🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Alan Baker wrote:
> 
> Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 
> ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 
> ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
> 
> You know, if you're going to make a statement like that, you might want 
> to at least pick an example that _supports_ it.

I just did. The 2 persons who came out at the top of the computer industry
fortune heap inherited millions before they ever got out of high school.
Gates likes to claim that he didn't use family money, but Bill Gates II
set him up with his buddies for the financing and his mother just happened
to be on the national board of united way with the IBMer who had signing
authority for DOS. Small contry, isn't it.
> 
> Whatever wealth Bill Gates (III) may have from his family pales in 
> comparison to the money he has made from his own efforts. Whatever I may 
> think of how original his ideas were, I recognize that the success he 
> has enjoyed is the fruits of his labours and not a result of his 
> family's wealth -- pittance that it is.

From "Hard Drive" a description of a typical Bill Gates III negoting
session with a software writer goes something like 
  hm, I can tell you're a pretty smart guy, it can't have taken you long to 
  write this, did it, so a reasonable return on your time is x hours tims
  y per hour plus I'll throw in a bonus of 

  So much for Mr. Bill's hardwork. Remember how M$ just decided to ignore
  copyright and use disk compression software belonging to somebody else,
  hoping they would run out of money for lawyers before M$ did?

> 
> The entire micro-computer industry is a picture-perfect example of 
> people with good ideas who were willing to work hard making good on 
> their own merits.

Unless M$ decides they want it for themselves? Or that they are going to
bundle an M$ version of whatever product you write as an integrated part
of Windoz?

Without M$ we would have a lot more choice, a lot more companies competing
in the marketplace and much better software.