Re: Dr. Bill Gates, Philanthropist, Genius, and Visionary. FSF? What has it done?

[Da'Punk-A]

Karen Hill wrote:
> That is how the major news networks and PBS covered Bill Gates'
> annoucement of his upcoming retirement.
>
> Dr. Bill Gates has two honorary PhDs, one from the prestigious
> Linkoping University of Sweden.

Yes, two /honorary/ PhDs.  What about real academic qualifications?
Whoops, he's a college drop-out.  An extremely wealthy college
drop-out, of course.  And if wealth is how you measure success, then
you'd call him a successful drop-out.

He's a philanthropist.  Uh huh.  I don't want to belittle his
generosity, but it is very easy to be generous when you're rich.

Maybe I'm just jealous.

Is it correct to call him "Doctor" Gates when his PhDs are pretend?

> On NBC's World News Tonight, the news anchor substituting for Brian
> Williams interviewed several computer commentators and they lauded him
> for "bringing the internet to the masses"

Must have been a pretty lousy substitute if he credited Gates with the
internet.  I seem to remember Microsoft trying very hard to pretend
that the internet wasn't happening.  They only really got involved when
it was clear the net wasn't going away.

> and for his vision of
> changing the world by putting a computer on eveyone's desktop.  They
> also pointed out that Microsoft and Bill Gates made this possible.

I can think of only one reason Gates would want a computer on
everyone's desktop.  It would have to be loaded with Windows, regularly
pumping up that fortune of his.

> In the world of business they said he was a visionary.  One commentator
> said he was one of the most respected and admired business leaders in
> the world.  He said that whenever his parent company put him on the
> cover of its business publications sales of those magazines would sky
> rocket.

I know of some women whose presence on a magazine's cover increases
sales.  But it ain't vision or business acumen that anyone admires
/them/ for.

<snips some more examples of Gates' greatness>

> What has free software done for us

One thing it does for me is give me a great operating system for my
computer.  And I don't have to contribute to Bill's wealth to use it.

> The FSF was formed in the
> 1980's and was not responsible for a computer on every desktop.  In
> fact, without Microsoft, the FSF would not even be close to the level
> of users it has now.

It certainly /is/ down to Microsoft that there are lots of PCs around
that we can install Linux on.  But that certainly wasn't something
Gates planned.  And I'm sure if he'd foreseen it, he would have done
things differently.

> FSF does not help the world's poor by solving the
> world's health problems.

I don't think the FSF are involved in the $100 laptop scheme.  But FSF
were central to the creation of GNU/Linux which, I believe, has more to
do with this plan to help the world's poor than Gates has.

> This is why world leader don't want to read Stallman's petitions but
> will eagerly meet with the visionary genius Bill Gates.

"Visionary genius"?  Yeah, right.