Gates without Microsoft

[Warren Ockrassa]

On Jun 22, 2008, at 4:21 AM, Ronn! Blankenship wrote:

> "(Fortune Magazine) -- Let me tell you about Bill Gates. He is
> different from you and me. First off, the billionaire co-founder of
> Microsoft has always been something of a utopian. In his mind, even
> the world's knottiest problems can be solved if you apply enough IQ.
> Accordingly, Gates, who has been spotted on Seattle freeways reading
> a book while driving himself to the office, covets knowledge. It's as
> if he's still trying to make up for dropping out of Harvard, as he
> spends just about any spare waking minute reading, studying science
> texts, or watching university courses on DVD."
>
> <http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/20/technology/gates_after_microsoft.fortune/index.htm 
> >
>
> (Different from you, perhaps.  Although I don't make a practice of
> reading while driving.  And I am not too happy when I glance over and
> see another driver doing so . . .)

Oh, and Bill Gates is a thief, self-aggrandizer and general all-around  
bastard. His stealing of DOS is a legendary tale; his knowledge in  
1994 that Win95 would be a virus test bed of an OS is a matter of  
record; his callous disregard for aesthetics is obvious in every OS MS  
has ever made. To lionize him now and make him into a business poster  
boy is a bit like promoting Michelle Malkin as an ideal commentator,  
human being and Christian. In order to make it possible, you have to  
overlook basically everything that's known, disregard years of  
recorded truth, and forgive every likely plausible future  
transgression as well.

But in the Land of the Buck, where the most profitable corporations in  
the last five years are all war profiteers (cf. Blackwater et. al.), I  
suppose MS is close to softcore porn for economists and those who like  
their money just a bit less bloody.

The fact that Bill likes to read and drive is just the iceberg's tip.  
He's a manipulating, scheming, greedy bastard who doesn't spend one  
moment thinking about anyone but himself. If he'd been killed by a  
meteorite strike in 1991, you would not today have to scan every email  
you receive for viruses (Mac and Linux users still don't); he doesn't  
give a shit in an outhouse for what the rest of the world has to  
tolerate on his behalf under the tyranny of the worst OS in recorded  
history; and no amount of gilded storytelling will change the reality.

Fuck Bill Gates, fuck his read-and-drive habit, fuck anyone who ever  
tries to defend him, and fuck his dirty money. And fuck CNN for  
turning him into a living martyr to capitalism's most obscene, under- 
the-table excesses. I hope he dies fast. Like metastatic pancreatic  
cancer fast.

We never needed him, and we goddamn sure don't need more like him.

--
Warren Ockrassa
Blog  | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/
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