[Klug-general] [OT] Bill Gates: the last day at Microsoft

[Karl Lattimer]

On Fri, 2008-01-11 at 13:14 +0000, Margot wrote:
> Karl Buckland wrote:
> > George Prowse wrote:
> >> Of course i'd give credit for building a strong business and making 
> >> decisions that are good for said business. If I were him i'd probably 
> >> have done the same, but i'm not and therefore it is my right to get 
> >> annoyed about them :)
> > 
> > I think the way I'd put it is this:
> > I can respect the hard work and great sales and marketing strategy that 
> > Bill has essentially used to get MS to where it is. We all know that 
> > Microsoft has never provided the best technical solution, or even the 
> > best support solution. It just came down to a bit of luck and some good 
> > sales and marketing. Now I don't agree with Microsoft's business methods 
> > but I can still respect that in the big corporate world those methods 
> > are generally quite smart. Microsoft has got where it is, without 
> > significant penalty and continues to perform really rather well. Purely 
> > from a business/results perspective that's good. Now I wouldn't have 
> > done it, because it's not the sort of person I am, but I can still 
> > respect it. And at least in the case of Bill Gates, he gives quite a lot 
> > to charity. He could do worse...
> > 

This is where I draw the line, I cannot on one hand have respect for
someone for one thing, then despise them for another. They are either
worthy of respect or not, and if you unbalance the equation too far in
one direction you loose that.

> Yes, he gives a lot of money to charity, but where does that money 
> come from? Selling shoddy overpriced products that are insecure by 
> design and have blighted the lives of millions of people.
> 
> An honest man would have given the money back to the customers so 
> they could choose what to do with it - keep it, spend it on 
> something else, or even make donations to a charity of their own choice.

An honest man... an honest man is deserving of respect :)

K,