“It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off when he ends his full-time tenure Friday as Microsoft’s leader,” Jessica Mintz reports for The Associated Press.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, it is unthinkable. Charlie Peace would have to rise from the dead.
Mintz continues, “But as Gates bones up on epidemiology at his charitable foundation, the software company he built with a mix of visionary manifestos and extreme hands-on management must still wake up Monday to face hard problems even he could not solve.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, like how are they going to “innovate” this time when there’s no longer an unprepared sugared water salesbozo around to sign away Apple’s company jewels?
Mintz continues, “From Microsoft’s start in 1975, Gates has been the company’s genius programmer, its technology guru, its primary decision maker and its ruthless and competitive leader. He would famously disappear into the solitude of a country cabin to digest employee-written papers and ponder the future of the industry, then emerge with manifestos…”
MacDailyNews Take: Like the Unabomber. And, Jessica, those weren’t employee-written papers, they were Mac OS discs.
Mintz continues, “At a May gathering of chief executive officers at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters, Gates outlined how he hoped to translate the work once done within the singular confines of his brain into the sort of group projects that could be managed with the company’s own collaboration software.”
MacDailyNews Take: Good God in Heaven.
Mintz continues, “‘We’ve created a thing we called quests, where we divided our types of customers down, and we got the best thinkers on these things, both the very practical people who are with the customers, the engineers who write the code, and the researchers who may be more unbound in terms of their timeframe and imagination, and put them together,’ Gates said.”
MacDailyNews Take: That actually explains a lot. Bloated, spaghetti-coded, focus-less crap covered in rich, creamy bullshit. Microsoft and quality go together like lawnmowers and frogs.
Mintz continues, “Gates did not give any examples of specific quests, though in 2006 and 2007 speeches he referred to the Tablet PC, an innovation he has championed for a decade but which has failed to catch on in the mainstream, as a quest.”
MacDailyNews Take: So, he’s really more like a mixture of Charlie Peace, Ted Kaczynski, and Don Quixote. It’s all finally making sense now.
Mintz continues, “If the quests are as deeply tied to Gates’ own ideas about the future as indicated by the few examples Ballmer mentioned, Microsoft may be in trouble. After all, even with Gates himself at the helm, Microsoft has yet to solve critical competitive headaches. The Internet has changed the means of distributing desktop software applications and even challenged the idea that they’re necessary. Microsoft has scrambled to catch up in music players, and remains an also-ran with its Zune. The most recent Windows Vista operating system landed with a thud. And Microsoft has stumbled badly in Web search and advertising, culminating in Ballmer’s quixotic, $47.5 billion pursuit of Yahoo Inc.”
MacDailyNews Take: Bingo! Well, happy retirement, Bill. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you’re looking for a tribute to Bill Gates, you’re at the wrong site. Luckily for you, there are plenty of mindless twits elsewhere who seem quite happy to gloss things over, rewrite history, and excuse and/or ignore criminal behavior. We only deal in facts here. Trying to buy your way into heaven with ill-gotten gains after plunging the world into a decades-long Dark Ages of Computing does not warrant a tribute.
“….MacDailyNews Take: That actually explains a lot. Bloated, spaghetti-coded, focus-less crap covered in rich, creamy bullshit……..”
oh my !
Geeze, sounds like Gates needs to go to Washington………
I once heard that comment as “Don’t let the screen door hit ya, where the good lord split ya”
Thanx for the overkill in the MDN takes…..as much as we all hate windows, let us remember that Gates did have some positive role in the early years of Apple as a partner. And if weren’t for windows domination in the 90’s, OS X might not have been as great as it is today…..and maybe vista wouldn’t be so disgusting…haha
The only thing these ‘focus’ groups seem to come up with is name changes for long in the tooth, unsuccessful, outmoded and bug ridden software hoping that they can be re=launched on a dull and unsuspecting public who simply won’t notice the sham. Hey after all the whole empire is based on doing that to IBM so what’s changed? Seems quite a lot for that repetitive trick is no longer working like it once did Billy boy. The one trick pony is put out to grass leaving the dung salesman wondering where his next load is coming from.
Sounds like the perfect VP to complete the McCain ticket.
If you can’t take the heat, sissy, then hit up one of these tech blogs where they’re tripping all over themselves to see who can give Gates the best head.
Microsoft sucks, Gates sucks, Ballmer sucks, J. Allard (yeah that’s right I used a period) sucks and I’m grateful to MDN for painting the proper picture.
It sounds like Gate’s DID go to WASHINGTON. Well, WASHINGTON, DC that is. Make comparsion of Gates and the government…………… get the point!
Oh, as a disclaimer: That includes all the numnuts-Democrat, Republican, and other.
Gill Bates also got the cover story on this week’s The Economist.
“Gates has been the company’s genius programmer,”
Bullshit.
I know his PR claims that, but I’ve seen no evidence to support that claim.
-jcr
Thank you Bill Gates for propping up Apple with that $150 Mil investment and making ie for Mac after John Sculley and Gil Amelio did whatever they did to/for Apple.
@ericdano
Geeze, sounds like Gates needs to go to Washington………
Check out “Preston, Gates & Ellis”. Throw in Abramoff too. Lots of Washington scandals there.
@MDN.
Gates would sit in his cabin and try to read Mac OS Discs? That’s creepy and hard on the eyes!
he had his chance to do what he’s been doing all along one more time & he blew it! his parting command should have been to copy apple one last time. i.e. the OS9/ OSX transition!! jettison the legacy code & build a world class state-of-the-art operating system from scratch. by the time ballmer et.al. get it shipped the last extension on XP support & sales should have just been announced…
good luck & good speed on your philanthropic endeavors, bill g.
I guess the site name contributes a bit to the confusion of some readers.
MDN is a news aggregator and the added value (perceived, subjective) is the MDN commentary. You will rarely see a verbatim repring of an entire article there. There will always be a link to the source, though.
My only gripe (and it seems to be common among the regulars here) si that MDN takes, as they are sprinkled throughout the text, aren’t always easily separated from the original text (or quote thereof). A suggestion would be to perhaps colour your quotes in, say, <font color=purple>purple</font>, or <font color=green>green</font>, or something other than black or blue. Not much of an effort to do it, but it would make it easier for us to read.
I guess the old <font> tag isn’t allowed on MDN… At least not in the comments section; but I’m sure you’ll be able to figure something out for your own story section.
“From Microsoft’s start in 1975, Gates has been the company’s genius programmer, its technology guru…” etc. etc. Typical hagiography. Seriously, I don’t think Gates as a programmer could hold a candle to, say, Sun’s Bill Joy or Bell Labs Thompson or Ritchie.
UNIX (which underlies OS X) was long ago created and nurtured by Ph. D. computer scientists. DOS and Windows were concocted by a college dropout. Once you understand that, much becomes clear.
For once I agree with MDN’s “takes,” though I would say that Bill Gates is more like Rube Goldberg.
I would like to suggest that you put things like “Mintz continues” (in this article) in blue so that it’s easier to see where you stop and the article starts up again.
Years ago, Bill Gates said he would quit when it wasn’t fun any more. That sounds ominous for Microsoft.
MDN – You cracked me up GOOD on this one!
I’m still laughing!!!
And, just to be clear, you’re right on about Microsoft. Rip-off city!
“Bloated, spaghetti-coded, focus-less crap covered in rich, creamy bullshit.”
Wow, a definition of MDN itself. An adsite, sorry website, with content buried inside a layer of crap covered commentary”.
And what about the actual news? Move along, move along…
Raymond in DC: It’s even worse than that. DOS and Windows were not concocted by a college dropout. Rather, the college drop-out negotiated a contract with IBM, then bought Q-DOS on which he built MS-DOS. WIndows began life as a shell on DOS that was a knock off of the Mac. Bill Gates, and Microsoft, are more about wheeling, dealing, and acquiring than about software development. Quite a lot of their product line came from companies they acquired.
Bill Gates’ quest:
Bell tinkles as door to chemist’s opens.
“Packet o’ Rothman’s, please.”
>Microsoft and quality go together like frogs and lawnmowers.
How about slugs and beer = Dead Bloatware.
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“It is almost unthinkable that any one human…”
But not for a Monkey [boy]…
MS gained the whole world on three things: Windows 95 being good enough for business, the concept of the Office bundle and offering their OS to multiple manufacturers. The rest flowed from these.
MacOS X is definitely good enough, iWork needs work but is 90% there and the third is only a dream…
I’ve had it with this site. I used to love reading it, but over the past couple years, especially, it’s become nothing more than a “Apple fanboy” / “everything else but Apple SUCKS” site, with too buch subjectivity in it’s “news”.
I love Apple products, and have for many years. That said, I recognize the true contributions Mr. Gates has provided over the many many years in his field, plus the work of his Foundation. I think he should be appeciated, even by the fanboys on this site.
Cheers.
@Gone Away: your description of Fox News is spot on.
The tech industry without Bill Gates will be like New York City without John Gotti.
Good fscking riddance.
“It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off
Which explains why MS bypassed the human factor and put Ballmer in charge.
“‘We’ve created a thing we called quests, where we divided our types of customers down, and we got the best thinkers on these things, both the very practical people who are with the customers, the engineers who write the code, and the researchers who may be more unbound in terms of their timeframe and imagination, and put them together,’ Gates said.”
IOW, you:
1. Created a bunch of focus groups,
2. Let them freely go off in all different directions,
3. Taped their results together and shipped the mishmash as a finished product.
This explains A LOT….
Hey MDN — what have you accomplished? Have a little respect scumbags. I love Apple, but you guys nothing more than empty shills for Apple, and whats great is Apple does not give a shit about you.
So tell us, what have you acomplished? How much do you give to charity.
Just shut up. No care about your “take”. We know your take. Your douchebags.
All these MS, Gates, et al apologists. I am always surprised at how attacking the monster that is Microsoft is viewed as some sort of contest with Apple. Like MDN is somehow winning people over to Apple with their editorial. And it is that, with a smattering of facts. Get a grip MS fanboys, visit Paul Thur-whatever at his SuperDuperWindozeSite.
If Apple didn’t exist, MS and Gates would still be evil. They just would’ve stolen their ideas from other California innovators. Typical corporate asswipes are what was fostered at MS. And now the first one is gone… boo hoo… who cares?
>MacDailyNews Take: We only deal in facts here.
Ha! You are so full of sh*t!
MDN dealing in only facts? It’s a friggin editorial site. “News” shouldn’t even be part of the name, so the lies start at the very core of MDN.
FOS!
Greatest accomplishment is successfully ripping off Apple by threatening that spineless Sculley and getting away with it. Staring with Windows 95….
I can’t even remember how that spineless guy name is spelled, who cares, he gave away Apples jewels to that trickster.
End of an era … yes. So long, Billy!
Now for the real BS … Ball$mer.
We have quite the decade ahead of us!
Yeah I know Win 1.0 whatever is what, but the he got away with the lawsuit when he completely ripped of Apple with W95.. All because of that idiot S!!!!
I’d like to get my hands on the asshole that hired that unprepared sugared water salesbozo, Sculley, the guy that signed away Apple’s company jewels.
Who was that prick anyway? He must have been the worst executive to ever work at Apple, hiring a useless turd like Sculley.
I’ve also had enough of these pricks that are trying to pave the way for Bill Gates’ Sainthood.
Bill Gates was in charge when Microsoft was abusing it’s Monopoly and, by rights, Bill should have spent time in Club Fed. Luckily, he paid off enough politicians to avoid that embarrassment.
Don’t you just love it when the rich and famous buy their justice. That’s the new American way.
Apparently, buying your way into heaven is not kosher just yet. Perhaps Bill Gates will be the first one to change that.
Is this guy for real? Microsoft has been on autopilot for ten years, coasting on it’s guranteed Vendor Lockin Income. It hasn’t done anything smart since it bought Bungie, and it couldn’t turn a profit on that.
Now that Gates is gone, Balmer’s name should be changed to Embalmer, because that is what he will get to do to Microsoft.
@Beryllium, that was awesome! And likely true…
Amazing how the press is treating this guy like a saint and a genius. Yeah he was smart enough to get away with their illegal business dealings.
@Superdick:
And just what are these “… true contributions Mr. Gates has provided over the many many years in his field” ?
Pray, do tell, you snivelling, obsequious, boot-licker.
Gates’ Contributions:
Theft? Abuse of monopoly?
And please inform us, what exactly is Gates’ “field”?
And by the way, Captain Ignoramus, the work of “his Foundation” is to cloak Gates’ illegally acquired billions in a veneer of philanthropy, which also conveniently provides tax shelter to Bill Gates.
@Allan:
After reading your post here, I looked up “douchebag” in the dictionary, and your picture was there.
You Gates-and-Microsoft-Apologists are feeble-minded sycophants whose MS ass-licking will be welcomed at the myriad Microsoft Fanboy sites, but are merely a smeared insect on the windshield of this fine MacDailyNews website.
– So long, you will not be missed.
I never like MDN’s overkill on Bill Gates. Yes, yes, there’s plenty to dislike about Bill Gates. But Microsoft could disappear tomorrow and history would still have to record how Bill Gates changed computing in it’s fledgling years and how computing changed the world.
I know, I know, save your snide remarks. You don’t have to like Bill Gates. But if you don’t appreciate his great achievements it speaks much more poorly of you than of him.
Yes Falkirk, and I don’t see Steve Jobs giving billions to charitable causes…
Why would anyone read MDN and cannot take a joke (albite a biting one) is beyond me. The fact that for the past 6 months this site gets ever more anti-MDN comments is funny as hell.
But really, for those who would praise Gates for his foundation and diss Jobs for the lack of one, please read the Bible and note that the quality of your charity is not a matter of the quantity. Also, Jobs isn’t retired yet. You have no idea what he would do/give when he does. SERIOUSLY, if Bill Gates truly wants to make a real difference and a lasting contribution to society, all he has to do is wave his hand and grant free XP licenses and put in half of the cost to put the XO laptop into every needy child’s hands. As the proverb says, teach a man (child) to fish… So why wouldn’t he? Shouldn’t Vista make enough money for him? Is it because he thinks education is not that important, or that allowing children to grow up on XP is the worst thing that could happen… Oh I kill myself…
that the quality of your charity is not a matter of the quantity.
Good point. Giving away scraps of an ill-gotten fortune is hardly charitable. Bill: when you give away enough to face real hardship yourself, then we’ll talk.
put in half of the cost to put the XO laptop into every needy child’s hands.
Truly needy children need food-water-shelter-medicine, and a stable society that won’t turn them into child warriors, a LOT more than they need Windows. If Bill truly wants to make a lasting contribution, start with the basics.
“Yes Falkirk, and I don’t see Steve Jobs giving billions to charitable causes…”
Logical fallacy alert. Can you identify which fallacy?
(not you BT)
I love Bill Gates. I think he is a very nice person. He is now older and wiser, that is why he is leaving M$. So what if he ripped off other pirates. Its not like he was killing people. He was just kicking butts in the business world.
I love you Bill.
I heard that the whole office staff chipped in and bought him a gold watch… then grabbed him by his scrawny neck and shoved it down his throat.
> So tell us, what have you acomplished? How much do you give to charity.
Stained and pained money MDN doesn’t have; it takes a robber baron. And when you’ve accummulated as much as a robber baron has, you’d better give some to charity lest the gov’mint take it without bestowing any honors on ya.
“he had his chance to do what he’s been doing all along one more time & he blew it! his parting command should have been to copy apple one last time. i.e. the OS9/ OSX transition!! jettison the legacy code & build a world class state-of-the-art operating system from scratch.”
You left out he needed to have a single product with a minuscule 2% marketshare in freefall that didn’t need to worry about compatibility with 99% of the rest of the world. What a bold risk. I guess Apple also invented BSD since they did it from “scratch”..
Bill Gates, what a visionary
“a troubled Microsoft remians”
What an idiot! Microsoft has more money than god. Windows 7 will be the end of Apple’s little run.Trust me…
Windows 7 will just be Vista with the needed third party drivers.
Trust me …
“Trust me…”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh man, that was funny. So many mouth breathing idiots, too much time.
“Microsoft has more money than god.”
Vishnu just bought a controlling interest in Berkshire Hathaway.
That’s it, I quit. The money you spend on running the site, if any, is a total waste. Have had enough of your silly, bombastic gratuitous and useless foaming and defaming. Apple is not well served by your comments. Applequest.
Rixstep really nail BG here … A great article which shows him for what he was.
http://rixstep.com/2/1/20080701,00.shtml
I’ve now had four posts pulled by MDN from this thread and I don’t know why.
Is it because I said that MDN and many on this site lack a good sense of humour because I said the linked Microsoft video was really funny? Or is it because I said that MDN deliberately inflames their editorials to encourage those people who are narrow-minded and frequent this site. Want to make it five pulled pulled posts MDN. Be my guest and act like a mindless bully.
Windows 7 will be the end of Apple’s little run.Trust me…
Let’s see:
IF Windows 7 delivers all its promises,
IF Windows 7 fixes all the problems inherit in Windows,
IF Windows 7 can run on exiting hardware (ahem, Vista),
IF Windows 7 doesn’t break existing software & drivers, and
IF Windows 7 manages to ship on time,
Windows 7 just might be a credible threat to Apple.
However anyone with any familiarity knows these “If’s” are an extremely tall order, and by now nobody should seriously expect MS to deliver on any of them.
Awesome link, Tom Ward.
“Rixstep really nail BG here … A great article which shows him for what he was.”
(http://rixstep.com/2/1/20080701,00.shtml)
Thanks for that. When you’ve read that, try this next:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story
This is a great example of why the MDN takes should be ignored.
I hate MS operating systems. I love OS X and my Apple hardware but I also recognize that from a “Business Perspective” Bill Gates is still the big dawg. He won. He helped shape an industry. An industry that kept me gainfully employed for a number of years and eventually allowed me to pursue other interests.
Enough with the stupidity MDN. I use this site to find articles about Apple. The MDN take has become nothing more than an annoyance.
quests? obviously msft have been playing waaaaaay too much warcraft
@ the amazing logisto
“Yes Falkirk, and I don’t see Steve Jobs giving billions to charitable causes…”
Logical fallacy alert. Can you identify which fallacy?
(not you BT)
would it be something like: just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it don’t exist?
Real philanthropy would be anonymous, incidentally. I wonder if Bill’s foundation has a marketing department?
Additionally however, the amount of human resources wasted using Windows over the years would way overshadow any attempt by Bill to patch this up (and making him more famous on the way!), especially in the manner it has.
Bill Gates has taken computer processing to a new level from “there is a sucker born every minute” to “there is a sucker born every second.”
Lol the best part about this article was the Charlie Peace comparisons…Gates should end his reign by shouting “So long, suckers!” and jumping out the window, threatening to shoot anyone who follows him.
@John C. Randolph: here’s a great example of Bill Gates’ genius coding skills:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000862.html