Musings: Bill Gates’ Legacy
Preston Gralla from O’Reilly Net, makes the insightful and interesting observation that Bill Gates will in the future be known and remembered for his philanthropic work rather than Microsoft or Windows.
Although I’m not against the obscenely rich giving away their money, what concerns me is that they leave behind the monsters they created to get wealthy in the first place.
Wouldn’t the world be well served by Bill accepting that Windows is a disaster and spending money to change that? Maybe even pulling Microsoft out of the OS business altogether? And promoting Linux to fill the void? Or OS X?
And maybe he could spend some money lecturing big business which continues to make obscene profits while the poor get poorer.
Spending money on the poor is one thing, but Bill is trying to bring them into a society where they’ll be driven back onto the scrap heap.
To paraphrase an old saying:
Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day
Teach him how to fish, and he can get a job working for pittance for a multi-national fish harvesting company.
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