Over time I can perceive Microsoft’s dominance diminishing, and if Jobs lowers his prices that could happen even all the more. We can only hope!

Another good reason why Billy bailed out. He is clever isn’t he (clever like a fox).

By the way, I do appreciate your comments Doug and I suppose it’s on natural that we can’t always agree on everything.

I’m curious how Ballmer will wind up. I think Billy was the savvy one.

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In truth I felt that you were being a little disrespectful. Nevertheless as with any opposing position sometimes toes can be a little tender so if I came across as being too strong then I do apologize.

I never said that I worked in Silicon Valley but I most certainly was in the industry back then and you can read my “about” page for more details.

The long and short of it is I started out programming mainframes before there was such a thing as desktop computers or Microsoft. My first personal computer was an Apple 11 Plus clone that I built (but please don’t tell that old hippy Jobs).

By the way, your pic must be a little old because I don’t see the grey hair. So if we are going to count hairs I would imagine that I would come out the winner. Not that it is anything to boast about but it might account for some experience along the way.

Or perhaps I just need to renew my glasses prescription. Must be that age thing.

Anyhow, we can always agree to disagree regardless of what your uhemm … “perception” might be

Good riddance Billy. Cheers!

Yes, I’m afraid I’ve got some time in the industry and some gray around the ol’ head. I wasn’t working in Silicon Valley, but I was hard at work integrating and working with both Apple and Microsoft (and Novell, and IBM OS2, and AS400, and PLC) technologies.

In fact, you’ll find many of the pieces of equipment I worked on right there in the Computer Museum in Mountain View. (I was terrified at how many of them were there!)

I realize that everyone has a perception of what has happened. Perhaps you can provide some background on when you worked in Xerox, Steve, or with Bill and why your perception is the reality.

I didn’t mean to disrespect you (looks like I have) but I did want to provide a different view. I don’t depend on the propaganda. In fact, I left a Microsoft shop to move to Open Source (We’re LAMP and Java/Tomcat).

I don’t believe I’ll ever move back to Microsoft technologies - on my laptop nor on my servers. But sometimes even the villains move the industry forward, don’t they?

I also don’t think Steve is a very nice guy. Folks love him as the creative hippy of Apple, but his equipment is shipped from some of the worst polluting factories on Earth.

Cheers,
Doug

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REALLY?

Heh, thanks for my second smile for the day and spoken by another guy who wasn’t around then either.

Ok, I will give you one thing. Gates put one over everyone including Steve Jobs. But like everything else there’s more than one way to look at something. You could say that he was a clever business person or a low-life predator who took advantage of gullible people.

I prefer the latter.

With all due respect, were you working in the industry back then? So I guess us old timers in the industry are just a bunch of cranks who don’t know any better.

Right?

I was in the industry before anybody heard of Gates and no amount of white washing will ever change the facts.

Nothing personal bro but instead of only reading official propanda sources maybe you should also learn from us guys who were actually there.

Bill Gates? Good by and good riddance

By the way, there’s more than one way to look at something. Your interpretation that Microsoft provided inexpensive ‘puters can also be interpreted as Apple inflating its price to market it as the premier computer and make up its shortfall for not selling as many PCs.

Hmmm, it makes you think doesn’t it. Read between the lines my friend.

Also, PCs are mass produced by numerous manufacturers so market competition has helped to reduce the price. Gates had absolutely nothing to do with the pricing of PC hardware.

By the way, have your priced VISTA lately? Hardware prices go down but Windows keeps going up, up, up.

But you know what? The guy isn’t even worth arguing about.

Gates was the ultimate predator of silicon valley and sold us third-rate software. That will be his real legacy.

Cheers!

I’m a Mac guy, but you must admit that Microsoft changed the landscape of how operating systems were developed, sold, and distributed. Apple never even came close since they (still) only offer their OS on their Hardware. Microsoft is largely responsible for inexpensive computers and inexpensive programs.

Furthermore, Gates did have achievements. He cowrote MS-BASIC and sold it for $100k while in college (then bought the rights back!). MS-BASIC was a step forward for the personal computing industry.

For the most part, I’m not a fan of Microsoft. But there’s no arguing that they changed the landscape for the better. Did they become billionaires in the process? Sure! So did Jobs, though!

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Anyhoo, in regards to his retirement…”grain of salt” is all I need to say.

Remember, he turned over the top spot a few years ago to sidetrack certain pending litigation’s, but we all know who was still calling the shots.

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By the way, isnt CommentLuv enough? My spam control plugin almost deleted you.

He’s already better than most other billionaires by at least doing something real to bring change and improve lives of the world’s deprived. Leave him alone !

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