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Comment by sametmax | Hacker News Reader

We do realize their PR tell you that.

What I know, however, is that I've been missioned in Africa by the gate foundation and that most money is wasted. Most stats are bullshitted.

What I know is that Gates have been misbehaving most of his life and that suddenly he is giving so much money he won from this time.

What I see is that a lot of people like you are very eager to forgive everything he has done, all the benefits he got from it, just because he is giving back what he took.

It's because of this that we can't improve our systems. A bit of PR and voila, all misdeeds are forgiven. Bad guys become saints. And people like you will spend their energy defend the story.

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I didn't like the way Microsoft acted as a monopoly, but the tech industry managed to survive and escape Microsoft hegemony. Microsoft made some terrible software, but Office is actually very good overall and can argue has led to real productivity gains for many businesses. (I realize this can be debated endlessly.)

Everything I've read indicates Gates takes his philanthropy very, very seriously and is having a real impact on improving people's lives. I'm sure his foundations are not perfect and have problems, but I also believe they are a net benefit to the world.

Interesting to contrast with someone like Steve Jobs. His company arguably produced much better products impacting (shockingly) many more people, but he didn't give a dime to charity (as far as I know). Could have long philosophical arguments about who had the more positive impact on humanity overall.

You don't remember MS lying, cheating, doing illegal things and corrupting governments ?

See, that's the problem here.

You have completely forgotten how bad it was.

The fact the industry and society did well despite that is not relevant.

I do remember, and felt pretty much the same way you do now at the time.

Over the years, my views towards Microsoft have softened.

> Everything I've read indicates Gates takes his philanthropy very, very seriously

The problem is that he controls that narrative.

What alternative do you propose?

Remembering the tons of materials telling you otherwise from various unrelated sources + your experience with them in general ?

FYI: that’s not true. Jobs never wanted publicity for his charitable efforts. The bulk of his fortune went to his foundation when he died. His widow manages it now, basically doing the same thing as Gates.

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