Bill Gates's philanthropy is merely a tax break: It's cheaper to give it to charity than to pay the tax on it.
Windows Vista had to be re-written from scratch because they made such a hash of it - that's what delayed it so much, and that's also why Windows XP is such a security nightmare. I've used Windows since the beginning, and it's always been poor.
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist in at least THREE jurisdictions - and recently when they were required by the EU Commission to produce documentation on their network protocols as a remedy for their abuses in Europe, they were unable to do so - and ended up offering the *source* *code* instead, because their internal documentation processes are so deficient! This cynical move was of course calculated merely to delay, rather than rectify any wrongdoing.
Real operating systems don't *need* virus scanners and adware scanners, because they just aren't that badly written. The only reason that Windows has the top spot is because of Bill Gates's double-dealing and abuses of his monopoly power - crushing any competition with dirty tricks rather than compete legally.
-cybervegan
Bill Gates Receives Tax Break from Philantropy.
Yes, he does. Would you rather he keep that money in his pocket, or bank accounts, or under his mattress, instead of going to benefit the many people that receive his money? Ex. Disease Research, Africa assistance, Library PCs and Internet Access, Sex slave education in Asia.
I agree
6th February 2006 - 06:57 PM
QUOTE (Drude+Feb 3 2006, 12:18 AM)
http://www.physorg.com/news10481.html He is a very smart individual. If there is one man on this planet that deserve riches, fame, and success, it has to by right be Bill Gates. The government should put it on their head. With BUSH wasting average American money like it is fire timbre, people like Bill Gates are the epidemy of the hardworking American who keeps this country, round, fair and square and in the game. Props to Bill.
Well put.
SoIstEs
6th February 2006 - 09:01 PM
QUOTE
I wonder what Microsoft's plan will be once the general public catches on to open source operating systems and software. Seems like people are already seeing the benefits of FireFox and other open source projects. They probably run linux on the "special" computer at the IRS, what irony!
I can't see open source Operating Systems ever being a big hit with the general public. Why? Because 95% of people need someone to hold their hand when they simply turn on a computer. And they arent going to receive enough support from an open source project.
lengould
6th February 2006 - 09:50 PM
I was in "the business" as IT director when MS first released DOS1.0, and boy were we ever happy to see someone offering a challenge to IBM, which obviously Jobs etc. didn't know how to do. Trash Windows all you want but it's the only one which offers to support "everyone's hardware / add-ons" and "everyone's applictions".
Note also, I do as well have my list of beefs, including inadequate isolation/discipline of poorly written applications which leak memory (the cause of the vast majority of complaints).
Still, only Gates or Jobs ever had a prayer of breaking the "mainframe mindset" where they found the world in 1980. I too might have been happier had it been Apple, but they lost the race because of supporting only a closed hardware environment. RIP.
Open Source / GPL has one serious flaw, which is failing to arrange for the costs of the huge boring task of maintaining and marketing. The product (eg. Linux) is worth a fair amount to end users, but as soon as any cash flow starts, the original committed developers start eyeing with envy the marketing groups and the projects fall apart. Witness MYSQL. Too bad, but reality.
Guest
10th February 2006 - 07:53 PM
QUOTE (lengould+Feb 6 2006, 09:50 PM)
Trash Windows all you want but it's the only one which offers to support "everyone's hardware / add-ons" and "everyone's applictions".
Your computer has unsupported hardware. There are no drivers. You should've spent extra $200 on proper parts. Too bad for you.
So much for supporting everyone's hardware...
thinAIR
24th May 2007 - 03:14 PM
Bill Gates and the Downfall of America
<br><br>
3 specific events will foster the downfall of America and eventually of modern civilization.<br><br>
1) And most importantly. The population explosion. No one seems to get it. More energy use, more greenhouse gasses (thus global warming and climate change), urban sprawl, poverty, job loss, high consumer costs (especially petroleum products), pollution, waste management, crime etc.. are all products of the American (and global population explosion. Guess what,more people on the planet, more use and abuse of all these resources. The planet is limited in the number of humans it can support without degradation. No. 1 on the list for the autocrats to control is the human population. We offer tax exemptions for each child a family has, endorsing large families. There should be tax penalties for each kid a couple has. You will never legislate the inability to have kids, though I think China has it right. But you can make it less profitable. Lower the number of living bodies on the earth, lots of the above problems disappear.
<br><br>
2) The Industrial Age - Though a fantastic and productive time in world history, this single event was the beginning of the end of our planet. For millions of years our planet was sustainable. For thousands of years our planet remained in working order with our mostly agrarian society. Since the industrial age (in very short order) the planet's deterioration has been firmly identified and and the process has proceeded to deteriorate exponentially.
<br><br>The Computer Age - Another overwhelmingly positive move toward the comfort and ease of information sharing for human-kind. But kind of like Iraq, no one looked at the consequences of it's mainly unregulated evolution. Google, My Space, AOL IM, Porn, Video Games of all sorts just an unlimited smathering of data available to everyone. The mind numbing , or dumbing down of the population by means of getting any info necessary by typing in a few key words. What happened to books, study, research, imagination, down-time. 5 of 6 papers done in middle or high school are cut and pasted from the internet (including pictures, charts and graphs). Video games provide mind-numbing entertainment for kids who have all the imagination shrink wrapped and pre-programmed for them. They just push buttons. There is no more thinking, just googling. Now I am a quite the hypocrite here as I use the computer for info gathering on a daily basis, but I believe that our kids will suffer from it's derivatives.
PhysOrg scientific forums are totally dedicated to science, physics, and technology. Besides topical forums such as nanotechnology, quantum physics, silicon and III-V technology, applied physics, materials, space and others, you can also join our news and publications discussions. We also provide an off-topic forum category. If you need specific help on a scientific problem or have a question related to physics or technology, visit the PhysOrg Forums. Here you’ll find experts from various fields online every day.
To quit out of "lo-fi" mode and return to the regular forums, please click
here.