I guess it's time for him to get a Nobel Prize.

Just a rant, not science.

Take care. ----------------------

He stepped down awhile ago, hes still on the board but Steve Balmer I believe is now in charge.

Um, he started the company. He invented most of the technology that started Microsoft.

Yes apparently he's actually a fairly decent coder and had alot of coding jobs early in his life. He wrote most of the runtime for Altair BASIC. The entire interpreter fits into 4K which takes some skill.

For the most part though his success more comes down to being ruthless and in the right place at the right time. "Buy and integrate" or "Buy and extinguish" has pretty much been the Microsoft motto since day dot. They buy good technologies, re-badge them and sell them off, or they buy then "accidentally mis-manage them on purpose" to kill off potential competition.

Outside of Microsoft he's actually done alot to try make the world a better place (most obvious example being the Bill/Melinda Gates Foundation). When you're as rich as he is I guess throwing a few million at charities is like giving away pocket change.

Microsoft is something that changed the world radically.
I mean, I remember when I was 7yrs old, 486SX 33mhz PC running MS-Dos..
Man it was fun, its the only reason I can type 120wpm.
Then came 3.1, 95, 98...

Think of the world in 1992, think of the daily lives of people in the office, multimedia, movies, jobs.. Computers were around for a while but Microsoft revolutionized them and made today's world the technologically advanced era.

So he stepped on some toes, what rich CEO hasnt..

I never saw bill gates wearing million dollar bling or driving stupidly fast cars to parties and doing blow..

sounds to me like your just jealous .. I know I am!

Way back in the beginning, Billy boy used to actually answer the phone and take orders. Try that now.

I never considered Gates as a computer genius. I doubt anyone knowledgable in the field does. However, he is considered a marketing genius. That is why MS was so successful. He was able to market his O/S better than Apple.

Originally posted by LordGoofus
Yes apparently he's actually a fairly decent coder and had alot of coding jobs early in his life. He wrote most of the runtime for Altair BASIC. The entire interpreter fits into 4K which takes some skill.

For the most part though his success more comes down to being ruthless and in the right place at the right time. "Buy and integrate" or "Buy and extinguish" has pretty much been the Microsoft motto since day dot. They buy good technologies, re-badge them and sell them off, or they buy then "accidentally mis-manage them on purpose" to kill off potential competition.

Outside of Microsoft he's actually done alot to try make the world a better place (most obvious example being the Bill/Melinda Gates Foundation). When you're as rich as he is I guess throwing a few million at charities is like giving away pocket change.

I do not disslike him as much as I did before. Whatever he has done competition wise Microsoft producs works quite well most of the time but I would say Microsoft is a group effort and it do not matter how much money he gets. He will not be able to bring it with him when he dies. And face it the competition would probably not do anything good with the money. At least Bill uses his money for good also.

Bill Gates is a cut throat marketing genius. Even if he did miss the growth of the internet.

He made most of his money from licensing.

His vision was a personal computer in every home.

He also - most likely is a mild Aspergers - which helps him focus on a single goal.

He's also very intelligent.

Originally posted by LordGoofus
Outside of Microsoft he's actually done alot to try make the world a better place (most obvious example being the Bill/Melinda Gates Foundation). When you're as rich as he is I guess throwing a few million at charities is like giving away pocket change.

It's not just "a few million" Gates is giving away most of his fortune. In 2010 the foundation has 36 billion in assets. This is about half his worth of $60 billion, and he keeps giving money to the foundation every year. Gates is the second most generous philanthropist in America and plans to give away 95% of his fortune.

Edit to add: Yes, Gates is an expert programmer, known for legendary overnight programminmg stints. Microsoft's acquisition of Seattle-DOS was the basis for MS-DOS. This deal was negotiated by Paul Allen, not Bill Gates.