Microsoft After Gates. (And Bill After Microsoft.)

Carlin was rich but not a Billionaire. Sure everyone has the right to buy or not to buy however in a monopoly that is extremely difficult to do. We do not have the FREEDOM to challenge the one's with unbelievable amount of power which affect each and everyone. The idea that only the selected few (the ones richer than many countries) have the right to make decisions on the fate of us humans and the earth is lopsided and does not afford solutions to our many problems.

Zanax: You have the FREEDOM not to buy his product. Get over it, if you want to be a free nation, you have to have money. Geroge Carlin (RIP) was also a rich man who used his influence and money for personal gain.

Zanax: I think it is time to take another dose. If you think Gates is bad, try looking up the other billionaires who got there money from their parents. Bill Gates is a generous man and if you want to give millions of dollars to a miserable organization like the UN, then go invent something. This is the US, you have that opportunity.

35 Billion and counting! Imagine the lives Bill will save with this money. U2's Bono was correct for his acclaimation of Mr Gates.

No taxpayer dollars will be used, no inefficient governmental clerks wasting it, just Bill Gates, using his own money to help those in the third world. What a guy and what a huge gift to humankind. Thank goodness the goverment did not interfer with his business as it was growing or starting up. Get goverment out of the way and make ways for innovation and charity.

Gates. What a great man! Outsoursing jobs, bringing in unskilled labor and taking over smaller firms who don't have the money to fight back. What a true gentleman. Makes Seattle proud. What a waste of skin!

It's called capitalism zanax, and you are contradicting yourself. He is not trying to use his money to design or "control" the world. He is wanting to give money away to improve the quality of life for others. YOU forget, he doesn't have to give away a dime you imbecil. He chooses to. He could keep it all. How he made it doesn't matter. IT IS HIS MONEY> Just because he found away to emass it, by whatever means, doesn't make it yours, or the UN's, or anyone elses; and it is up to him to decide what HE wants to do with it.

You are one of the dumbest people, making the dumbest statements I have ever come across. You are arguing the point of democracy, then saying we should challenge those who become rich in our "free" society because we don't VOTE for them. That is absolutely moronic. It also shows the jealous nature of people--cause in the end--it just makes it look like you're madm cause he's rich and you're not.

If he has influence, it's because of his money. That's what money can buy. Sorry, but it's a fact of life in capital societies. He didn't start off a billionaire. He made himself one. If you want that kind of influence, then go out and make a billion yourself, then you can decide what to do with it.

Oh, wait. Scratch that thought. I just remembered--you're a moron

Democracy means all the people. Democracy lets say in Britain began with Magna Carter where the system was open to more people. (back then it was the merchants) the process continues in hope that even the ones without can be part of the system. Presently they are not. His money is made from our system and throughout. He has not only admitted to stealing the operating system at Harvard (which sets a unhealthy moral precedent) but he has also has used monopoly methods to achieve his goals. He is one individual, ONE, who has had enormous influence on how our country and world should be designed. He is one of the Billionaires that we do not vote for, and yet, they have extreme power over our lives. these Billionaires need to be challenged. They are not the guy next door that has some money and should be free to do as he chooses, they are powerful and determine our human existence and we have no say so.

I want to thank Bill Gates for making the computer and it's software. I'm one of the individuals who evolved with business machines from the old typewriter, to electric typewriters, mag cards, MTSTs, Lotus 123 and all that other stuff. I was amazed. Then came Microsoft, the Internet's information Superhighway, and the whole world changed. He set a good example, and has lived life on his terms. I'm sure he will to great things in philanthrophy as well. Besides, he's just a phone call away if his company should need him. Good Luck to Bill and Melinda as they travel on to the next phase their life's journey.

For Bill,

Never thought you would leave so soon ( a little shock !!). It is indeed a fantastic feat. Today I may not be able to write this without your softwares.

The world has many pioneers in software but few to match yours / microsofts.

There are freewares but still I see your software in use everywhere - every country.

Competitors come, competitors go, yours remain. Philanthropy needs you badly now !! Do a Microsoft on that !

I have been using software ever since I saw / touched a PC.

Thanks again, Have a great retired life !!

Sridhar Iyer, India / Dubai.

For Bill,

Never thought you would leave so soon ( a little shock !!). It is indeed a fantastic feat. Today I may not be able to write this without your softwares.

The world has many pioneers in software but few to match yours / microsofts.

There are freewares but still I see your software in use everywhere - every country.

Competitors come, competitors go, yours remain. Philanthropy needs you badly now !! Do a Microsoft on that !

I have been using software ever since I saw / touched a PC.

Thanks again, Have a great retired life !!

Sridhar Iyer, India / Dubai.

I've heard all the scuttlebutt about him but I still think the man is a genius, he is the Edison of the 21st century. Besides, brainy guys are extremely hot. And he gets a thousand points for marrying an average looking woman instead of a super model.

I have followed Bill since the time of the start of Microsoft, and the products that were produced from the company
were superior to anything else on the market even with their faults. I also think the Xbox and Xbox360 will survive
because of the way they are built. Remember Microsoft is a company not just one person and things change within the structure of a company after awhile when it gets to big to handle. Bill Gates is still one very smart person and lucky to
have been at the right place and time in information history.

has poster bearh heard of competition as the prefered behavior in a capitalist system. Not monopoly but competition. And also the phrase "the means does not justify the end"

First off, this is for Mr. Gates, I truely hope you enjoy the rest of your life. You most certainly well desirve it. The brain power and talent you have is assume. Not to blow you head up to well because knowing you, you take things at strid like any good person would. You brought the world into the next century with style and grace. If not for you and your ideas, invention and dedcation I do not think the world would be as advanced as it is today. So YES GO enjoy the fruits of your labor. For we the people of the world have been enjoying it for years.

Now, for all you crackhead snub nosie babies who wrote negitive comments on this article and about Bil Gates. Over priced softwares? Ask your stupid self this. What would you be send this message on if Mr. gates had not been able to do what he did. For the price you pay for that software this man spent years and hours, and man power inventing. You think you can do any better "Noodlebar" Where is you software? No shun a man becasue he invented something and made milions. If that be the case what kind of care do you drive? You shunning the CEO of the car you drive becasue he made millions off you? Grow up. For the price we paid for a software that does so much and save all of us so much time we got offf cheap.

Philanthropist? You mean the guy that's been ripping us off for years with monopolistic practices and overpriced software? You mean the operating system that IBM created? All these creeps are the same through time....they all want to leave an image behind that belies the true nature of the beast!

Bill Gates rules. If it was not for the guy, we would be still working on a bunch of incompatible, incoherent pieces of crap software where 90% of the time would be spent trying to make a printer to work with a given piece of software, or recompiling the OS core.

Everyone can have an idea. Turning an idea into usable product is an entirely different issue. There is a lot of people whining about Microsoft, but you have to remember that was a time that MS was just another company. Anybody could have done what they did, if they had enough brains to do it. It is not like we were forced to use MS products in the 80s or 90s. We wanted to, because they were superior to anything else available on the market.

Heck, you can still use Linux and OpenOffice and C++ and MySQL and PHP if you want to. Its just the industry has moved beyond the geek-hobby stuff. Now we want reliable support, problems solved and service packs on time, so we can focus on our jobs, not on re-writing OS or dev tools for ourselves.

And with the programmers from India - that's BS. If you are good, people will beg you (quite literally) to work for them of a reasonable rate of $70 to $85 an hour.

Suggestion on Windows 7 - so you aren't doing a what can we do to improve the image after the fact -

1. LISTEN when someone says it is slow- compare it to XP (not Vista). I'm fine with it using more memory than XP but it better not consume one iota more processing power and it dang well better not thrash my drive.

2. TEST - don't just test on 8 Core 4 GHz liquid cooled PCs with 16 terabytes of RAM, test it on what most companies have - 3 GHz P4's with 1 or 2 GIGs of RAM (no more than 512 should be the footprint for the OS- people need to run apps on top of the OS). If it isn't faster than XP then you did something wrong. Sure you added more features but you should have been able to make it more efficient. Can you imagine if car manufacturers said - I added new features to the car this year so it requires twice as much gas and 94 octane. If you think that is bad wait until next year's car. It gets 1mpg and requires jet
fuel - but only goes 60mph just like your old car.

3. Don't force Windows 7 on us either. No more this OS only sales deals with the major manufacturers. If your next OS is good - people will demand it - you don't have to artificially create the demand just to boost your ego.

4. Maybe go to a more universal file system such as ZFS.