how the hell can you say that bill gates has done nothing for computers in the last 20 years.

thats like saying oh printed money has done nothing for the economy in the last 200 years

it was probably the most assinine comment i have ever heard



amen to jerk racer.

preach it brotha

 

what exactly has he done that would not have happened without his involvement that benefits the general public?





It's pretty pointless to argue actually, it's like arguing religion.



person says to me 'praise the lord, I prayed when I got breast cancer and now I am cured'

I ask, 'So the doctors were successful?'

they respond 'Yes, the lord works in mysterious ways'

I respond 'So had you not prayed the doctors would have failed?'

it's hopeless, I'm sure you know where it goes from there.

the patient would have recieved the same treatment, had they prayed or not, try convincing them of that.



The public was going to get computers, wether they had MS software on them or not.



bill gates didnt do the public any favors, and I personally believe the public would have been alot better off as a whole had MS not been 'first'. MS did alot of stifling of innovation and development, in the interests of extending their monopoly and lining their pockets.



Anyone who evangelizes bill gates is simply naive. But hey, don't believe me, research it yourself...

 

Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed the o.s. for the Altair without ever even seeing one...I'd say that takes intelligence and did a whole lot to get the PC into homes. You people have to look at the history of it all before you pass judgement.

 

Pengaru is right, this is pointless to argue.



I would like to say one thing. Anyone who believes Gates is a "good" man, or that he is just doing what anyone put in that position would have done, you need to do a little research.



Anyone else look at the current Windows, and see a highly stylized version of good 'ol Windows 3.1? I thought so... Can you imagine how advanced the desktop operating system would be if Microsoft had not somehow convinced the public that his bug-riden ripoff was the best? Or better yet if they had actually put some development $$'s into Windows instead of concentrating on controlling the market?

 

again, it's all about being there first.



Anyways, you don't need to see computer hardware to develop for it, if you have specifications for it you can do just as well, and if i'm not mistaken they did that on an emulator, plenty of things get developed that way because it's *easier* than developing on the native hardware because you have more control/debugging capabilities. Being able to see some chips vs not being able to doesnt have much effect on your ability to program for it. Plenty of people write software, and you can't possibly believe BASIC was the product of a genius, or even a relatively intelligent programmer.



I think in the early days things were pretty cool, but you can't prove that some other kids in a garage wouldnt have done it had bill and paul not. And you can't prove the world wouldnt have been better off as a result. It was all timing, hell selling DOS to IBM when they didnt even have it, everything just worked out perfectly. And it was definately exploited, not to the publics benefit.



Kernighan and Ritchie have more intelligence in their pinkies than bill gates has in his entire body.

 

Gates is bent on world domination. Puff, puff, and pass that crap you're smoking. That's one serious delusion. If he wanted to rule the world, he could've bought half of the planet by now. You know, deluded people believe they aren't deluded. They just think everybody else is.





For all of you people that don't like Gates/Allen/Microsoft or whatever - what are you doing about it? Are you running anything Microsoft related? Or are you just talking to hear your heads rattle? Even if it's bootleg, you aren't helping your cause. You are a pathetic hypocrite. Go out there and buy a product that is in direct competition with Microsoft. Money talks and bullshit walks.





Anybody ever see MicroSlut? Gotta love midget ****. :monkydance:

 

heh



home: all debian gnu/linux, 12 or so boxes, mostly x86, one alpha w/freebsd

work: everything I touch is either redhat or debian, > 600 redhat linux machines in the datacenter down the hall... all x86 pc junk.



even my parents run debian.



i've contributed to a number of free software projects in the past and have a few I work on in my spare time currently which are unfinished.... which are on hold due to my car habits.



I used to run the local monthly 'LinuxFest '( http://chi.linuxfest.org/ ) along with a friend for a few years, but I've had to stop attending due to lack of time between cars, work, and wife. I plan on rejoining after the 7 is done... I still host that site but it's outdated I don't think any of the current organizers maintain it... I also host shells.gnugeneration.com, and pengaru.com is an operating system project I'm involved in with the same person I used to run linuxfest with.



not everyone is a hypocrite.

 

I'm writing the U.S. Department of Justice to let them know I've been harmed by Bill and his crappy software, and I can't buy anything else because of his monopolistic bullying.



Let's hope the government rips his crapass company into little pieces.

 

I'm writing the U.S. Department of Justice to let them know I've been harmed by Bill and his crappy software, and I can't buy anything else because of his monopolistic bullying.



Let's hope the government rips his crapass company into little pieces.[/quote]

You can't buy a Mac? I know some people can get them, because we ship a whole lot of them through UPS...not as many as Compaqs, Dells, and Gateways, though. I guess people really do like crap.



You know, if Felix Wankel hadn't developed his rotary engine, somebody else surely would have, and it would be better. Give me a ******* break, and give credit where credit is due.

 

bill gates's strength lies not in him being an inventor, but using that technology to his advantage.



mike