Ask HN: Bill Gates - Hero or Villain?

1 points by biznerd 5 years ago | 5 comments

I posted this on HN 6 years ago, (wow time flies)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8674644

Basically, it’s a discussion about how Microsoft held back the internet 6-7 years.

Imagine that. Human society would be 6-7 years in some respect.

I also read about Gary Kidall, the creator of CP/M. Bill gates created a variant of it, MS-DOS, and the rest is history. He was endlessly compared by the media to Bill Gates. He became an alcoholic and died in a bar fight.

Today he’s a forgotten pioneer.

As an entrepreneur, that really strikes me. Imagine a business dealing that made my partner an addict and so bitter he dies violently.

Bill Gates would also “date rape” companies by making fake overtures to acquire software companies and gather intel.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates gets a ton of good press. My friend’s wife recently “liked” his facebook page, and she’s the hippie granola, anti-capitalism type.

What do you think?

memexy 5 years ago |

This sounds like something generated by a GPT-2/3 language model. It sounds like a random but coherent association of words. I have no idea what point you're making or what you're trying to communicate.

I'd delete the post and think of something more coherent to say.

NoOneNew 5 years ago | |

I second deleting this post... where are the pitchforks and torches so we can run the machines out of town.

memexy 5 years ago | | |

I have no problem with machines. I have a problem with humans that act like machines.

rawgabbit 5 years ago |

I have a love-hate relationship with Bill Gates and Microsoft. BillG is trying to do good after so many years of predatory business practices. The US government let consumers down when they settled the 2001 Anti-Trust case.

giantg2 5 years ago |

One person's hero is another's villain. It all depends on the perspectives. I don't see a point to discussing whether somebody is one or the other, except to validate your views or force them onto others.