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Sir Bill and Sir Tim: A Tale of Two Knights
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| The open architecture of the PC was entirely down to IBM, and was a result of
| the fact that the IBM PC's design was knocked up very quickly by a rogue
| group outside the company's mainstream. This meant that it was put together
| from pre-existing elements, rather than designed by IBM from the bottom up.
| In fact, the launch of the ill-fated PS/2 – a closed system – showed what IBM
| would have done if it had had more time.
|
| So Microsoft deserves precisely zero credit for the open hardware
| architecture. But the Wired article also makes claims on the software side,
| where it opines that Microsoft's monopoly:
|
| [...]
|
| In the same way, if Bill Gates had finished his studies at Harvard and
| decided to become a lawyer like his father, the world would not find itself
| today in the dark ages technologically. Another operating system like DR-DOS
| could easily have taken the place of MS-DOS, and maybe Apple's Macintosh
| would have become the dominant GUI instead of Windows.
|
| In a better world, maybe, Richard Stallman would not have got sidetracked
| trying to produce a microkernel for his free operating system – a decision
| that held it back for years, and led in part to the creation of Linux – and
| GNU could then have become the operating system equivalent of the Internet: a
| completely open platform for everyone to build on.
|
| That's now happening, as GNU/Linux is starting to become a serious option in
| more and more computer sectors – totally dominant in supercomputing, for
| example, probably the equal of Windows on the server-side, still lagging on
| the desktop, and poised to become the main operating system for embedded
| systems.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=985&blogid=14
How very typical it is to pretend that Microsoft invested the PC.
Recent:
Bill Gates and the importance of source code
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| I don’t think the producers of the show realised the significance of this
| admission, since they quickly cut to another segment. Reading between the
| lines, Gates is essentially confessing that he would not have progressed had
| he and Paul Allen not found the source code. Without this knowledge, and
| without this opportunity to understand and experiment with how the internals
| of a computer worked, Gates and Allen would have been severely constrained in
| their ability to found a software company and develop products
|
| I would go so far as to say that Microsoft owes its very existence to this
| access to source code.
|
| To anyone with a passing familiarity to how things worked back then, this
| comes as no surprise. Source code was expected to be free, and this in turn
| nurtured a generation of computer hackers. But whereas Richard Stallman saw
| the amazing potential of this freedom and wanted to preserve it for all, Bill
| Gates appears to have perceived it as an advantage for himself that he must
| deny to others.
`----
http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2008/06/22/bill-gates-and-the-importance-of-source-code/
The BBC, Gates and revisionism
,----[ Quote ]
| What was appalling about the programme was the lack of any apparent
| preparation on the part of the interviewer, Fiona Bruce. Gates was able to
| paint a wonderful revisionist picture of the past and Ballmer actually got
| away with describing Microsoft as an ethical company.
|
| It is fitting that the BBC decided to feature Gates on its Money programme
| and not on its Technology programme; after all, Microsoft is first and
| foremost a marketing company. Technology comes a distant second.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/18937/1148/
The Gates Transition
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| In an interview with the BBC which is being widely linked, I recently
| said “claims by Microsoft that people were buying their software because it
| was good are pretty self-serving.” The BBC didn’t run the rest of what I said
| about Microsoft’s success, probably because they were looking to find someone
| to set up opposite Bill. Fine. These days we have blogs, so here’s my
| unfiltered side of the story.
`----
http://blog.kapor.com/?p=85
Related:
Beeb slammed for 'fawning' to Bill Gates
,----[ Quote ]
| BBC viewers have flooded the corporation with complaints over how it
| covered the launch of Microsoft Vista earlier this week.
|
| In one cringingly servile interview worthy of Uriah Heep, the
| Beeb's news presenter Hugh Edwards even thanked Gates at the
| end of it, presumably in appreciation at being allowed to give
| the Vole vast coverage for free.
|
| In other TV news items presenters excitedly explained how Vistac
| ould be obtained and installed - details courtesy of the BBC's
| website.
|
| But British viewers, currently forced to pay a £131.50 licence
| fee to maintain the BBC's "impartiality", were less than impressed.
|
| Scores got in touch to complain that so much was Auntie up Bill's
| bum that you could barely see her corset.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411
BBC Corrupted
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| Today the BBC made it official -- they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With
| today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of
| duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution
| of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating
| system to view BBC programming on the web. This is akin to saying you must
| own a Sony TV set to watch BBC TV. And you must accept the Digital
| Restrictions Management (DRM) that the iPlayer imposes. You simply cannot be
| allowed to be in control of your computer according to the BBC.
`----
http://defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted
A Patent Lie
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented,
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of
| our profits as they want."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html
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