shipping a free alternative on its OS. If IE would be that inferior people would still turn into the best solution. Right now IE is still free and ships within the OS and I still use Chrome on a daily basis.
    - commandar 13y ago
      It was far more than just shipping IE. MS also did things like use their sales agreements with PC manufacturers to block Netscape from being preinstalled on new computers. Back in the days of dial up, this was a very big deal. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of things Microsoft did to prevent Netscape from being able to compete. Do some reading on it. Microsoft absolutely engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior that was only possible due to their dominant market position. The way Microsoft tended to act with blatant impunity toward their competitors is a lot of why they were so hated in the 90s.
meowface 13y ago
Advertising for a charity is quite different from advertising for a for-profit corporation... Regardless of Microsoft's numerous past and current transgressions, I don't think Gates has any ulterior motives with his current work and philanthropy.
- knowtheory 13y ago
  Let me disclaim this with the fact that i think Heifer International seems like it does good work, and the interviews i've heard with their people have left me with a good impression. Okay, that said: Why shouldn't we skeptically evaluate non-profits and charities the way we evaluate the ethics and responsibility of for-profits? There are piiiiiiles of truly awful charities who take money in the name of doing good only to enrich themselves and let their ersatz causes languish unattended (see: http://cironline.org/americasworstcharities http://cironline.org/americasworstcharities ). I think it's awesome that Bill Gates donated to Heifer International on this woman's behalf. But I think maybe it's better if people spent more time learning more about Heifer and donating on its merits, than just because Bill Gates donated to it. So, actually, i don't agree that advertising for charities and for-profits is that different :)
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    That's something Bill Gates has actually argued himself and I'd trust a charity more if he decided it was worth donating too.
andrewfong 13y ago
Even if we take an uncharitable view of Bill's time at Microsoft, the harm is fairly limited. Some companies went out of business, computers are slightly more expensive, things crashed quite a bit, IE6 is still mucking things up, and really old bugs in Microsoft Office occasionally make life miserable. You know, first world problems. On the flip side, thanks to Bill's philanthropy, there are now billions of dollars flowing towards vaccines, mosquito nets, life-saving research, and other undeniably Good Things. It's not really an apples-to-apples comparison, but if you could quantify and compare the impact of old Bill and new Bill, I'd say he's a net positive.
- jasonwatkinspdx 13y ago
  Unfortunately it's not quite that simple. Gates, Allen, Myhrvold and others at MS in that era were some of the most powerful influences on intellectual property expansion, in particular software patents and business method patents. That's having a lasting impact. And many of the Gates Foundation's activities re-enforce the same boundaries in the area of drug patents. If you want to net it out into a number, the game is far from over. Edit: lest my comment seem one sided: Gates could just be all scrooge mcduck with his treasure and there's not much anyone else could do to stop him, so I do give him a great deal of credit. I don't put much attention into casting people as good guys or bad guys; but the world is complex, and consequences matter.
  - Crito 13y ago
    The relationship between Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures, and the relationship between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Intellectual Ventures has me slightly concerned.
  - scholia 13y ago
    Microsoft had very few patents to start with, and the real drivers were IBM, AT&T and others who had tens of thousands. At the time, Microsoft had no real choice but to arm itself with patents, just as Google is doing now.
- vidarh 13y ago
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yuhong 13y ago
My favorite is actually the MS OS/2 2.0 fiasco. Did you know that Win9x's dependence on DOS helped Caldera to continue suing MS?
hershel 13y ago
Is crushing your competitors something unique to bill gates ? Or any successful operating systems company would have done similar things ? So it's hard to tell how much of MS's monopolistic behavior should be assigned to gates.
- sanoli 13y ago
  Good point. What happened to those official Apple hardware clone makers when their cheaper Macs started doing good?
mathattack 13y ago
This is also quite assuredly one of the best ways he could have possibly advertised for Heifer International. Indeed he used his reputation for something that would go viral, and in the end helped that charity quite a bit. It also suggests to me that he's not above having a little bit of fun too. I'm sure the gift took some thought, and this was more than "I'll have my admin think about it."
heed 13y ago
I used to see him at Shaky's pizza in Bellevue, WA on occasion as a kid during the 90s. There I was playing on a Street Fighter 2 arcade cabinet and Gates is chomping on a slice of pepperoni 5 feet away.
transitionality 13y ago
He most certainly did not do this because he wanted to be nice. It was a carefully calculated PR stunt. Your reality check is much appreciated.

commandar 13y ago

I really can't think of another person that I've had to reevaluate my opinion of as drastically as Gates. In the 90s he was widely seen as the face of the evil empire of Microsoft by the technorati, completely cutthroat and unfairly crushing anyone that stood in his way. But over the past decade, he's arguably been one of the single greatest contributors to good in the world. He's been a staunch and consistent advocate for the overall betterment of humanity. He's put his wealth and influence to use in beneficial, high-impact ways. He's directed his ruthlessness away from business and toward hunger, poverty, and disease. And it's making a very real difference in the lives of people around the world. He's gone from somebody I viewed as a reviled caricature of a man to one I can't help but profoundly respect. Yeah, people are complicated. In the Mr. Gates' case, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

rodgerd 13y ago
I loathe his business practises (albeit less evil than Apple's...), but the rest of his life seems admirable. He certainly stands well above such other tech billionaires as Jobs and Ellison.
- gohrt 13y ago
  Steve Jobs (a) accumulated only about 25% of Bill Gates' wealth, and (b) died. I haven't heard news about where his money went, but I haven't heard they spent it paying people to self-flagellate or rape each other or overtake a nation by force. He just worked his whole life and bought a couple of nice houses and a nice car and traveled, and then willed away his money to his wife, who spends her time doing high-society philanthropic dabblings.
  - cma 13y ago
    I hold don't it against him, but you are mischaracterizing a bit to say he only bought some cars and a house: https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+yacht https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+yacht https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+plane https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+plane
  - scholia 13y ago
    When you say "bought a house", you mean "bought a historic mansion", then left it to rot while he lived somewhere else. It rotted to the point where it was eventually torn down. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Steve-Jobs-historic-Woodside-mansion-is-torn-down-2474921.php http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Steve-Jobs-historic-Wo...
    - _mulder_ 13y ago
      Historic?? It was 86 years old, hardly worth worrying about. If you want to see a real 'historic mansion', come to Europe.
      - CanSpice 13y ago
        It was designed by a noted architect for a copper baron. It doesn't matter how old it was, the fact that a famous architect designed it means it's got history associated with it, therefore it's historic. There's no need to get ageist with your buildings. Yes, Europe has old buildings. That doesn't detract from the fact that buildings in North America, even if they're fewer than 100 years old, can be considered "historic".
      - prawn 13y ago
        Context matters. It doesn't need to be a pissing match and "hardly worth worrying about" is a crappy attitude.
        scholia 13y ago
        _mulder_ was being sarcastic, I think. Always risky online....
- mcv 13y ago
  While I'm no fan of many of Apple's business practices, I don't think they're quite as bad as some of the extremely anti-competitive stuff Microsoft pulled in the '80s and '90s. In person, however, Steve Jobs was apparently a tremendous jerk (he often parked in handicapped spots, to name just one small but telling example), whereas Bill Gates seems to be a pretty decent fellow.
  - snotrockets 13y ago
    I suspect the reason Appke's business practices weren't as bas as Microsoft's, was that they didn't have the marketshare. Had Apple had the marketshare of Microsoft, I'm sure they were just as Evil, if not more.
    - aneisf 13y ago
      That could be true, but I think we should try to keep our opinions grounded in reality.
    - scholia 13y ago
      Apple could get away with much worse business practices than Microsoft because it didn't have a monopoly, and was therefore held to much lower standards. Oracle even more so.
  - sanskritabelt 13y ago
    I remember huge fights on mid-90s usenet about Apple's anti-open source practices, up to and including Stallman trying to prevent FSF code from being ported to System Whatever, it was so bad. (But I'm not going to go digging through 20 year old gnu.misc.discuss flamewars)
  - rodgerd 13y ago
    Show me the bit in the 80s where Microsoft sued with a claim to have the exlusive right to develop GUIs, ever. There's a reason the FSF blacklisted Apple, but not Microsoft, for many years.
simula67 13y ago
Bill Gates' inspiration was John D Rockefeller, who lived a similar life : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
- pionar 13y ago
  Not to nitpick, but he has said numerous times that his inspiration for his charitable work is Warren Buffett.
  - adventured 13y ago
    And Buffett's was Carnegie, Rockefeller and other titans of the industrial revolution that gave away a huge portion of their wealth, setting the standard.
    - pjmorris 13y ago
      I can't place the reference now, but I've read that Gates studied the lives of the big industrial titans - Carnegie, Rockefeller, Alfred Sloan at GM. He clearly found advice on building empires... but he also, I believe consciously, emulated the charitable aspects of their lives. I think he's a Buffett fan because they share an admiration of the earlier generation of American titans.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    Why can't it be both?
- scholia 13y ago
  Bill Gates' original inspiration was his mother, Mary Gates, who did an enormous amount for United Way and other charities. Mary Gates -- She's Much More Than Just The Mother Of Billionaire Bill; This Former UW Regent Has Made A Career Of Community Service http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940109&slug=1888770 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=199... Not saying other philanthropists had no influence, but the idea of giving back was part of Bill's (privileged) background from birth....
tombrossman 13y ago
A quick browse of his foundation's Wikipedia page [1] makes me think old habits die hard. I hope all the positive press coverage is true (and not the work of extremely well funded PR agencies) but these questions keep coming up. I don't know enough about this to decide yet but I'd like to see some more impartial examination of the foundations net benefit to society, as I think the coverage so far is lacking. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation#Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation#Criticism
- mseebach 13y ago
  These are extremely minor points in the grand scheme of things. Seriously, read the rest of the page, also. That's not saying that they may not be fair and relevant criticisms (but also not saying that they are - there's certainly pettiness in there). Nobody and no organisation is perfect, not by a long shot, and the inability to raise concerns at all with such a large operation would be a total failure of imagination.
- pmelendez 13y ago
  Some of those criticism are arguable. For instance one of them is criticizing higher paids in AIDS research arguing that it taking away professionals from the regular care. Well, yeah, that's a side effect and a challenge but it happens in any area where you gives incentives.
- njx 13y ago
  Does anyone know why he is associated with Monsanto? http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-dodges-questions-on-why-he-owns-500000-shares-of-monsanto/ http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-dodges-questions-on-why-h...
  - jordan0day 13y ago
    Who better to help feed the world's hungry than a giant ag company?
  - canvia 13y ago
    High yield GMO rice and wheat allows developing countries to feed themselves even when they lack ideal farming conditions. Monsanto might be evil but it appears that Mr. Gates believes allowing people to die from starvation is a greater evil.
Cthulhu_ 13y ago
And yet, the cynic in me will go 'Yeah, everyone will turn into a good guy / philanthropist if he's so rich he doesn't have to worry about anything, ever'.
- seabee 13y ago
  Except there are dozens of counterexamples to that, of extremely wealthy people who do nothing or (at worst) the opposite of philanthropy. This might be a interesting read to soothe your cynical side: http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/12/12/working_for_extremely_weathly_people_what_are_the_positive_and_negatives.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/12/12/working_for_extr...
  - dobbsbob 13y ago
    A lot of them don't trust charities due to management scamming so Gates has built one of the first orgs other billionaire's feel comfortable donating to like Warren Buffet who signed over basically his entire fortune to Gates.
- girvo 13y ago
  cough Larry Ellison, counterexample cough
- jrockway 13y ago
  Like Steve Jobs?
  - jaynos 13y ago
    There are thoughts that Jobs donated, just did so anonymously. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/?_r=0 http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-...
mburns 13y ago
He made billions, essentially conquered his industry. Why bother being greedy into old age when he can buy a legacy and still live a billionaire's lifestyle. Best of both worlds.
- avn2109 13y ago
  Does he live a billionaire's lifestyle? In the pure sense of Mikhail Prokhorov models-and-bottles, jet-boat-race-to-Monte Carlo.
  - hyperbovine 13y ago
    Less flashy perhaps, but he owns the obligatory private island, Porsche collection, and a couple hundred million worth of art and artifacts.
- mistermann 13y ago
  If you or one of your children were one of the <who knows how many> lives he's affected in a very positive way you'd have a more mature perspective of the world instead of making flippant criticisms from the comfort of your living room. You're probably living in the top 10% at least of humanity, what have you done for the world lately?
  - mburns 13y ago
    And if you or one of your parents were one of the <who knows how many> lives he affected in a negative way... you'd still be allowed to make informed decisions and not be painted by a single circumstance because people are more complex than that. >you'd have a more mature perspective of the world instead of making flippant criticisms from the comfort of your living room. So instead of disagreeing with the merit of my opinion presented, you just throw insults at how I couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about. You have much to show me about maturity.
    - mistermann 13y ago
      I'm trying to, but I can't understand what you're saying in the first part of your comment, the "informed decisions" part. And point taken, I was indeed unnecessarily rude.
menubar 13y ago
I'm a really nice person especially around xmas time, but nobody hardly notices. I donate much more than 0.01% of my earnings to charities and nobody calls me a hero. Who the heck does this Bill Gates guy think he is?
- commandar 13y ago
  You do realize that Gates (like Warren Buffet) is giving most of his wealth away to charities, right?
  - tcgv 13y ago
    That's not very hard to do when you're worth billions of dollars, because even if you give away 99% of your wealth to charity, you'd still be worth tens of millions of dollars at the end of the day. Regular folks can't afford to do that without putting their financial stability at risk. Nevertheless, I do respect Bill for his actions, and I believe all modern tycoons should feel responsible for making the world a better place through charity.
    - alecsmart1 13y ago
      Bill Gates earned his wealth in his own lifetime. He's self made and still wishes to give away most of his wealth. I don't understand how you can criticize someone like that. At the end of the day, he is parting from his hard earned money.
      - dannypgh 13y ago
        By what definition is Bill Gates "self made?" He had a million-dollar trust fund going into life, which let him take risks and exploit opportunities that others could not have. http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ I think you do justice no favors by disregarding the microsoft employees (and acquisitions) that did the overwhelming majority of work to earn that wealth, not Bill Gates. Sometimes in violation of law, and sometimes via questionably legal business practices that forced many people who don't use their products to pay for them. But I guess in capitalism, owner-takes-all and might-makes-right, huh?
rdl 13y ago
Didn't Andrew Carnegie do basically the same thing? Alfred Nobel's good works were mainly posthumous IIRC, and Rockefeller was mainly his son, but Carnegie did good things late in his own life.

melling 13y ago

Not trying to defend the couple of illegal things that Microsoft did, but Microsoft was never the most agile company. There was plenty of opportunity for Lotus, Word Perfect, and Borland to get their acts together, for example. Apple always sold expensive computers so they were never a threat. Linux has been around 20 years and it comes in over 200 flavors. The reason we never had "The Year of Linux on the Desktop" isn't Microsoft's fault. Sun is gone because they tried to protect the past, and commodity hardware took them out. Google could probably do some serious damage with a Chrome/Android solution. At this point it looks like Microsoft is going to finally take a hit as mobile evolves into a real desktop replacement.

commandar 13y ago
>Google could probably do some serious damage with a Chrome/Android solution. Frankly, the evolution of rich web apps that we've seen over the past few years is exactly what terrified Microsoft in the 1990s and lead to the Netscape and Java antitrust suits.
- pmelendez 13y ago
  >"Netscape and Java antitrust suits." I never understood what was the big deal on that matter. Netscape was a horrible browser and the only thing that MS did was shipping a free alternative on its OS. If IE would be that inferior people would still turn into the best solution. Right now IE is still free and ships within the OS and I still use Chrome on a daily basis.
  - commandar 13y ago
    It was far more than just shipping IE. MS also did things like use their sales agreements with PC manufacturers to block Netscape from being preinstalled on new computers. Back in the days of dial up, this was a very big deal. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of things Microsoft did to prevent Netscape from being able to compete. Do some reading on it. Microsoft absolutely engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior that was only possible due to their dominant market position. The way Microsoft tended to act with blatant impunity toward their competitors is a lot of why they were so hated in the 90s.

meowface 13y ago

Advertising for a charity is quite different from advertising for a for-profit corporation... Regardless of Microsoft's numerous past and current transgressions, I don't think Gates has any ulterior motives with his current work and philanthropy.

knowtheory 13y ago
Let me disclaim this with the fact that i think Heifer International seems like it does good work, and the interviews i've heard with their people have left me with a good impression. Okay, that said: Why shouldn't we skeptically evaluate non-profits and charities the way we evaluate the ethics and responsibility of for-profits? There are piiiiiiles of truly awful charities who take money in the name of doing good only to enrich themselves and let their ersatz causes languish unattended (see: http://cironline.org/americasworstcharities http://cironline.org/americasworstcharities ). I think it's awesome that Bill Gates donated to Heifer International on this woman's behalf. But I think maybe it's better if people spent more time learning more about Heifer and donating on its merits, than just because Bill Gates donated to it. So, actually, i don't agree that advertising for charities and for-profits is that different :)
- Houshalter 13y ago
  That's something Bill Gates has actually argued himself and I'd trust a charity more if he decided it was worth donating too.

andrewfong 13y ago

Even if we take an uncharitable view of Bill's time at Microsoft, the harm is fairly limited. Some companies went out of business, computers are slightly more expensive, things crashed quite a bit, IE6 is still mucking things up, and really old bugs in Microsoft Office occasionally make life miserable. You know, first world problems. On the flip side, thanks to Bill's philanthropy, there are now billions of dollars flowing towards vaccines, mosquito nets, life-saving research, and other undeniably Good Things. It's not really an apples-to-apples comparison, but if you could quantify and compare the impact of old Bill and new Bill, I'd say he's a net positive.

jasonwatkinspdx 13y ago
Unfortunately it's not quite that simple. Gates, Allen, Myhrvold and others at MS in that era were some of the most powerful influences on intellectual property expansion, in particular software patents and business method patents. That's having a lasting impact. And many of the Gates Foundation's activities re-enforce the same boundaries in the area of drug patents. If you want to net it out into a number, the game is far from over. Edit: lest my comment seem one sided: Gates could just be all scrooge mcduck with his treasure and there's not much anyone else could do to stop him, so I do give him a great deal of credit. I don't put much attention into casting people as good guys or bad guys; but the world is complex, and consequences matter.
- Crito 13y ago
  The relationship between Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures, and the relationship between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Intellectual Ventures has me slightly concerned.
- scholia 13y ago
  Microsoft had very few patents to start with, and the real drivers were IBM, AT&T and others who had tens of thousands. At the time, Microsoft had no real choice but to arm itself with patents, just as Google is doing now.
vidarh 13y ago

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yuhong 13y ago

My favorite is actually the MS OS/2 2.0 fiasco. Did you know that Win9x's dependence on DOS helped Caldera to continue suing MS?

hershel 13y ago

Is crushing your competitors something unique to bill gates ? Or any successful operating systems company would have done similar things ? So it's hard to tell how much of MS's monopolistic behavior should be assigned to gates.

sanoli 13y ago
Good point. What happened to those official Apple hardware clone makers when their cheaper Macs started doing good?

mathattack 13y ago

This is also quite assuredly one of the best ways he could have possibly advertised for Heifer International. Indeed he used his reputation for something that would go viral, and in the end helped that charity quite a bit. It also suggests to me that he's not above having a little bit of fun too. I'm sure the gift took some thought, and this was more than "I'll have my admin think about it."

heed 13y ago

I used to see him at Shaky's pizza in Bellevue, WA on occasion as a kid during the 90s. There I was playing on a Street Fighter 2 arcade cabinet and Gates is chomping on a slice of pepperoni 5 feet away.

transitionality 13y ago

He most certainly did not do this because he wanted to be nice. It was a carefully calculated PR stunt. Your reality check is much appreciated.