Why beat them up?...

[jdash]

This is something I have been wondering for along time...

In the recent past a popular issue was the case against Microsoft...they were accused of being a monopoly among other issues.

What I want to know is this...Yes, I will admit that there is probably a basis for this case, but...don't we all make mistakes? Why is it that the people who have been strong enough to reach a level of life that few reach happen to become the target for hate and strife...just because they have gone farther than most, is that their fault? I believe that if people would be willing they could all reach the level they want, but most people set goals early on in life, then when the going becomes hard they decide, "Oh, well...I made my life to hard...I will take a break." then they never continue...but people like Bill Gates, they have struggled in life also, but they have stuck to their goals...we all make mistakes (after all were humans), we all put others down, but if they make a mistake they are 'ganged' up on because...of course they don't 'deserve' the money they have, their hogs, and more people say...why?

Comments Invited...

[Sparkie]

From what I understand, Bill Gates used to ponder over leftover code found in trash bins. He and a friend started Microsoft as a "summer job"!

Imagine your summer job making you a millionaire..

[aspen]

Millionaire? Try Billionaire, try richest person in the world.


But anyways back during the trial there was a long discussion on these boards about it. Do a search for it and you can read a few hundered posts.

[Fiber]

Originally posted by aspen
Millionaire? Try Billionaire, try richest person in the world.


But anyways back during the trial there was a long discussion on these boards about it. Do a search for it and you can read a few hundered posts.

There are sultans over in the middle east, that are in the "oil" business. There is one specific one that is the richest in the world..

[Hierophant]

Originally posted by Sparkie
From what I understand, Bill Gates used to ponder over leftover code found in trash bins. He and a friend started Microsoft as a "summer job"!

Imagine your summer job making you a millionaire..

The first product sold by Microsoft was DOS to IBM. They went into IBM and sold them this great new operating system to run the brand new IBM PC that was due out soon. Bill Gates got IBM to sign an exclusive contract with them. They advanced almost 90,000 on the contract. After the advance was in hand and the contract signed, Bill bought the fledgling DOS for $50,000 from another company.

So think of this. The richest man in the world started his company on a bluff without even knowing the features the product he was selling. He did this to one of the largest companies in the world. He was a 3rd year college student at the time. Bill Gates and his two partners took that and started the world's most successful company to date. Bill Gates partners at the time were:

Paul Allen, who retired from Microsoft when he learned he had Hodgkin's Disease. Paul Allen now owns the Seattle Supersonics and invests his hundreds of millions heavily into Internet Startups and other technology firms. He was always a quiet man and likes to work from the sidelines.

Steve Ballmer, who is still Bill Gate's right hand man and currently the CEO of Microsoft Inc.

Learn more about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs by renting "The Pirates of Silicon Valley". This is a wonderful made for television movie created by TNT and is probably available at most video locations. It is also occasionally rerun on TNT for those who recieve that channel.

[aspen]

Originally posted by Adam Lysne

There are sultans over in the middle east, that are in the "oil" business. There is one specific one that is the richest in the world..

Nope. It used to be. Lets see early 90's the richest guy in the world WAS some Sultan worth 12 Billion.

Bill Gates was worth over 100 Billion in 1998. Since then he has lost some of his Networth coming in at around 70-60 Billion, poor guy.

But I assure you he is the richest man in the world, by a longshot, second is the president of Oracle by the way, and the VP of microsoft if also up there. Once a year Forbes documents the richest people in the world, pick up a copy.

Chris

[Son Nguyen]

By the way, Adam Lysne, your signature is funny! lol
Is it true or just a joke!

Anyone knows who William Gates is? I saw the name on a profile at Yahoo!Finance about MSFT

[Hierophant]

Originally posted by 123finder.com
Anyone knows who William Gates is? I saw the name on a profile at Yahoo!Finance about MSFT

Bill is an American Nickname for the name William.

[Son Nguyen]

Oh, that's why I thought "how come he brings his nephew to be the CEO"??

And btw, I saw the position of William Gates is CEO (maybe it's outdated!)

btw, I bet there are many American nickname I don't know, anyone list some please!

[jamesglewisf]

Not necessarily US nicknames:
Peggy for Margaret
Jim for James

I don't get the Microsoft hatred either. I love their software.

[RussellG]

I dont understand the hatred either.

I remember a foolish person saying that if Bill Gates wanted to he could afford to buy 5 big macs for everyone in the world everyday. I replied "Bill is a businessman, not a charity worker"

That brings up another point, Bill is so pressured to give to many groups, everyone seems to think that because he is rich that he has to do this.

[Elledan]

<sigh> Ok, I'll make a nice little post this time:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why Microsoft is so **** successfull
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quote from an interview with Ray Noorda, former senior executive of Novell:

"We tried to work together with them [Microsoft - red] but they continued kicking around them. They've seriously harmed the computersector. Microsoft is a prestigious juridical company, hardly disguised as a software company."

Microsoft has used so many juridical tricks to 'kill' it's opponents and with success: on 95% of all PCs in the world runs Windows.

Who believes that any company can, with fair play, get such a grip on the computermarket? Well, Microsoft doesn't have 'fair play' in its dictionary. Their methode is more like 'search-and-destroy': They look for an opponent, create a plan to either merge, bankrupt that company or severely damage the imago of the company, then they attack, leaving many times just the smouldering ruins of a once successfull company behind.

This wouldn't be so bad if the products that Microsoft makes were of a reasonable quality, but they're not. It took 7 servicepacks to get WinNT on a reasonable level and even the Office software needs Service Packs to get the worst bugs out of the software. Servers who run on a flavour of Windows are being despised by many people due to its lack of security and stability.

The only reason that the products of Microsoft are so successfull is because of the excellent marketing strategies of Microsoft: they could even sell a refrigiator to an Inuit on the NorthPole or an electric heater to a Nomad tribe in the Sahara...

Seriously, either Microsoft must begin with creating serious programs (instead of those pieces of junkware, as people like to refer to MS software), or become a real softwarecompany, who cares about the health of the computersector, instead of the angry watchdog who snaps at everybody who comes close, that Microsoft is now.

[Sparkie]

This reminds me of that "Diva and Goliath" trial.. A women's website known as digitaldivas.com (I believe its for businesswomen?) sued Microsoft for registering digitaldiva.com and patterning its own website after the divas' one. What was the outcome on that?? Anyone know?

[adam_shep]

Originally posted by W. Luke
Paul Allen now owns the Seattle Supersonics

He actually owns the Seattle Seahawks (football), and the Portland Trailblazers (basketball). I'm a big Portland fan, so I'm quite happy that Paul Allen owns the team. He spends as much money as he wants to try to assemble the best team possible. His currently pays his players a total of 90 million dollars a year. (Thats for only about 12 players). Wasteful? Maybe. But I guess 90 million isn't much for him

[Hierophant]

I had read a biography that said he own the Supersonics. I do know he is a very avid sports fan. Maybe when the article was written he owned part of the Supersonics than later bought the Trailblazers outright. They never give you all the details in those things.

[mjames]

He also owns techtv.

[WebKat]

Originally posted by Sparkie
This reminds me of that "Diva and Goliath" trial.. A women's website known as digitaldivas.com (I believe its for businesswomen?) sued Microsoft for registering digitaldiva.com and patterning its own website after the divas' one. What was the outcome on that?? Anyone know?

Sparkie, it has been resolved...you can read more at their website "Digital Divas" which has really grown since I first visited months ago!

{QUOTE} In the simplest terms, Microsoft's Stacy Elliot will no longer be known as the "Digital Diva" and Microsoft will no longer use {www.digitaldiva.com} in connection with content like that formerly available at that site {UNQUOTE}