“Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates will receive an honourary Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace today,” Macworld UK reports. “Gates has been awarded the title KBE, or Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for his contribution to enterprise, employment, education and the voluntary sector in the UK, and for his efforts to reduce poverty in the developing world, including parts of the British Commonwealth. As part of the ceremony to present the decoration, Gates will kneel before the monarch, who will tap him on the shoulder with a sword.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This would make more sense if Gates was to be knighted as part of the “Most Mediocre Order of the British Empire” instead. Too bad it’ll just be a tap on the shoulder. 
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Queen Elizabeth to give ‘honorary knighthood’ to Microsoft’s Bill Gates – January 25, 2004
Lets hope the sword slips!
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It’s about time Camilla comes into action… Mommie Elisabeth is doing stupid things for the time being. Myself I support Linux al the way !
might as well give that honor to my new puppy (peed on the couch last night)
it would mean about the same
the fact that this is happening in light of all the EU lawsuits against microsoft shows what the crown has become
Yeah but it will NOT be SIR gates or SIR Bill.
In the early days, Microsoft supported Apple by creating Word and Excel with GUI interfaces that were lightyears ahead of the pathetic DOS-based offerings. Many people bought early Macs just to get their hands on Excel.
In 1985, Gates practically begged Jobs to open up the Mac OS.
In 1997, Gates helped out Apple at a time when even its ardent fans were writing it off.
Microsoft continues to be a very important developer for Apple, and thank God for it. If they were really so evil, they could have killed Apple several years ago by refusing to develop a Mac Office Suite.
Cut Bill some slack, people. He’s a competitior–he’s not the next incarnation of Hitler.
How many billions did Billy have to give to charity to deserve this?
Considering he made most of his money by ripping off other’s ideas and/or code, giving some back to the least fortunate is the least he can do.
England has a rich tradition of celebrating the pirates of this world.
It seems that the Queen gives the Knighthood stuff out like candy.
While I don’t think he deserves s**t for anthing related to computers, he does deserve recognition for the tremendous good that he does through his foundation in the areas of poverty reduction and healthcare in developing countries. It has a $22 billion endowment and has already given away $7.5 billion, mainly for education and healthcare efforts.
Aside from selling benefit songs on iTunes (and employing Al Gore), I don’t know how much the “socially conscious” Steve Jobs does for the greater good of the world.
Just my 2 cents.
Sir Willie is doing a lot of charity with the money he ripped off unsuspecting customers, sort of like Robin Hood, the old take-from-the-stupid-and-give-to-the-poor number. Next thing, he’ll get an audience with the pope, no doubt. He better hurry, though …
Chumbawamba sings it well:
Poacher come with his poacher’s gun
Out in the woods to shoot someone
“My lord your time has come”
Right between the eyes!
Fell his master not by chance
Away with pomp and circumstance
Come join our merry dance
To the rhythm of goodbye
Farewell the jewel crown
Farewell the velvet gown
Watch it all come tumbling down
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the King of Nothing, really
Wave of a hand, not a life of Riley
Part Nazi, part King Billy
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the dear old mum
Mummified on gin and rum
Smile and wave and just play dumb
Goodbye to the crown
Farewell the jewel crown
Farewell the velvet gown
Watch it all come tumbling down
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the media whore
And all the pious work for the poor
And all the faces that she wore
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the royal we
And all its famous pedigree
Let’s put this dog to sleep
Goodbye to the crown
Farewell the jewel crown
Farewell the velvet gown
Watch it all come tumbling down
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the crown
I understand Billy will be joining that elite group known as the “Knights that go Neee!”
Should fit right in.
BSOD makes some excellent points. Apple and Microsoft’s successes are, at times, very tightly entwined, and come on, Bill never killed anyone (yet
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />). That being said, in my opinion, if this title were being given strictly on his charity work I’d have no problem, but I’ve always argued, and always will argue, that Microsoft has done more to hold technology back than they ever will to push it forward. Their constant insistance on shunning standards if they were created outside Redmond has stunted the growth of technology in ways that are absolutely unforgiveable. Instead of adopting quality standards that the rest of the industry embraces, they have a long history of bastardizing it, and making it incompatible with the competition, all in the name of establishing control over anything and everything they can. Perhaps his charity is penance for this.
One last thing, is it just me or does the title “Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” sound like something Keanu Reeves would say?
Isn’t part of being a knight not being a pussy?
Speaking as an Englishman with a bloodline of many generations.
THIS SUCKS!
WTF HAS BILL GATES DONE FOR THE UK???
BUGGER ALL – THATS WHAT!
Apart from the fact of destroying the National Health Service computer network and killing innocent patients in the process, ruining our airport security systems and grossly overcharging our government for its bloated, bug ridden OS.
The guy should be shot not knighted!
Oh, really?
I suppose all this means is that from now on, we’ll all have to call him ‘Sir’ Sucks-A-Lot.
Whatever. Tool.
WaMo: ‘not’. As in, “I’m not gonna be calling him ‘sir’ anytime soon.”
That warehouse Royals are far away from daily work. It’s amazing how you can become a Knight. Knights used to be heroes …
Bill Gates NOT being a UK resident means that HE CANNOT BE ADDRESSED AS ‘SIR’.
You have to be born in the UK/and or living in the UK as a permanent resident for the ‘Sir’ title to be used as an official title.
Whew.
That’s a relief.
What a perfect oportunity to pie him again !!
Bill is still micro, still soft!!
Bill G is a Knight? Hrm..
He’s still a tool..
Something tells me he could be awarded the Man of the Year 2005 by Source Magazine and still not get laid..
If you listen closely you can hear him snorting in Redmond…as he giggles at this story..
Could have been worse.
Lord Gates of Redmond.
<shudder>
So…I wonder how many criminally convicted KBEs there are?
What percentage of his wealth has Gates given to charity? That would be the real measure.
I heard once that if Bill Gates dropped a hundred dollar bill it would cost him more (for his time) to pick it up that it would to just leave it. So he could walk around all day long dripping a trail of hundred dollar bills behind him and still make money.
For a guy that rich to really significantly contribute to charity it would take a major major major donation.
Unfreakingbelievable!!! This marks the complete collapse of the British Empire. The English Monarchy, now a complete joke, gives knighthoods away like popularity contests. It just makes the monarchy look like idiots. It’s high time the monarchy was abolished starting with Prince Charles and his haggard fiance.