Why does this myth keep getting pushed - by tech people no less? Bill Gates emphatically denied ever saying it and no one has ever come forward with a scrap of evidence he actually said it.
Same reason plenty of people still believe in the Loch Ness Monster or that Crop Circles were made by aliens.
Some people are hopelessly refractory to critical thinking and will never change their mind, no matter the evidence presented to them.
- To emphasize that the definition of "a lot of [computational resource X]" changes over time.
- That people previously had to do a lot of similar computational tasks with a lot less (which this article is making use of).
With that said, I agree that he shouldn't be asserted as the author of the quote like it's a fact, but that just means you should quote it as "attributed to Bill Gates".
He has since gotten way, way better PR handling though. Just look at the way Reddit absolutely adores him nowadays (he's done lots of very carefully managed AMAs). Heck, even on HN there's enough young people who have no idea how much this one individual repressed computing progress over 1-2 decades through market abuse.
Here's one example of many of how the pro billg PR is done:
https://www.reddit.com/r/secretsanta/comments/5iphpa/i_won_s...
Back then, you could just deny something happened, and often get away with it because you weren't being surveilled 24 hours a day.
It's like when someone very knowledgeable about a subject posts information on Wikipedia. Even if they were there first hand; even if they were personally involved with the event; even if they wrote magazine articles about it and did radio interviews about it, and it was covered by television — if it happened before 2000, it'll get erased from Wikipedia by someone on the other side of the planet because there's not a web link or an ancient library book to cite for "proof."
/Yes, I'm speaking from experience.
Sort of related:
It's a bit distressing, in away, how hard it is to access information from before like year 2007. Most of it is locked up in government reference libraries and you generally have to bonafide "researcher" to even access physical copies of publications. Oh, and it's not allowed to make copies of the material.
Thanks a lot, Disney.
You seem to have a pretty prominent chip on your shoulder regarding Bill Gates.
Gates has donated billions of dollars of his fortune to charity and he's largely credited for having eradicated malaria through these efforts in multiple countries.
It's hard to find a good reason to dislike someone like that.
Did you ever pause to consider how much humanity would have progressed without him stopping so much progress in the first place?
(I deleted a section on the malaria stuff; I misread your comment slightly at first.)
Many, many people disliked him after his predatory business days. This is the perfect way to a) keep doing interesting work, b) getting people to like him again, c) get some personal karma.
I can quite easily see the appeal of this.
Also; I'm a big fan of his current work. I loved how my country (Sweden) matched a very large billg foundation program funding the other year; I think he's way better equipped with handling that money than my government's idealistic but fumbling people.
I just think we shouldn't forget his past just because he's turned into modern day santa. We should learn from history...
Yeah, you definitely have something against him, don't you?
I don't really care what his motives are, I just look at the results of his contributions and there is no doubt in my mind he will be remembered as someone who was instrumental in saving millions of lives and advancing our civilization.
> Many, many people disliked him after his predatory business days.
I profoundly disliked him as well back in the days, especially since I was a hard code Amiga fan.
As opposed to you, I have changed my opinion based on additional data.
Well, yeah.
I think we'd be at least 5 years further into the future in terms of software than we currently are, possible 10, unless he hadn't abused the markets so gravely.
#cough# Safari on Apple devices
#cough# Chrome on Android and ChromeOS devices
Besides, the integration with the operating system isn't the problem. It's the integration with the only operating system. It isn't monopoly abuse if you don't have a monopoly.
This is way too non-inclusive, but at least it's something:
https://www.pcmag.com/feature/302767/9-companies-microsoft-d...
In the 80s Microsoft under Bill Gates was extremely fierce. Silicon Valley software companies lived in constant fear.
There was a bunch of well-documented market abuse using the control of the OS (MS-DOS).
Further reading:
Hardly. Market share is still roughly 85% Windows, 15% Mac, and fuck-all % Linux, which is reflected in the level of support provided for applications, games, hardware etc. Even disregarding compatibility, MacOS is not a straightforward alternative as it only runs on Apple hardware, which is very expensive and only offers a narrow range of opinionated designs.
Please no ad hominem attacks, focus on what I said, not how old I am.
But if it matters to you, I wrote my first lines of code in 1979 on an Apple ][ and I've lived through the exact same times you did.
I find little point in speculating on what could have happened that didn't, I focus on reality and what people have actually achieved in their life time.
Is fine.
> How old are you? Let me just guess; not old enough to have experienced living/working in tech while Bill was doing his thing
Is an ad hominem attack.
I know you're struggling to find hidden reasons that could lead someone to not despise Bill Gates, but you're wasting your time.
The man is saving millions of lives with his fortune, just deal with it and the reality that he might not be as evil as you want him to be.
It does illustrate the power of the combination of time and lots of money. You can literally alter truths.
The lack of a sense of history here is disturbing. I thought HN was better than this.
Microsoft made their own version of Java that almost killed Sun. I think it was J++ and later J# and then Microsoft made C# to replace it.
The original DOS was CP/M that Seattle Software and Microsoft made their DOS do CP/M API calls and a program to convert CP/M programs to DOS. At the time this was not illegal, ECT. Microsoft did Basic, Fortran, Cobol without getting a license for them for 8 bit Pcs.
Those are just a few examples, mostly unethical but not criminal in 1970s and 1980s. By 1999 the DOJ investigated Microsoft.
https://www.justice.gov/atr/us-v-microsoft-courts-findings-f...
Also Apple fans claim Microsoft ripped off the Macintosh with Windows and tried to put Apple out of business.
To people like Gates there are good and bad things, and people only know the good things and ignore the bad things because Microsoft built their own industry, ect.
(Is this an attack? I can't tell any longer.)