I read only one or two posts of this thread, and I'm dissapointed in you.

The linux community is about freedom of choice, freedom FROM uneeded expenses, and also about helping others understand our many operating systems (Distros), and making them more user friendly, and yes, the linux community should focus on the computer illeterate community.

I was one of the FIRST people to sign the Live8Live petition online, and I have to say, this is a cause that needs world understanding. And to be honest, I doubt any if many of you signed it in the first place.

Bill Gates is out there signing donation check after donation check to make this world a better place, I don't see any linux users doing that, I don't see any linux programmers doing that. "Oh we don't have money" you whine to me.

You don't need money to make a differance, and thats a huge part of linux. I think you've forgotten that. I don't have any money, and my name is on the list. I don't have any money, and I spend a good chunk of my days helping people for free, with things I should get paid 30$ an hour for (Hardware tech)


I'm proud of Bill Gates for helping in his own way.

I'm dissapointed in all of you for whining about it instead of changing it.


Good Day.


~Las

Regardless of how he made his money
it's his - he can spend it how he likes
and he can't take it with him when he goes
which is an issue for the filthy rich
how do you really enjoy squillions of dollars
the truth is you can't
that's why he gives a lot away

floppy

I'll never understand bill gates bashers. Without him you wouldn't be using linux. How do you think the personal computer became what it is? His name will stand for few hundred years as the guy who catapulted the world into the information age. It was a stagnant pond before him. True, he added a bit of bilge to the pond while removing the dam, but we owe him big time. HE DROVE THE AGE. Never forget that. People can go on all the time about his evil windoze empire, but it was that empire that allowed us to each have a computer(or several even).

And you may think his goals not to be altruistic with his donations, but I give you this. He, along with others that started up microsoft have donated in a day more than you will ever contribute in a lifetime. So what if he's doing it for a tax dodge(which I don't think is the case, he could afford easier and better tax dodges), he's doing good. What are you doing for the world? Where would the space race be without microsoft? Ah, you probably don't see the link between microsoft and the next 50 year space age. But I and several others do. A little money in the right place at the right time has changed the world, not once, but twice. And it will continue that way. Fuck his motives, look at the results.

The Truth ::
doing business is self propelling , businessmen can't even dictact their cause but the orientating motivations are all the same ,a kind of "chilling effect" ..., those sleeping with tons of paper notes underneath them can't even imagine they are what they are right now when they just started out owning nothing but a jockey cap , similar to a linux hacker , but they are the luckier one i guess , nobody will take pride in saying "i love the challenge of earning lesser than you" when doing business , we all more or less love things "Mircrosoft" ,don't you ? ...

The Summit ::
G8 bosses , IMF together with their bastardised executive native managers across nations who love joking and prostituting infront of their people that they are actually soverign and independent with a Sound Economy when the only thing those real bosses had left behind whenever they took the trouble of dropping by your doorstep are trails of local/natives blood , more civil wars , more young prostitutes , more "my father who is a crimminal" and more professional pickpocket street urchins("i just want to help my mum") ...

Some Truth but not all ::
donation ? charity ? philanthrophy ? "fund" raising ? ...
yeah , i "bought" your land for 10cent per-square metre and build miles of infrastructure highway inroad , but do not worry , i will also build schools and donate free teaching materials and ofcourse , free computers for your kids , i'm still able to love you , you know ... things will get better when your kids grown up and be an adult , trust me , just remember do not use pirated softwares anymore , we will be back and love you more ...

UFO , the real thing ::
talking about the summit , there will be some conspiracy theorists busking around the summit with their crafts , they really believe UFOs did came to earth and "evaluating" the mexicans revolution , maybe this time we should look around somewhere above the sky try spoting UFOs circling above the summit , or maybe we should ask them "is it worth to inherit what the earth had inherited till now ?" or maybe we should ask for a free and effortless ride when they are returnning home in disappointment , to a better "earth" without fscking shity heads with shity morals and shity ethics ...

I think many did not actually read my words, rather, assumed based on their own feelings.
I never said 'I hate Bill Gates'. What I said was
To me, the business policies Microsoft apply belittle any monetary contribution the company and it's owner may make. It's hypocrisy plain and simple.

Sigh! I think you have a very naive approach to life, however for your pleasure, a very lazy Google search brings us:

http://heh.pl/&kE

http://heh.pl/&kF

http://heh.pl/&kG

Wait... is that the sound of your brain starting to catch up?

So your link sprovide us with some crackpot new article about BIll Gates apparently killing african chidlren from a highly biased and unreliable website (which turns out to simply be an opinion article not a factual news article) a chinese site where the whole world knows how much China uses MS software to censor their population big deal its their countryI do see what that has to do with anything, and the final one is how MS is deciding to try and expand in India....ok so they are making a business decision and you don't like it? What has any of those have to do with how Bill Gates sends billions of dollars to chairety?

Its a sad day when people whine about a person sending large amounts of monies to chariety.....Tell you what when you can donate similar amoutns to chariety and stop worrying about frigging software then come back and complain.

"OmFGH M$'S Bill gates Decidedsd To sends money TO chariety! ow dare He does hwat he wants with hIs moneys OFMG!"

Rubbish. BG and MS simply rode the hardware wave. PC's were around before MS and will be here after MS... Or are you saying that BG was responsible for the apple and all other PC's. BG just got in lucky with the IBM and took over the industry and then it's likely he has held it back more than helped it... The PC age has been driven by the hardware, pure and simple... Look at the mobile phone for example.

I have use non-MS OS's my entire computing life for the most part... I went from Dr-Dos to OS/2 to linux... Yes I know MS had some input into OS/2, but the point remains... IF BG never existed we would be using apple, GEM, some for of *nix or whatever. The desktop PC would remain and may even be better as the result of an extra 20 years of competitive inovation.

I owe him nothing, thanks. He still owes me $400 for windows ME...

Yeah, because EVERYONE had an apple? Not. True, there were personal pc's, I myself had a trash 80. But microsoft provided the means so that everyone and their ignorant brother could use a computer. And it was marketed to sell. The gui was around a long time before windows, hell, it was even around before the apple, but no one was using it. Definately not the masses. So give the credit where it is due, he was the right person at the right time. I don't care that he's a ruthless business man, or that he plays hardball, it doesn't matter to me. Lofty principles are nice, but they tend to fall by the wayside in light of reality. And it's nice that you think hardware drives the community, but what do you think drives hardware?

Well, as for the cheer, I suspect that there was a large neon light instruction behind/above Gates to cheer when he came on stage.

Further, I think that he made himself look a little foolish, because he was very obviously reading from an autoqueue!

As for the rest of "his performance". I don't hate him per se, I strongly dislike how his company carries out some of it's business. It may even be fair to say that I'd do the same in his shoes (I'd like to think that I wouldn't).

I have some understanding of how much the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does give to charitable causes and they should be applauded for it, cos it's one hell of a lot of money.

I can't make my mind up, as to whether this is for altruistic or business reasons. Though I'm aware that he comes from a reasonably normal background and it could easily be that while he doesn't dislike having made so much money, but, that kind of wealth can make for an uncomfortable feeling i.e. an embarassment of riches!.

Personally, if I had that kind of money, I'd try to give some to every concievable charity. Afterall, thats the essence of charity "I've got plenty, you haven't, so have some of mine"!

Unfortunately, I'm not in that position. So I decided long ago, only to give to charities that have, in some way, touched my life. I can't give to them all, as much as I'd like to.

I also feel that those who do have considerable wealth, should use any influence that comes with it, in a sensible way. Perhaps Bill G, should use that to lean on George dubya about climate change.

I'm sure that dubya is correct too say that thats something that needs more research and that technical solutions need to be sought, but how about giving tax breaks to companies that are doing something about developing those very technical solutions, and encouraging US business to use their fuel in a more efficient and economical way, that surely would have some effect on the levels of carbon based pollution that being pumped out of the US every day!

thats my worth!

regards

John

Oh poop. You are kidding, right?

There were lots of different PC's, of which the IBM PC was one. They were all expensive due to the hardware cost. MS provided nothing initially except relabelled QDos, and it was the clone of the IBM PC and it's open structure that made the intel PC popular. It would have been apple clones but apple stopped it. I had an apple clone amongst many other platforms. QDos - oops, MS-DOS and PC -DOS came with the ibm pc and clones. There was no gui. Apple started the gui. MS cloned it and the popular ibm clones gave it a platform. MS rode the wave. ANY OS would have dome the same on that hardware. It could have EASILY been cp/m and GEM or any other system... It was a lucky break (not just luck, of course, as we know plenty of BG's history of shady deals and lies and all the rest)

MS had already taken a firm hold before the gui, of course, after the amazing chance rise of the ibm pc and clone. Nobody expected the ibm to be so popular, not even ibm. There was no gui. Just DOS. The MS gui became the more popular gui simply because it ran on the more popular harware platform after MS already had control of software on the intel platform. The gui became possible due to hardware advances like larger cheaper memory and faster processors and more concetated integrated circuits and so forth.

What drives hardware the most? Easy. Games. Nobody needs a athlon 64 2800 to run a word pro. I got it for doom 3. simple. duh.

You honestly think games drive hardware the most? That wouldn't have been my first choice. I would have went either the way of graphic design for certain hardware or intense scientific/math programs for extreme number crunching.

As for Bill Gates, I commend him for giving as much as he does to charities. It is more then most people in his position do.

When Microsoft lost the anti-trust suit it made their huge cash horde vulnerable. Governments and companies could, and have, sued Microsoft for huge sums of money in reparation for Microsoft's crimes. Bill Gates decided to take the precaution of moving a significant part of the money to where it is judgment proof. Microsoft declared a very large dividend.

Bill Gates was potentially face with an astronomical tax bill on this dividend, but not to worry. His father's law firm, Preston Gates, had already set up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a judgment proof tax shelter. Bill Gates made a public gesture of donating the entire dividend to charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, such donation being a tax deduction equal to the amount of the dividend so no taxes were paid on the dividend.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invests its money at the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates. The money in the foundation cannot be claimed in a judgment against crimes by Microsoft but it can be claimed in a judgment against crimes committed by the foundation. The foundation pays no taxes on its earnings but it must distribute some money to charities in order to qualify as a charity. Bill Gates is ahead as long as the percentage of earnings given to charities is less than the percentage of earnings otherwise paid in taxes. One disadvantage to a tax free foundation is that is very difficult for one's heirs to inherit anything through a foundation. Bill Gates has stated publicly that his children will only inherit a fraction of his wealth.

Bill Gates is trying to get as much favorable publicity as possible for his charitable acts. As part of his publicity campaign he has hired astroturfers to publicize his charity here on LinuxQuestions. The only thing that is illegal about any of this is the fact that the astroturfers do not disclose that they are being paid to advertise Bill Gates and Microsoft. So, I will send a complaint to the American government about the illegal astroturf on LinuxQuestions, again.

----------------------
Steve Stites

"You honestly think games drive hardware the most? That wouldn't have been my first choice. I would have went either the way of graphic design for certain hardware or intense scientific/math programs for extreme number crunching."

On the desktop, yes I think it is games. The desktop is the power base for MS software and the desktop hardware is driven mostly by games. Sure, bloated MS OS's also do force hardware upgrades, but it takes games to get people to buy cutting edge hardware like $1000 CPU's and video cards...

Other software certainly does drive hardware as well, but MS software would be down the list compared to other software...

Bill gates is actually a very decent guy, and is very generous.

It is Microsoft I hate, and it's solely due to their current anti-consumer "every customer is a thief" mentality.