Which ended up making him the richest man in the world. What an idiot! /sarcasm
> Which ended up making him the richest man in the world. What an idiot! /sarcasm
On the contrary.
Bill Gates is surely not an idiot, and I've always said he was/is brilliant in business. He's a pretty smart fellow technically as well. I have no problem with him being rich. I estimate his worth at about a million times mine, good for him. I certainly have no problem with him doing whatever he damn pleases with his money.
His mid-70's idea that software should be secret and cost lots of money (as opposed to shared and low-cost) was revolutionary at the time. Like most revolutionaries he was both revered and hated for his ideas.
I have never had a problem with him pursuing his goal of a world with only commercial closed-source software, sold by Microsoft to a willing market, even though I disagree with it philosophically. It's a free country and a mostly free market, and his idea clearly had merit as you point out.
I do have a problem with his predatory business practices, which created a company culture of insecurity and greed, which then did incalculable harm to other businesses and individuals. Microsoft has never wanted to "play well with others" -- they want to own the software world. They've said it, and they act like it, and whenever they can, they do it. That's not good for anyone but Microsoft, hence I'm glad they're showing some signs of mellowing out a little bit.