Re: Dr. Bill Gates, Philanthropist, Genius, and Visionary. FSF? What has it done?

[ray]

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:56:08 -0700, Karen Hill wrote:

> That is how the major news networks and PBS covered Bill Gates'
> annoucement of his upcoming retirement.
> 
> Dr. Bill Gates has two honorary PhDs, one from the prestigious
> Linkoping University of Sweden.  On PBS's News Hour with Jim Leher, a
> commentator on philanthropy said Bill Gates would bring his incredible
> vision and genius to the world of philanthropy.  She noted that Bill
> Gates was the world's most generous philanthropist in all of history.
> They noted that Bill Gates was not a passive philanthropist, but a
> focused highly skilled individual with an incredible drive to help the
> world in terms of health and education.
> 
> On NBC's World News Tonight, the news anchor substituting for Brian
> Williams interviewed several computer commentators and they lauded him
> for "bringing the internet to the masses", and for his vision of
> changing the world by putting a computer on eveyone's desktop.  They
> also pointed out that Microsoft and Bill Gates made this possible.
> 
> In the world of business they said he was a visionary.  One commentator
> said he was one of the most respected and admired business leaders in
> the world.  He said that whenever his parent company put him on the
> cover of its business publications sales of those magazines would sky
> rocket.
> 
> It was noted that Bill Gates achieved an SAT score of 1590 and had an
> Erdos number of 4.
> 
> Bill Gates revitalived and single handedly transformed Washington
> State's Seattle area into a tech powerhouse.  He provided thousands of
> jobs and millions of dollars to the state's coffers.  Without him
> perhaps Washington state would still be in a declining timber industry.
> 
> He transformed education in Washington state building many building at
> the University of Washington.
> 
> What has free software done for us other than adding programmers to the
> pubic dole?  Free software is not taxable so the states cannot collect
> sales tax on it.  FSF does not build University buildings nor employ
> 60,000 people with high paying jobs nor transform a state from a
> declining industry to a tech powerhouse.  The FSF was formed in the
> 1980's and was not responsible for a computer on every desktop.  In
> fact, without Microsoft, the FSF would not even be close to the level
> of users it has now.  FSF does not help the world's poor by solving the
> world's health problems.
> 
> This is why world leader don't want to read Stallman's petitions but
> will eagerly meet with the visionary genius Bill Gates.

What a crock. As a percentage of net worth and income he's a real
skinflint. My mother donates $500 per month to charities. She has a
monthly income of $2000 and a net worth of about $80000 - you do the math.

What free software does is save money for real people. It should not be
necessary to fork out $100 to MS every time you buy a new computer -
totally obscene.