Look, I* think it's time to get up off Bill Gates. Vilified, hated, defiled, reviled - how unfair! This is a man who has done an amazing number of wonderful things for the world. Let's look at some of his accomplishments, versus other luminaries in and out of the computer world (in no particular order):
| Other Luminaries | What They Did | What Bill Did |
| Bob Metcalfe | created Ethernet | hired some people to write a 3Com device driver |
| Andy Hertzfeld | helped create the Mac OS and created Eazel for Linux | hired some people to write Microsoft Bob |
| Marc Andreessen | wrote Netscape Navigator | hired some people to write Internet Explorer |
| Tim Berners-Lee | created HTML and the World Wide Web | hired some people to write Blackbird (I hear you saying "what?" Exactly!) |
| Vinton Cerf | fathered the Internet | tried to hijack the Internet |
| Linus Torvalds | wrote Linux | bought Seattle Computer Products' CP/M clone & renamed it "DOS" |
| Doug Engelbart | created the computer mouse | hired some people to write a device driver |
| Brian Kernigan & Dennis Ritchie | wrote the C programming language | hired some people to write Visual C++ |
| Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak | created a revolution | hired some people to write an evolution |
| J. K. Rowling | made up a fantasy about a young man who overcomes evil using pluck, grit, and magical powers, then sold it to everybody on earth for a boatload of money | ditto |
| O. J. Simpson | acquitted of very bad things, even though everybody thinks he did it | ??? |
| Bridgestone/Firestone/Ford | created a product that was known to be unsafe and cause crashes, and sold it anyway | now, aren't you ashamed you even brought this one up? |
| Andrew Carnegie | gave away millions in philanthropic donations | married someone who gives away millions in philanthropic donations |
See? Next time someone disses Bill Gates in
front of you, send them to this page! And, please - send
in your own suggestions!
If the judges (well, me--Nick Francesco) find it clever and/or funny
enough, I'll not only include it, I'll give you credit!
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If you pass this on to someone via email, I'd (* Nick Francesco) be honored if you'd be honest enough to reference this Web site as the place you found it, and include all this text. Thanks! Copyright © 2001 by Nick Francesco |
| The email address referenced above is gates.v.world@asknick.com | Original URL for this Web page http://AskNick.com/gates.html |