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Bill Gates Transition/Retirement
- Thread starter zap2
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I cant remember the guys name, but he was known (and hated even) because he was a miserly miserable anti social billionaire. When he died, they went through his books, and oops, he had been donating hundreds of millions to small projects in latin America. never said a word, never sought any recognition, and never got it! To me that man is the ultimate philanthropist.eva01 said:
Bill gates is a very very wealthy self centered guy with a wife who has tugged at his heart strings and thankfully he has responded. I hope he does all the good he can with his money and influence, and doesnt try to angle everything back to Microsoft.
Evan_11 said:
You are right, I'm getting a life ... out of IT !
1, 2, 3, ... 10 <exhale>
OK, here I go :
I have nothing personal against Bill. I have a lot to say about his company ...
I'm pretty sure Bill made the best for MS, money talks ...
But if we take the (my) whole perspective (80s-2008) then a very SCARY picture is seen on what has happened to computing. I'm not blaming all to MS but being such a ... success, means being responsible. I'll try to just paint a few strokes:
- Of course it does not work right, if it would, it would be much more expensive [A VB Project Head]
- Set an internal date of delivery (for the developers) and an external one (much later, for the stakeholders).[Many project management books]
- Developers (coding monkeys) are a dime a dozen [Strongly held belief in IT shops]
- IT work follows the model of a MacDonalds, a repeatable, low quality, high health risk operation, extremely profitable for some ... [Spolsky]
- Could you pass me a copy of X? (where X is any piece of non-free sw) [Any otherwise highly responsible citizen who would not even think of stealing a pencil ...]
- The Linux community was born out of the desire to have the option of using something that was not Windows and can be used in IT shops ... To be viable it had to be FREE ... All, and I mean ALL ..., other market based efforts failed !
- I do not understand why you hate MS [Badly informed people, the same that think that TV quality has to be low, what they do not realize is that sugared water sellers run the networks ...]
I cannot accept the naïve conclusion that everybody else was dumber than Bill [Chapman]. Some cannot accept the truth, because it points to deep flaws in the system ... Is Bill more clever than (think about some people that have been involved in IT and gotten out of it, even to a small niche, not to get too burnt out ...) ? Sure you will have a few names ... Unless you only understand clever as being able to get more money and that is quite telling ...
IT is DEAD!
Well, maybe in 2008, a peck of light will appear
Bill, do not forget to close the door ... I mean the Window !
sushi said:
I don't know what he means, but I will say that it helps to have empathy. Williams Gates III has never known a moment of need in his entire life. I'd say, for someone like him, understanding the problems of the less fortunate would require some effort.
IJ Reilly said:
It would seem that he has put that effort in, as evidenced by his charity work.
David
Super Dave said:It would seem that he has put that effort in, as evidenced by his charity work.
David
That remains to be seen. As I pointed out before, Gates is an extremely controlling sort of individual. If his charitable efforts are predicated upon telling people what they need instead of asking and listening, then no, charity work is not necessarily an indication of empathy. It can be just another way of making others dance to your tune.
Don't understand why any of you are conflicted. You can still hate MS while giving its founder the pass that he probably deserves.
My beef is with the company Gates started. I don't know whether it was him behind all the thievery and dishonest business practices we've seen over the last couple decades, but that's what I don't like and that's why I continue personally boycotting all MS products. I don't think my money should support that.
Gates is just an individual. There's nothing there to love or hate unless you know him personally. I have no real opinion on Gates. I like what he does with his cash. Good for him. I'd love to see more wealthy people spread their money around to deserving causes like he does.
I only wish the company he started wasn't such a parasite.
My beef is with the company Gates started. I don't know whether it was him behind all the thievery and dishonest business practices we've seen over the last couple decades, but that's what I don't like and that's why I continue personally boycotting all MS products. I don't think my money should support that.
Gates is just an individual. There's nothing there to love or hate unless you know him personally. I have no real opinion on Gates. I like what he does with his cash. Good for him. I'd love to see more wealthy people spread their money around to deserving causes like he does.
I only wish the company he started wasn't such a parasite.
You cant really separate a chairman from the actions of his company! No doubt MS mindset and practices will continue as before, with a different chairman to take the responsibility for the company. As you say, now he should get some credit for redistributing some albeit ill gotten gainsinkswamp said:
OttawaGuy said:Bill Gates announced Thursday afternoon he will step down as CEO of Microsoft Corp. and company President Steve Ballmer will take over the CEO role. The changes were to take effect immediately.
Uh.....Steve Ballmer already took over as CEO 5 or 6 years ago. Gates since that point has held the position of "Chief Software Architect", a position they made up for him. So Gates hasn't been the "CEO" of Microsoft for quite some time now.
Yes, he's still been the "Chairman of the Board" and will still be on the board of directors as chairman but will no longer be involved in any day to day operations.
why is everybody still ragging on MS? this news item didn't say "News Flash, Microsoft is actually good!" it was "Bill Gates wants to do more good for the world" and for that I totally congratulate him. Many rich and powerful people out there are not doing anything close to what he does, and being the richest man in the world and pushing around the kind of money and research he has been is respectable.
And for that matter, I'm typing this on a Windows computer. *gasp* *shock* *horror*
And for that matter, I'm typing this on a Windows computer. *gasp* *shock* *horror*
Billy Boo Bob said:I think it's more like Apple doesn't want MS to pull office from the Mac just yet, as they would if Apple released their own equivalent. Being able to run the highly recognized brand name "Microsoft Office" on the Mac is still a selling point for Apple. If MS ever does pull Office out of the Mac market, I'm sure Apple has something waiting in the "secret building" to put in its place already.
But, alas, that discussion doesn't really apply here.
Back to topic... You think he's bailing before the Vista train wreck, or just waiting for Vista to finally ship?
If apple ever decided not to allow MS Office on the MAC OS, then it would shut out the entire education community. MS does mac good software, just a horrible OS.
Good Luck Bill
I would not call Bill Gates a philanthropists, as someone pointed out he did not give anything away until he got married. So you probably guess who is behind the charity work.
The only chariable thing he said he would do which I agree with is he will not leave his kids anything, they will have to go out an make it on thier own. Not like it will be really hard since they will make lots just being his kids.
Someone compared him to Carnegie, not sure if that comparison is good or bad, considering Carnegie was as hated as Gates is in some regards. But Carnegie did give back to the communities which he made millions from. He built libaries, museums and theaters and his money is still giving back today, those same museums and libaries are paid for by his chariable origanizations.
This is also true for the Hearst and Rockefeller, both these people have given more back to the communities. If you convered Rockefeller wealth to todays dollar he is still the richest man in the world, and his wealth was not stock options with could be worthless at any point.
My personal view is if you going to give back you give back to those who you benefitted from. Not to say trying to solve world health problem is not a good thing, but the people they are choosing to help may never benefit long term depending on how they spend thier money. Like those of the past their charty is still benefitting many generations after thier gone, can the same be said about Gates.
The only chariable thing he said he would do which I agree with is he will not leave his kids anything, they will have to go out an make it on thier own. Not like it will be really hard since they will make lots just being his kids.
Someone compared him to Carnegie, not sure if that comparison is good or bad, considering Carnegie was as hated as Gates is in some regards. But Carnegie did give back to the communities which he made millions from. He built libaries, museums and theaters and his money is still giving back today, those same museums and libaries are paid for by his chariable origanizations.
This is also true for the Hearst and Rockefeller, both these people have given more back to the communities. If you convered Rockefeller wealth to todays dollar he is still the richest man in the world, and his wealth was not stock options with could be worthless at any point.
My personal view is if you going to give back you give back to those who you benefitted from. Not to say trying to solve world health problem is not a good thing, but the people they are choosing to help may never benefit long term depending on how they spend thier money. Like those of the past their charty is still benefitting many generations after thier gone, can the same be said about Gates.
That was a very thoughtful post, Maestro64.
I don't fault anyone for picking one charity over another. It's hard to say what an "objective" philanthropist would choose to sponsor. For each of us, our personal experiences and acquaintances influence which causes or charities we most want to help. As long as the sponsorships aren't for truly misguided purposes, I don't see a reason to second-guess the causes people sponsor.
Does Donald Trump have favorite charities?
I don't fault anyone for picking one charity over another. It's hard to say what an "objective" philanthropist would choose to sponsor. For each of us, our personal experiences and acquaintances influence which causes or charities we most want to help. As long as the sponsorships aren't for truly misguided purposes, I don't see a reason to second-guess the causes people sponsor.
Does Donald Trump have favorite charities?
Doctor Q said:
Presumably. Gates is his own charity, though. With two threads running on this topic, it's difficult to keep straight what's been said where, but my previously stated concern is that Gates is using his money to decide what people need, instead of asking and listening. I'm afraid he's going to run his foundation the way he ran Microsoft.
timswim78 said:
So have I, which is why I'm concerned. About a year ago, Gates was making speeches about how the ideal high school size is 500 students, and his foundation is spending a lot of money to make it so. Having attended a very good high school with 2,000 students I have to wonder out loud whether Gates is right, and whether his foundation is really asking educators what they need.