µ columnist on microsoft: Bill Gates is cool.
Thrax
🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
CHOICE. IT'S ALL ABOUT USER CHOICE. That's what software providers whose names don't start with "Micro" and end in "soft" would have you believe, anyway. Of course, what they actually mean is "buy our stuff instead". Altruism is a word that sits very uncomfortably with the software industry.
So when Sun trumpets its success in winning a legal tussle with Microsoft about Java implementation (wake up at the back there), which results in Microsoft pulling the plug on a whole bunch of operating systems and applications including Office 2000 – probably the most-widely used piece of business software in the world, who wins?
Certainly not the users, whose choice has now become a stark 'either run my business without support, or upgrade'; certainly not Sun; probably not any of the open source alternatives. No, the winner is Bill Gates. The vast majority of users left without support for their key business applications thanks to Sun, will stick with the devil they know and move to Office XP or Office 2003.
What Sun, Oracle and all the other Gates haters seem to be incapable of grasping is that people use Microsoft products because they like them. They like the consistent look and feel; they're comfortable with them; and every office has at least one person who can help out when Betty in accounts can't remember how to decimal-align a document.
Poor old Bill. What's he done to find himself in the bizarre position of running the software company with the most popular products in the world, while being almost universally-hated? It can't be as simple as money. Oracle's Larry Ellison is as rich as Gates, give or take a few million, and Sun's Scott McNealy isn't short of a few bob either. Yet neither of these chaps is portrayed as the Anti-Christ, bent on world domination.
Maybe it comes down to personality. Gates is a geek. For the richest man in the world, he certainly has the worst haircuts. But somehow you know deep down, all he really wants to do is write code. He has more money than you can shake a stick at, but he's hardly alone in that.
Larry Ellison likes to spend his on ex-Soviet bloc jet fighters and ocean-going yachts – did anyone mention mid-life crisis? HP's Carly Fiorina is VERY fond of executive jets. When not funding expensive litigation against Microsoft, it's apparent that Scott McNealy uses a large percentage of his wedge on cosmetic dentistry; while Steve Jobs, a man regarded as the Messiah by some misguided souls, obviously spends all of his on doughnuts. Gates, on the other hand, merely donates a sum approximating the GNP of Belgium to charity each year. What a bastard, eh?
So here's your real choice, users. Support the used arms industry, the American Dental Association, Dunkin' Donuts, or AIDS research in Africa.
By Andrew Thomas: Tuesday 23 December 2003, 12:11 - InqWell
So when Sun trumpets its success in winning a legal tussle with Microsoft about Java implementation (wake up at the back there), which results in Microsoft pulling the plug on a whole bunch of operating systems and applications including Office 2000 – probably the most-widely used piece of business software in the world, who wins?
Certainly not the users, whose choice has now become a stark 'either run my business without support, or upgrade'; certainly not Sun; probably not any of the open source alternatives. No, the winner is Bill Gates. The vast majority of users left without support for their key business applications thanks to Sun, will stick with the devil they know and move to Office XP or Office 2003.
What Sun, Oracle and all the other Gates haters seem to be incapable of grasping is that people use Microsoft products because they like them. They like the consistent look and feel; they're comfortable with them; and every office has at least one person who can help out when Betty in accounts can't remember how to decimal-align a document.
Poor old Bill. What's he done to find himself in the bizarre position of running the software company with the most popular products in the world, while being almost universally-hated? It can't be as simple as money. Oracle's Larry Ellison is as rich as Gates, give or take a few million, and Sun's Scott McNealy isn't short of a few bob either. Yet neither of these chaps is portrayed as the Anti-Christ, bent on world domination.
Maybe it comes down to personality. Gates is a geek. For the richest man in the world, he certainly has the worst haircuts. But somehow you know deep down, all he really wants to do is write code. He has more money than you can shake a stick at, but he's hardly alone in that.
Larry Ellison likes to spend his on ex-Soviet bloc jet fighters and ocean-going yachts – did anyone mention mid-life crisis? HP's Carly Fiorina is VERY fond of executive jets. When not funding expensive litigation against Microsoft, it's apparent that Scott McNealy uses a large percentage of his wedge on cosmetic dentistry; while Steve Jobs, a man regarded as the Messiah by some misguided souls, obviously spends all of his on doughnuts. Gates, on the other hand, merely donates a sum approximating the GNP of Belgium to charity each year. What a bastard, eh?
So here's your real choice, users. Support the used arms industry, the American Dental Association, Dunkin' Donuts, or AIDS research in Africa.
By Andrew Thomas: Tuesday 23 December 2003, 12:11 - InqWell
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Comments
Actually, I agreed with pretty much every bit of that.
Let's me know the <s>silly linux lovers</s> fairer members of our community are still alive and well.
Merry Christmas gents (And the few stray ladies!).
/me does not dislike bill gates and enjoys using MS products despite the fact that all the linux users I know think I'm too stubborn to branch out. Trust me, I have, and I always went back to Windows....there's a reason for it.
Now, If I could just get my mitts on one of those "stray ladies"...
...or even one I could lead astray...
I wouldn't call buying fighter jets a mid-life crisis too. I'd do that right now if I had the money
Buying the jet itself is not the big deal. It's operating it.
A Citation can hit you for about 20-35 million (based on the variant). But then you have to pay the pilots (please...driving is for the commoners), the stewardess (did they really think you were going to pour your own glass?), the mechanics to maintain the plane (more than 3 hours of maintenance per hour flown, x 150 an hour, if they're non-union), and finally, buying the Jet-A fuel, which is at its highest prices in years here in the US.
And then there are the periodic thorough checks that an aircraft has to endure every few months to keep its airworthiness certificate.
So lots of people are buying their nice private jets, but are only able to swing taking a couple of trips every 6 months due to the enormous costs of operation.