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Comment by 6cxs2hd6 | Hacker News Reader

Bill Gates, having done well, reached a point in life where he wanted to do good. His philanthropy has been exceptional, and he's motivated others to do likewise.

Today's crop of well-off tech execs now have a unique opportunity to do good -- take Schneier's challenge.

Although few could match Gates on financial scale, they have an opportunity to equal or exceed him on social impact.

I hope for the sake of the rest of us they do.

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Bill Gates did good long before he retired. He, with others, built a company that made low cost computing available to millions of people. People who willingly paid the prices Microsoft asked for their goods because those individuals decided that it was in their self-interest to do so.

People who willingly paid the prices Microsoft asked for their goods because those individuals decided that it was in their self-interest to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_of_Microsoft_Windows

"The Findings of Fact in the United States Microsoft antitrust case of 1998 established that "One of the ways Microsoft combats piracy is by advising OEMs that they will be charged a higher price for Windows unless they drastically limit the number of PCs that they sell without an operating system pre-installed. In 1998, all major OEMs agreed to this restriction."[5]"

It was nigh impossible to buy a non-Windows x86 machine from any major vendor.

That said, the second sentence remains correct.

Of course doing well and doing good aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Returning to the present situation: Execs who have made more money than they or their heirs will ever need, and who are starting to think about their legacy, have an opportunity here.

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