April 22, 2008
Bill Gates: the Last Word
The Rolling Stones. The Eagles. The founder of the world’s dominant software company.
Farewell tours by legends are becoming commonplace. But that last one, featuring Bill Gates, is coming to his final stop on a multiple-university tour, as he prepares to step back from day-to-day duties at Microsoft. This Friday, at the University of Washington, Mr. Gates will deliver a lecture called “Bill Gates Unplugged: On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Giving Back.”
The time of the event is 3:15 p.m. Pacific time. And you can tune in through UWTV, available in Seattle through broadcast, elsewhere on satellite through DISHnetwork, and (of course) over the Internet.
For a preview, check out Carnegie Mellon’s student newspaper, The Tartan, which reported on a Gates college stop back in February. Interestingly, they described it as the last stop. Well, the Rolling Stones have had multiple encores. Why not the Software King? —Josh Fischman
Posted on Tuesday April 22, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Nothing like a really big pile of money to fool the pile-ee that he is smart, and fool those lusting for grants into pretending he is smart. I wish, in a better world, that Americans would worship money a bit less, but, oh well, the universe is no longer sacred, leaving only money sacred.
— Richard Tabor Greene Apr 23, 06:43 AM #
Richard is right that too many people slavishly follow anyone with money, but I don’t think those giving a listen to Bill Gates are entirely in that camp. While some of the allure for Gates is his immense wealth, it is also the qualities that got him that wealth, and have caused him to use his wealth to try to tackle some of the world’s most intractible problems. He ought not be an idol for worship (no one should), but he represents more than just a “big pile of money.” He didn’t just win a big lottery, after all.
— jpl Apr 23, 08:54 AM #
Richard, your poorly masked jealousy is quite distasteful. Bill Gates is extremely intelligent and philanthropic. Quit berating others to make up for your own failures.
— texan Apr 23, 09:41 AM #
jpl – you mean that stealing product ideas, preventing fair competition, and being an all-around jerk, but throwing pocket-change around in self-promoting ‘philanthropy’ (how many of his ‘philanthropic’ pursuits involved indoctrinating people on Microsoft software?) is something we should admire?
I’m with RTG on this one.
— a different Dan Apr 23, 09:51 AM #
Don’t forget Gates made life a lot easier for us….give credit even to the devil
— Fatty Apr 23, 10:53 AM #
I adminre Bill Gates, not for his money, but for his good efforts. At least he is trying to thoughtfully use his billions to help others.
The negative comments here do sound like sour grapes…
— Kate Apr 23, 10:58 AM #
Greetings. I remember the story about how there are three kinds of people: (a) people who do something; (b) people who watch people do something; and © people who don’t notice that anything is going on.
You can sort some of the previous comments of posters to this blog topic on Bill Gates into one or these categories. I am grateful to Mr. Gates and other brave men and women who have helped to innovate and lead the world that we live in. Considering that Mr. Gates will give away everything in his and his wife’s lifetime to charity is extraordinary. This act is so amazing that the second richest guy in America, Warren Buffet, has directed that all his wealth be given to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well. And all that money has to be distributed before the demise of the Gates as well.
Did Bill Gates ever do anything that upset others? Did his company ever do anything that pushed the limits? Before it is all over, probably more than $80 billion will be given to charity to fight some of the most important issues in the world.
By the way, I don’t own Microsoft stock. In fact, I use an Apple MacBook instead. I hope that the Apple founders are as generous as Bill Gates.
Have a wonderful day,
David orbiting planet Apple
— David Apr 23, 12:10 PM #
Gates was, it is reputed, the last (apart from Larry Ellison) of the computer moguls to engage with charitable causes; he was conspicuously absent for a long time. His response to the expansion of Linux in S. America was to try to dump MS products at knockdown prices (a few dollars) to try to sustain a market. It’s alleged that he got the original IBM contract partly through the influence of his mother, a society lady (his father was a bigwig Seattle lawyer too). He and Paul Allen (don’t forget that) got the original software from another Seattle operation and twiddled it to DOS. MS deliberately destroyed Netscape (Firefox will now compensate for this – IE8 beta 1 is the usual crapware). What did he give the world?
*the need for 2Gb RAM – from the man who announced that no one should need more than 640Kb RAM – i.e. bloatware; * the cause of more viruses than existed in the natural world because of the insecurities of MS operating systems; * the blue screen of death (shame BSD is more reputably Berkeley Software Distribution – what a slur on Berkeley); * Windows ME!!!! * Vista !!! * Vista Service Pack 1!!!! * the recent manipulation of the ISO for the acceptance of ‘proprietary’ OOXML as a standard. *FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) in IP accusations.
usw. Africa is a continent which is decidedly in the Linux direction. It’s cynical, but all his previous actions have illustrated that his only concern is MS expansion. Sorry, but he has himself to blame for this.
Sorry, but good f*****g riddance, but what guarantee that Ballmer will turn out any better with a free rein as CEO?
Proud to be Linux; proud to be OpenSource; proud to be OpenOffice.
— Dave Postles Apr 23, 12:18 PM #
All I have to say is that I was able to go away to college because of a Bill Gates scholarship and was able to graduate with almost no debt. At least he’s doing something with his $$$.
— sp Apr 23, 03:05 PM #
I am a dad of UW and a WWU students. I want them to read this blog. If Warren Buffet is truly sending his milliions/billions to the Gates Foundation, and if it does truly need to be distributed during the Gates lifetime, then all the sour grapes should sit up, and study.
— Henry Shenk Apr 23, 09:04 PM #
I think you are confusing sour grapes with a different set of principles. Millions of people will come out of universities and colleges with heavy debts – one cause of which will be the costs of Microsoft licences. Most of the Third and Emergent World will go Linux simply because it cannot afford to go Microsoft and because Linux allows it to develop its own systems to its own situations. Of course people near Redmond are proud of Microsoft. People in Nigeria are less so. Applaud Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child and support that.
— Dave Postles Apr 23, 11:24 PM #