Why is there so much Hate for Microsoft?

"the most comprehensive list of anti-Microsoft links ever made. It's part of our attempt to become an 'internet-digest' of anti-Ms material." --MSBC Superlist of Anti-Microsoft Web Sites

From Microsoft Word to Microsoft World: How Microsoft is Building a Global Monopoly, by Nathan Newman

See also: Bill Gates - Sidewalk

-- richard (zpub@sirius.com), December 19, 1997

Answers

They are just jealous of Bill Gates.Everybody should be like Bill Gates

-- JP (MRBUR51916@aol.com), December 26, 1997.

People hate what they don't understand or fear. Peaople fear Gates and Co. because they have been told to by by his competitors. Sure, everybody says "Unfair competition" but where are they? Using Macs? or PS1's? This is the old DOS vs windows debate. What debate!?#@ MSDOS is windows. Not everybody wanted to learn DOS or COBOL. Most of the world wants to use a computer not build one. Bill and Co gave the "use" back to the user. If you can click a mouse and check out your bank balance on line, it's gates and co, not GEOWORKS!

Hard nosed? Ruthless? Greedy? Why do any of us work? To fufil our destiny? Or rather to get a nice car, house and other stuff. Ego is everybody's bane. I owe my company to Microsoft. Nobody thought it could be done before Bill Hell the Internet was military before!).

Thanks for the rant.

-- Robert Gagnon (doodad@cow-net.com), December 26, 1997.

Because they are the largest and most visible embodiment (after the U.S. Federal Gov't of course) of yet-another triumph of mediocrity over excellence. A soul-sickening spectacle on a grand scale, orchestrated by a vapid little boy who so aptly personifies latter 20th Century America.

On the professional CS a/front, we have WHG,III, who never finished college, bribing Stanford to name its new CS Dept. Center bldg. after his self-aggrandizing dwarfiture.

-- The Tomulator (teletom@icanect.net), December 27, 1997.

I think everyone hates Bill Gates because they are just jealous of him. You don't like him because he makes his 36,400,000,000 a year. I know, I would want that kind of salary also, but it takes work! If you sit on your ASS all day complaining about Bill Gates making so much money, you shouldn't. Be like him, get off you BUTT and go develop something that people want or maybe need.

-- Matthew Lee (howru2@yahoo.com), January 02, 1998.

People hate Microsoft because they have either assumed or concluded that what Microsoft has done is bad for society. The question of weather or not the Bill Gates legacy is ultimately good or bad for society hinges on one question: Is the nature of how Bill Gates does business destructive to society as a whole? It seems obvious at first glance that Bill Gates copied much of the work of Apple/Macintosh, as the nature and layout of the two systems have striking similarities.

We must also consider that Apple/Macintosh itself had a far greater monopoly in that they created the only operating system for a computer that only they created. Windows is merely software (and not the only software) for a computer that many different companies produce. Perhaps Apple/Macintosh was more greedy than Gates in that they wanted to hold onto a potentially larger "monopoly" than Bill Gates currently has.

Perhaps Bill Gates is the lesser of two evils emerging from a competitive market of operating systems. Imagine if Apple/Macintosh was currently as large as Microsoft and the greater portion of Computer industry combined. Would we then happily adapt to this "monopoly" since the operating system wasn't copied from someone else? I don't think that we would be any happier.

-- Clint Heine (cdheine@ucdavis.edu), January 04, 1998.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Microsoft acquisitions and developments almost invariably seem to come at the expense of innovation and choice for the user.

Billy's boys trumpet free markets and competition whilst doing their utmost to kill both concepts in the pursuit of self-aggrandisement.

The ultimate answer is that NOBODY should be allowed to have that kind of power. History teaches that economic power ultimately translates into equivalent political power in one way or another. Would YOU want 94+% of OS dominance to ultimately translate into 94+% of political dominance??

I think we all know the answer to that one.

-- Serdar Tokatligil (serdar@pix.za), January 06, 1998.

-- richard (zpub@sirius.com), January 12, 1998.

Words escape me. This IS a family publication, isn't it?

-- Jan Williams (SianiPowys@AOL.com), January 14, 1998.

Bill Gates designed a program called Windows 95 and Windows NT which have approx. 94% of the marketshare of Operating Systems in the computer world. It is my contention Windows 95 is a defective program. I have never been able to get it to work properly on my computer. I always get an MSGSRV32.exe 32-bit messaging error which prevents my cd-rom from working and using .wav programs. Bill Gates you truly SUCK!!!!!!!!

-- Maury Schiowitz (p036897b@pbfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us), January 17, 1998.

Simply, because windows 95 crashes too much...

windows95 is the single most bugged piece of software i`ve ever encountered PERIOD.

but hey, he can afford to have bugz

-- Derek Leigh-Gilchrist (del@nlights.demon.co.uk), January 20, 1998.

Is it possible that William Henry Gates III is THE AntiChrist? Weill, There is that whole Apple thing. Not only is it a computer co. but a reference in the Bible to being the kind of tree that "the serpent" came from and was haning out w/ Adam & Eve. The Tree WAS called the Tree Of Knowledge, right?... sort of like a computer. Not to mention the obvious that he has a BUNCH of power and is "in" just about every home in America. AND if you convert ole Bill's name into ASCII and add all the #'s up there's a magical # you get. Do it for yourself, dont take my word for it and don' forget that he is Bill Gates the 3rd! I'm not saying that he IS, but I'm NOT saying he IS NOT the AntiChrist, but I have a bunch more neat little coincidences piling up that do point in one direction. Email me if you have anything interesting for my collection or if you have any opinions, one way or the other.

-- Hagbard Celine (Alternity@aol.com), January 22, 1998.

I don't know what the problem is. I don't have all these problems people have been talking about. My computer works fine. Sure sometimes it has problem, but look at the Macintosh. Go try to do something on them for 5 minutes without getting a error, Or having your network constantly go down. Anyways my point is that everything has problems, even if they have the best programers making a program, there is no way that it can be perfect for everyone. It is gonna have problems. So everyone crying cause they got an error on windows, Shut the fuck up. If you hate it so much go get another OS. And the reason that Bill gates is so rich, is cause he is smart.

-- Jared Cure (pico@pobox.alaska.net), January 24, 1998.

OK, theres aot of answer to why we all hate Bill Gates, and Microsh!t

1) Bugs, 95 ans NT crash all the time (Linux Never crashes) 2) Sys. Requirments, they have to all kinds of special junk (Linux runs on almost anything) 3) Cost, 95 is expensive, and NT cost holly mother load of money (Linux is free, all linux software is free) 4) Microsoft is complicated......it took me, a computer Genius a day to figure out how to navigate the stupid thing (Linx is easy)

-- Trey Dear (eb3@geocities.com), January 30, 1998.

I think that lots of people are jealous of him . Period. And if I may add - I do not hate him . Just opposite: I like him and I admire Microsoft . Period .

-- (elwira@hotmail.com), January 30, 1998.

This question is a good one. Personally, I think Microsoft does try to get a monopoly position. But for now, I give Microsoft a big thumbs up. I'm a fervent Windows 95 and Office 97 user. Even on my 'old' 486 computer. Although I'm going to upgrade to a Pentium soon. Better still with Windows 98 (Windows 95 OSR-3?????) on the horizon. But IF Microsoft is going to get a complete monopoly on the software market, then we could be in trouble. Because, if a company is only the lonely, then, in my opinion, it becomes sloppy and doesn't care as much about it's products anymore because everybody buys the stuff anyway. That is a troublesome future.. Remember the old days with MS-DOS?? (Yes, it still exists.. And sometimes pretty useful too!!). You had DOS, Macintosh (let's talk about another monopoly..)and other text based OSses. You couldn't live without MS-DOS. If you didn't have MS-DOS then you were in trouble, because looking for software which would run on your computer with a different OS than MS-DOS could be very problematic. The same is true for Windows nowadays. I heard that Mac users got lucky, because Microsoft designed a Office 97 version for the Mac after 3 years of neglecting the MAC-OS. What I don't like about Microsoft and other DOS and Windows software houses, is the fact that the software is very expensive. Perhaps a lower price for software as Windows, Office, Corel Draw! etc. could help to prevent software piracy. I'm not familiar with Linux, but for free sounds pretty interesting though!!

-- Erwin Bron (erwinbron@hotmail.com), February 02, 1998.

You suck

-- ghtdyjhdtyj (S2075@qld.edu.au), February 03, 1998.

I myself, have been around computers since the late 70's. Back then, memory was so expensive and scarce, that in order to write an efficient program, much skill was required. As time progressed (and memory became cheaper), the programs improved exponentially. However, I am forced to believe that with the mass amounts of memory, programmers have become more careless in their practices. Windows 95 especially falls under this category - being that the operating system is a series of programs in itself

I am a big fan of the DOS O/S(operating systems), especially DOS5.0 & 6.22. The former takes very little room on the hard drive, and is extremely stable and powerful. I never had the operating system crash on me. Should I wish to use Windows software, starting the Windows O/S was not a problem.

When I finally upgraded my computer I was horrified to discover that with W95 I got a older version of DOS that really sucked. The Windows O/S are designed to be 'backwards compatible" ( so that they can run older versions, including DOS) yet, Bill Gates has restricted one's use of DOS dismally. In order to upgrade the DOS version, I have been told that it is quite a chore. I can't figure out that when Microsoft upgraded their Windows 3.1 (~10 MB) to W95 (~90MB), they figured that they must save a few megs here and there by not having DOS 6.22 installed!

I'm not trying to stop the progression of the computer era, by ranting about the DOS, but it is very powerful and faster than any similar Windows command. I just wish Bill Gates would support his own creations.

Also, what's with W95's "virtual memory" using my hard drive space? Can't Microsoft programmers find a more efficient way to use 32 megs of RAM when I'm surfing then to go and rape and pillage my hard drive? Hey Bill --- I bought that hard drive for my use, keep your hands off it !!!!

Oh yeah, anyone know where I can get a good PIC of billy.... it's for my dartboard!!!

-- Thomas Burke (buzzy@ican.net), February 05, 1998.

The problem is that no-one can stand a winner. He is a very successful business man who, as far as I can see, is using the very sensible rule of forcing out your competition from the market - it happens everyday. Thats what a business does, thats how it makes money. And what does everyone want? - they want as much money as they can get their hands on. If any of these Microsoft haters had the opportunity to make the same kind of money as old Billy boy they would be stupid not to. If they say that they wouldn't then they are lying.

All systems have problems, including the Mac O/S. But things are often put right and I am sure that this will happen with the new version of Windows 98.

-- Dermot McQuaid (dermot@learneasy.co.uk), February 05, 1998.

I hate microsoft because there is no choice in the popular computing indutry anymore. The only two empires left standing virtually are Apple and Microsoft. Both win 95 and the mac os do not multitask (even with 200mhz processors). In fact, a proportion of the mac os is silll written 68k code, which has to be interpreted.BOTH O.S./s are EXTREMELY resource hungry, and require expensive hardware upgrades. They are both badly programmed (install an ide drive in a PC - win 95 will call FDISK still) I do not want to have to upgrade my computer everytime someone decides that mpeg movies for icons (which is not unrelistic considering microsofts squandering nature with resources). I'ld rather keep MY computer the way I want it. Bug-Free, and Minimal Overhead.

-- Richard Foulkes (rbsfou@essex.ac.uk), February 06, 1998.

Long live the Amiga!

-- Joey Mullins (joeymullins@hotmail.com), February 07, 1998.

Because I don't like thing like Globe corp & big brother associate Inc. This is why I don't like micro$oft and Bi## Gate!!

Victory to Apple, Be, Amiga, Sun, Silicon Graphic, etc...

-- moi (moi@ici.qc), February 14, 1998.

Used to be a heavy DOS user. I first began to hate MS for steeling the compression code from stacker (they put it in double space thing) Once I found out about the Linux OS, I have been mega happy. I get the functionality of the prompt plus X-windows. Everytime I used a windoze it either doesn't do something right, or just crashes.

-- How do you want to crash today

-- Wakko Warner (ms-sucks@animx.ml.org), February 15, 1998.

I think everyone hates Bill gates cause the are so jealous because he makes so much money.. Now if you lazy people would get off you butts and go create something that someone needs then you would like him! I personally like him even though I make a lousy $5.50 an hour.. But hey I want to be just like him and you all know you do!!!

-- Brandon Brooks (mirage@mirage.org), February 17, 1998.

Well, forst of all, Bill gates is just a paracite, then, if no good ideas come along, good bye Mac OS! Microsoft getting a copyrite, is like Ruby Wax telling someone to shut up!!

-- Peter Wright (j3877@mcb.rmplc.co.uk), February 19, 1998.

MICROSOFT WINDOWS 95 B DELETED MY FULL HARDDISK (6.4 GB) WITHOUT ANY RECOVER POSSIBILITY! FUCK BILL!

-- peter pan (unlocked@hotmail.com), February 25, 1998.

I have noticed that quite a few people think that Amiga/Mac users, as well as PC using Microsoft haters are simply jealous of the money he earns. Well, I'm sorry but YOU COULD NOT BE MORE WRONG (in my case at least). The main reasons for Bill Gates hating is......

1) Big Brother!:if you have heard any of Bill's speaches you will have noticed that he has a vision for the world where every household has a computer running Microsoft software all the time, connected to the internet all the time, maybe even in the not too distant future BEING MONITORED ALL THE TIME. Read George Orwell's book 1984 for a better idea of why this is dangerous.

2) Inferior products!:

-- Phobe (phobe56@hotmail.com), March 04, 1998.

I have noticed that quite a few people think that Amiga/Mac users, as well as PC using Microsoft haters are simply jealous of the money he earns. Well, I'm sorry but YOU COULD NOT BE MORE WRONG (in my case at least). The main reasons for Bill Gates hating is......

1) Big Brother!: if you have heard any of Bill's speaches you will have noticed that he has a vision for the world where every household has a computer running Microsoft software all the time, connected to the internet all the time, maybe even in the not too distant future BEING MONITORED ALL THE TIME. Read George Orwell's book 1984 for a better idea of why this is dangerous.

2) Inferior products!: Anyone who knows anything about the Amiga, or even the Mac will tell you about how flawed M$ products are, so I won't bother wasting your net time explaining here.

3) Monopoly (Achieved By Lies): This is not because Bill's products are any better, it is because he dictates to the people what (Micro$oft products) they should be using.

There are lots more reasons for hating Micro$oft, but I have a class to go to soon (Leaving me little time to explain).

LONG LIVE THE AMIGA! LONG LIVE FREE THOUGHT!

NO MASTERS MEANS NO SLAVES! - Phobe

-- Phobe (phobe56@hotmail.com), March 04, 1998.

Perhaps the company has too much control over the software market and public education about computer technology. In general, how many operating systems can most people say that they have used? DOS and Windows. The public's unwillingness to change operating systems is a result of intensive marketing and exposure to software products that fell into influence from the growing (corporate) culture called Microsoft. We are part of that culture.

Hardware and software errors are bound to occur with the release of any product, but one's choice may be limited to those products that are compatible with established "Microsoft" programs, no matter who they are made by. If consumers switched operating systems and the applications running on them, portions of the public would have to be re-educated. For some, there is an unwillingness to change what one has already become comfortable with, leading to monpolization.

Bill Gates is only one of many people adhering to the "Microsoft" principle. Besides consumers, corporate businesses jump on the bandwagon, but may not take the blame directly for what occurs. WHY DO WE HATE MICROSOFT? They are not the only software developer contributing to todays computer market. Perhaps, we are partly to blame, for we keep using Microsoft products and those associated with MS-DOS and Windows. Am I wrong?

-- A. Colquhoun (acolquhoun@pinn-tech.com), March 06, 1998.

Because, win/win95 is such a bad building over dos. When win nt has taked over after win95 nobody will be angry at Microsoft except the fucking macowners.

/Erik

-- Erik Nordlund (erik@for-president.com), March 09, 1998.

Well... I think people don't hate him because he earns a lot of money. I think the way he spends money is the problem. His new house is more expensive than the Pentagon. If he has that much money, he should be benevolent to Netscape company and he should give out some free windows 98... or at least he should donate the money to save poor folks..

-- Kyung-mook_Brian Kang (itsonly4u@hotmail.com), March 10, 1998.

MS WINDOW is great! You people are obviously not using the software correctly, or don't have the correct hardware. I use a 3-button mouse. I've got the middle button hard-wired to reset. It works great! Just point and click. If "The system is busy", just click again. Works everytime!

I think MS should talk to NASA to see if they can get MS WINDOW on the Space Shuttle, or even better how about life support systems. (Doctor talking to nurse) "Nusre, if the line goes flat and the beeping stops, just press reset. That should fix it. If that doesn't work, then come get me." PNPA - Plug N Plug Again (then reset, and repeat) DOH! Just return it, and get your money back!

We Love You Bill!

-- Scott Lightsey (lightsey@texas.net), March 12, 1998.

everyone likes a winner , except when the race is rigged .Bill is simply trying to do to software what Intel is doing to hardware and the Japanese have done to manufacturing , we have only ourselves to blame , and after his ( Bill's ) domination is complete , watch the prices rocket . Windows has made users LAZY , its too easy to use a wizard rather than type in a dos command or create a batch file . You bought the pill now swallow it or die . Unless someone comes up with another viable O/S then we all go belly up and he takes our cash.....

-- Carl Gurmin (carl.gurmin@ukonline.co.uk), March 14, 1998.

I would have no problem with Microsoft if they would relese quality programs that are worth the money that we spend on them and if they were not trying to corner the software industry. When I had my 486-33 Mhz processor, my computer NEVER worked right. It crashed day after day, application after application, and it SUCKED!!! It finally worked when, after three years I finally got a Pentium. Bill, if you would try to corner the marker, CORNER IT WITH DECENT SOFTWARE INSTEAD OF THE SH!T THAT YOU'RE PUBLISHING NOW!!!

-- (Tiger@wwwtools.com), March 16, 1998.

I don't exactly understand why everyone hates Bill Gates in Microsoft. People don't buy his products, or make programs for Windows because it sucks they do it because of its ease. If you don't like it, buy a mac and don't buy a Microsoft program for the rest of your life. But most of you Windows haters use it right now, and why, because it's the best we got right now. One of the reasons Windows crashes so often is because Microsoft didn't make your computer. In fact about 10 companies made your computer. And on just about every computer it's different companies, different software, how the hell is Microsoft supposed to write a crash proof system with all of these variables? Mac doesn't crash because it's guarenteed to be compatible since they made all the software and hardware on your system. I hardly think that's Microsoft's fault. And one more thing, how many of you would like to have the billions of dollars he has and have people hate you for it? I would.

-- Ben Ande3rson (dla-reno@worldnet.att.net), March 20, 1998.

It's really funny to listen to the various comments and general bashing of Bill Gates, it's sad too. He's a person like the rest of us, he's not the antichrist (where does it say in the Bible that 666 is it's number?), but he is going to drag us kicking and screaming into the quick paced, constantly changing world of high technology. Better grab on, the ride's gonna be a scream. You feel threatened by him? Then watch and learn, don't believe all the wonderful crap flying through the media, find out for yourself. This whole thing reminds me of another Bill that's being accused and slandered, and I have yet to hear one iota of proof. I am NOT a windows fan, yet I have adapted my 5 computer network to run win95 and DOS 6.22, I need them both. If you're having Windows problems, instead of complaining about it get after Microsoft or the place you purchased it from. Win95 is not that all powerful program that infests your computer like a virus, so get a grip. Educate youself on Win95, because it is here to stay and assuming the goverment doesn't fuck everything up, we'll be seeing some amazing technological advances in the very near future. I personally can't wait.

-- Dona Herweyer (jhddi@juno.com), March 21, 1998.

There is so much hate for Microsoft now days cause that commy Bill Gates is tring to monopolize on the computer industry.

-- Paul Buss (pauljenny@yahoo.com), March 23, 1998.

I have read messages in various forums discussing Microsoft and I have noticed that a large number of people who don't like Windows give technical reasons for not liking it. Most people who do like Windows/Microsoft usually take the 'You're just jealous of Bill's money' or 'It's really easy to use' stance. What possible TECHNICAL advantages over other operating systems could Windows have? Nobody (from what I have seen), including Microsoft's people, have given any good, solid, technical reasons for why anyone should use Microsoft's products. I have, instead, heard a lot of things like 'We make great software' and catch words like 'innovative', etc. Why is it so great?

Well, it's not really, that's the point. I think that most of the people who don't like Microsoft are those who are forced to use technologically inferior products to try and actually get something done. Then there are those people who have new ideas and make a product and are subsiquently (and consiquently) swallowed. Then there are those who try to sell PC's and have Microsoft tell them what they can and can't do. Then there are sofware developers like myself who have to constantly reboot their machines because of weak memory management, jump through loops to get anywhere near UNIX's client-server functionality, struggle to make things compatible between Win95 and NT, deal with proprietary protocols and Microsoft imposed 'standards' (there ARE standards for things, Microsoft chooses to ignore most of them or have very weak implementations), problems with no multi-user capabilities, limited process control, lots of left over 16bit junk, wait for updates, bug fixes, and information like dogs waiting for their master to throw them leftovers ...

One thing I would like everyone who thinks Windows is so great to try just one thing: Open up your control panel and try to change the way your desktop looks. I don't mean just changing the wallpaper and a couple of icons. I mean change the way the window frames look or turning off the menu bar or getting rid of the 'My Computer' icon. Try to set Windows so that it doesn't leave a recycler on all of your zip drives when you set them as non-removable. As far as I know, you can't (without major modification of the OS itself). Try to run Windows without installing their buggy browser dlls.

You have no choice. Microsoft has decided what you want. As far as they're concerned, we are all a bunch of idiots and therefore will use Windows as they say we will use Windows and will run on Windows what Microsoft wants us to run on Windows.

Don't give me any of that 'You're just jealous' nonsense. Windows is technically a terrible OS marketed by a monopolistic, predatory company.

That's why I hate Microsoft.

-- John Jarvis (jj@Space.George.com), March 27, 1998.

I hate Bill Gates and Microsoft because: 1) They have a very imbecil orientation "Windows everywhere", not "Better Quality", "BEter Services", "Better Programs", "More Uptime". 2) I happen to know how other operating systems look and work: UNIX, OS/2, LINUX, VMS and they perform MUCH better. 3) I'm afraid that someones' life will depend on their buggy operating system and that someone won't make it. 4) The market economy that makes him big is blind and without reason.

-- Iacob Peterrscu (iacob@cdn-gw.pub.ro), March 27, 1998.

I think that people resent that he talks as if he alone is the reason that computers are on desk tops today when in fact he has done little more than take the ideas of others and market them better. Apple revolutionized home computing and I think that Gates would garner more respect if he recognized the fact that his company did nothing more than de-engineer the MAC and get a "virgin" to create a "new" interface.

People don't like liars.

-- Daniel Scholl (dscholl1@aol.com), March 27, 1998.

Because he is the richist man in the world. If you asked anyone, who says that hate him, if he want to be in his place he will acept with pleasure. So for my opinion is no real hate for Bill, but only desire to be like him.

-- Arben JANO (axjtira@hotmail.com), March 30, 1998.

Well, I have seen many people say how MS technology is infereior. Thats confusing. If MS technology is so inferior, people would realize it, and stop buying. Although I am a loyal fan of MS, it scares me a little. Any fellow programers know what I am talking about. Imagine this, 25 years from now nearly every human is connected to the WWW or its 2023 equivilant at all times. Most people input their personal info such as credit card numbers, bank accounts, addresses and other personal info into the computer by MS voice recognition programs (why not? that way you will never lose you info, right?) WRONG. Programing is a funny thing. Should MS gain a monopoly even in programing period (no one else is allowed to created ANY type of program), the consequences could be disastrous. That funny thing is, certain parts of the program could easily be hidden. Here is a possible situation: MS puts a code into all of its programs allowing its CEO's to open it, bypassing any passwords, providing the CEO's have access to the program (internet). Oops. MS CEO's have access to everything you put on your computer. It doesn't stop there. With that kind of monopoly, the government would be forced to use MS products too. Needless to say, MS having government secrets could be a problem.

-- Isaac Martin (gjmartin@mobynet.com), March 30, 1998.

MicroSoft has made a "open" a euphemism for "proprietary".

They have emasculated the command line, making the most mundane automation activities into Human-With-Mouse required procedures.

-- Charles Stepp (charles@fawn11.tmtrfl.tel.gte.com), April 01, 1998.

People hate Microsoft because they are over-zealous. Bill Gates is happy with his life so why bother. People see Microsoft as a devil, but actually they're not and if someone thinks they are devils, don't use an IBM or anything, use a Mac!

-- John Blummer (blummer@hotmail.com), April 02, 1998.

Why bother spending time hating Bill Gates? Just except the mans' genius, then ask him for a loan!

-- Karen Powell (10045907@Farn-ct.ac.uk), April 11, 1998.

Has anybody noticed that if there is a company making a good product, Micro$oft either buys it up or starts making a competing product...

-- Milkboy (milkboy_cm@usa.net), April 12, 1998.

If you ask me, the only people who should be hating Bill Gates/Microsoft are the stinkin' Mac users. If anyone has problems with Windows 95, it's probably because you did something wrong. If oyu are having problems with Win 95, try formatting your hard disk and reinstalling it. You shouldn't have any problems (unless you have Win 95a). If you want more information on Windows 95, how mac stinks, questions about Linux, or any other stuff, feel free to e-mail me.

I SUPPORT BILL GATES!! I SUPPORT WINDOWS 95!! I SUPPORT MS-DOS!! DOWN WITH APPLE!! DOWN WITH MacOS!! I SUPPORT MSIE 2.0-4.x!!!! P.S. Linux is also a pretty good operating system. I suggest you buy something like partitionmagic (from Powerquest) so you can run both linux and Windows.

-- Mhair Dekmezian (mdekmezian@usa.net), April 12, 1998.

People hate M$ because M$ never have invented anything, they have never ever done anything revolutinary. The only thing they are good at, and they are damn good, is stealing other ideas - and integrate them in their OS og suites.

I respect them - they are winners, the problem is that the inventors are turned into loosers, and that what I dislike. Who invented GUI - Xerox PARC, Who is erning M$. Who Invented HTML Tim Berners-Lee in the spirit of information sharing. What is the result?

Who invented the PC as we know it? Steve Wozniak - ho are the normal man in the street belive invented it? Bill Gates. Ed Roberts havn't a soul heard of!

I think it's sad......

-- John Doe - I hate Spam! (john.doe@no.net), April 13, 1998.

Who says people hate microsoft or Bill Gates, I do not think that here in Pakistan people do this, 80 % of the home users are using win95 or some other windows version, before that they were on MSdos. A very few amount of people uses Unix, Mac or some other O.S.

Here Microsoft is a standard, i think Microsoft deserves respect because if it has not been microsoft common man would not be able to access the computers and this is what some of the computer expert do not wanted they wanted to be experts themselves only so that is why they hate M.Soft. So we all in Pakistan Go with Microsoft, Bill gates is the one who involoved the home user in this Information Highway.

-- Atif Zubair Siddiqui (atifsid@hotmail.com), April 14, 1998.

Hi there, everyone hates bill.Why? because his windows program do not work at all. Sure software bugs sucks and buying upgrades which fix these bugs suck. But bare in mind that without windows, the pc market would still be stagnant. No one wanted to write all these long winded commands in dos.When windows came in,people bought more and more computers and the prices went down and there was more research into computers....and now we have powerful machines The price to pay...a few bugs and some difficult installation

-- koawing pm (bschons@hotmail.com), April 15, 1998.

Bill gates is not the antichristhe is only a big thief!!!!! 1)Microsoft stole the Macos operating system philosophy and ideas. 2)MS forces all PC users to use only Microsoft products. 3)Bill gates caused the bankrupt of his main business opponents by unlawful moves.

-- Italo (italo mandara@tin.it), April 17, 1998.

1.) Commodore-64 production peaked out at over 9000 units a day. That's a lot. The PC market has never been stagnant.

2.) Nobody wants to admit that Commodore produced the finest home computers of the day, with power equal or surpassing PC's costing much much more.

3.) PC's are 1970's technology souped up slowly over time. No real advancement takes place, only small trickles. A Commodore Amiga 2000 from over ten years ago can be upgraded to a 233mhz/64 bit video. Try upgrading a 286 from the same time frame to that kind of power.

4.) Gates is business first. He doesn't care about anything but his own 'purpose', whatever that is. He lives a life of luxury while the people that worked hard to become programmers have to deal with Microsoft's bullsh*t to make a living--instead of being able to develop the way they want to. While it's legal to be rich, the ethics that got him there are more than questionable.

5.) The idea that people would not be able to use comptuers without Windows is bullcrap. Regular people were very productive on old Commodore and other low-priced PC's. And the bonus was that the user could write programs for themselves, and many 'hobbyist' types did just that, using the BASIC that Microsoft wrote for Commodore in the '70's.

6.) Try using a real OS like Linux, or FreeBSD. It costs very little money to get started, and while some things might be technical you can get help on those. There are replacements for almost any program you might have to buy on Windows, maybe not as cute or pretty. You might have to learn something too, darn. But if you try you'll have a comptuer that never crashes, and that doesn't give you problems once it's set up. Then you can actually get something done without rebooting constantly. Once you are literate on a REAL OS you'll never go back, and you'll have the freedom of never paying an OS tax in the future. The more YOU use it, the more other people will want to make and sell programs for it.

Just my $0.00002 cents.

P.S. Turn over a new leaf and make a donation to the Free Software Foundation, http://www.gnu.org

-- Joe (joe@inlink.REMOVE.com), April 18, 1998.

I think people hate Microsoft because they invented software so useful that it makes them greedy. Windows can do so much that other people wanted what they invented. Windows is very useful, that I would not trade it in for anything else.

-- Amy Walker (splitjump@yahoo.com), April 26, 1998.

Microsoft is the whorehouse of computerdom and the other software makers are its pimps. If no one used it, the doors would close. Of course, the Government would find a place for the ladies of the night; perhaps Clinton interns. It is a wonderful thing to see the American dream achieved but why does one ass turn it into a nightmare?

-- Rick Fahnestock (rickf@airmail.net), April 27, 1998.

loose your ass on copied cd's charge less money and you will actualy sell something to broke ass people.

-- Mark Thomass (mark@msn.com), April 30, 1998.

has anyone stopped and thougth about the kind of power that Bill Gates has on the world market. With majority of the computers supporting Windows operating systems, could Bill Gates be compared to Adolf Hitler. Hitler tried to ellimanate those people who did not view the german race as superior. Bill Gates on the other hand is tring to ellimanate Netscape from the internet market by making Internet Explore an intergrated part of windows 98. Hitler wanted to rule all of Europe...Bill wants to rule the entire software industry. Bill is trying to systematically elimanate home users from using netscape on there own computers...Hitler tried to ellimanate all jews from the face of the earth.

this world needs another JESSE OWENS to prove to bill gates that windows operating systems are not the only operating systems around.

-- joseph gedville (gedz@hotmail.com), April 30, 1998.

!@#^%$#$*&^$$^dsksadffkdsfjhfffffffffffffffffffffffffffdksaflsldkfjhalskdfjhalskdjfhalskdjfhlaskdjhflaskdjfhlkasjdfhlkajsdhfalskdjfhadlskjfhasldkfjhaslkdjfhalskdjfhaslkdjfhalksdjfhlaksdjhfaskldjfhhhwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWEARTGWERTWERTWERT

-- none (FOOL@BAR.COM), May 03, 1998.

what the hell is everybodies problem, without good ol bill gates, about 98% of us wouldnt be using a computer out of pure frustration we wouldnt have all those goodies, like exel, powerpoint, word, monster truck madness 1, and 2, with out him, how many of us would really have a computer anyways, if he did have a monoply it would be good, and if he didnt 99.9% of us would u his os{windows} anyways

-- steve (syxx707@aol.com), May 03, 1998.

all this yelling about MS vs. other os:es is just such a waste of time and effort. Doesn't bother me that Win crashes or Win program crashes, and the risk that they do is more than fairly exaggerated. I very seldom have crashes on my win95. hehe. Someone mentioned the C 64.. well.. yeah. You could make programs with it, no doubt. But it took 30 minutes of programming to get one single line twist on the screen. How much use did you have with such a computer except the computing itself? The Mac with its graphical interface made it suddenly possible to do alot more with your comp in an easier way.

Finally, the hatred towards mr billy boy is emerging from poor computer enthusiasts who never became anything though hours of despair in front of their monitors. Continue using your UNIX if you like, doesn't bother me or any other MS user.

P.S I'd like to get Linux, by I don't feel computers are such an important part of my life that I oughta bother.

-- A.P (really@not.your.business.d00d), May 05, 1998.

I think that the only reason people hate Gates is because they have been taught this by the media. When did we start seeking to punish the successful people in this country? This is not a monopoly, that is just what competitors would love for you to believe. I say we get the government off his back and leave him to his work!

-- Fever s (fever@lycosemail.com), May 07, 1998.

I like Microsoft. I especially like Bill Gates. I've seen him before, but didn't get a chance to speak to him or shake his hand. He seemed like a very down-to-earth kind of fellow. What's everybody's problem with him and Microsoft? I think that it is either jealousy, or just that people need something to bitch at, so they pick the top dog. Be careful you don't get bit. :)

-- Richard Stitz, owner - Stitz Computers (stitzcom@dexter.net), May 08, 1998.

Windows 95 is a technically inferior operating system for a technically inferior computer system. But you would like Windows 95 too if you had previously used Windows 3.1 with PATHWORKS/DOS for networking. (no memory left to run calc.exe!)

Currently I hate bill gates because he wants to force us to use IE 4. He is making it a non-removable component in Windows 98, and (I assume , since I have not yet seen 98) the old Windows Explorer is not an option. Also, I have noticed that IE 4 is now "required" by many programs (Outlook 98, numerous web utilities). I suspect we will see more of these programs from Microsoft. YUCK!!!!

I really, really wish that instead of adding new features to products that are just fine as they are, MS would concentrate on making them more stable and faster!

-- Nathan (Nathan@none.com), May 08, 1998.

Win95 is not desinged to tell people how a computer works, it is not desinged to improve everyones skills in using computers, it is even not programmed to make work easyer for people. It is only desinged to make money. Hey do you know that you are able to help developing Linux?!? When I look and Win95 I only get sad feelings. If you look around in the web, you see thousends of ways to make a better System, and to make things possible with computers, you are never able to do on Win95. But the dam fuking normal user doesn`t want to learn assembler, he want`s to click on stupid buttons in stupid windows and never discover what is behind this. And at the and this totaly mad man named bill gates has visions for our futur I`m scared of. And I have to use this shit fuking hotmail account(ms bought hotmail), I`m really a poor guy.

-- Jesaja (nettefront@hotmail.com), May 13, 1998.

Most of the people hate B. Gates because: 1. Theyve been told by his competitors, that he is squeezing them out of the market by embedding web browser into the core of the system on one hand, and displaying the links to his and his partners channels on the channel bar. In another words  because he gives the web browser for free, makes it the one of the central part of the system, easy accessible by any of Microsoft business and non-business applications, and because he prefers to advertise another services of his company and of his companions, not the competitors. 2. Most of them simply do not have enough knowledge of Microsoft operational systems to be able, or at least to know how to turn on or of separate parts of the system (including IE!). 3. Most of them forgot that nobody force those over 90% of PC users to choose Windows as operational system  there are still MACs, UNIXs, DOSs, OS2s system available on the market with full set of software and hardware! May be because those systems, which are great by nature and even have some functionality, which impossible for the Windows, unfortunately are not as friendly? 4. It is sure that the Windows sometimes crashed. Also hair fans, cars, boats, airplanes, trains, monetary systems etc. But if system was installed properly and properly maintained it might almost never happened (from personal experience based on the extensive usage of about 10 workstations with various Microsoft system during at least last two years Win 3.11, Win95 and NT). 5. They are just jealous of him and money he makes. But when he started he did not have that kind of money and this size of company. He just was able to recognize something other people could not! Instead of hating him people should use Bill Gates name as an example that the American dream is a real thing. Also at the very end I would like to ask those people to take a look around and check how many (thousands and thousands!) of them and their friends and associates got the job (well paid) not because they so smart, but because Windows are easy to use and learn. Interesting questions is also how many of them would be able to create at least something noticeable by others!

-- Boris Rekheler (familymy@earthlink.net), May 18, 1998.

HEY BILL GATES RULES! IF IT WASN'T FOR HIM WE WOULDN"T HAVE APPLE OR MICROSOFT HE STARTED BOTH!

-- Kermit Da Frog (netFr0g@aol.com), May 18, 1998.

Bill Gates IS the anti-christ . . .read the bible . . .in ancient numerology "Bill Gates"=6, and "www"=666

-- I'm not crazy! (gerbo@tgn.net), May 19, 1998.

One day I'm using my 'puter and from out of the blue, i get an error message telling me that my registry is corrupted. What do i do? I do exactly what Bill Gates' products have conditioned me to do over the years: Restart my system. After turining my system back on, my 'puter fails to boot. After a day of gettin partial Win95 boot-ups and recurring crashes, i belatedly find out (after some research) that my .SYS and backup .SYS files are now beyond repair and I am TOTALLY FUCKED. I end up having to REFORMAT my friggin' harddrive and reinstall EVERYTHING. This takes me 3 days of agonizing monotony. A week later, when i've finally gotten my system relatively back to what i had before the crash; guess what happens? I get the EXACT SAME MESSAGE TELLING ME MY REGISTRY IS CORRUPTED. At least this time i have some hard-earned knowledge of what not to do when attempting to recover and I eventually do recover, but only temporarily. I continue to get the "Registry Corrupted" message for the next 2 months and after several re-installs and consulting and bothering every computer savvy friend I have (and probably lost a few freinds in the process due to my incessant querying), I chuck the fucking 'puter for a nice new PC with Win98 installed. Nobody could ever figure out what the hell was wrong with my old one, but it was obvious that Win95b didnt like it. Since then, i still get crashes and have to reboot, but I love Bill Gates for making me realize that it was probably all my fault anyway. Fuckin Jerk.

P.S. Win98 is making me reboot almost as often as Win95 forced me too.

-- Brian Larkin (brian.p.larkin@online.disney.com), May 19, 1998.

Sorry Folks. I am not going to join in the diatribe against Bill Gates. People are jealous of Gates and Microsoft, because the man took the initiative and developed the Software that we use. Prior to Windows, I used UNIX and MSDOS. Both are great OS's, However, I prefer to point and click, rather than type in a foot long command as you have to with DOS and UNIX, to accomplish my business. Sure Microsoft Software has bugs, most software does, however, Microsoft usually fixes the problem. People are jealous of Gates. Try looking at the good he has done and don't worry about how much Money he makes. Finally if you hate Gates and Microsoft so much, you are not being forced to use the software. go back to your Linux, UNIX or Mac OS.

-- Carl W. Roberts (carlwr@ultraweb.net), May 20, 1998.

Bill Gates is a throwback to the end of the 19th century and the reason Sherman Anti-Trust was promulgated. He cites innovation but all of what he calls innovation came from Apple, Xerox, IBM, and the thousands of independent software developers whose products he supported to determine what would be the of great use to him in dominating the PC software market. I believe he has exceeded the monopolistic practices of the old Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, IBM, AT&T, and others which led the Sherman Act to view monopoly and associated practices as both a civil and criminal matter.

He makes agreements with Netscape and then breaks them. I believe he made many agreements with his parent IBM and broke them after IBM failed in its attempt to monopolise the PC hardware market as they did for mainframes. IBM management did some strange things - probably didn't appreciate the fantastic potential for retail computing - wanted large margins immediately which they were used to. IBM is no discount store and delivered great products, but expected large returns for their trouble. IBM has never gone public on its relationship with Bill Gates, how much money they poured into him to educate him, while he was working on a different agenda. That would be interesting.

Bill Gates is a fool if he thinks he can scare U.S. industry that government intervention into his monopoly will stifle innovation. The government leaned over backward to give federal and state contracts and research money to IBM competition to keep them in business. It didn't hurt IBM's innovation which included marketing of the first IBM compatible computer which really started the masses' revolution in computing - that says it all.

-- Bill Monopoly (bobesman@bellsouth.not), May 21, 1998.

Sure the money is attractive, Bill has done great for himself, but it's no reason to hate him for that. I agree that W95 is an inferiour OS and it crashes much too often. But here I am using it right now. Couldn't help it.

1) I must admit, it is difficult to write an OS running on all these clone PC's. Often hardware fails to work too. Be honest, how many of you own/use a brand. 2) Switching to Linux is too difficult for most people. It must be made more friendly first and the Mac OS requires a Mac which must be bought. Allright, understandable.

3) Anybody saying they love W95 or MSDOS, shut up, you don't know what you are talking about! People with the smallest technical know how can see that the software is BADLY designed! 4) Not only W95, but also Word and Access are full of BUGS that are NOT fixed, even if you ask for it: - Did someone ever tried to write something big with word (like a 200 page thesis)?? DON'T. (had to switch to Latex, of course) - Programming some custom database entry screens? You won't get your heap back after allocating things. NEVER FIXED!

5) Did you know that when you compiled your Visual Basic programs, Microsoft has the capability to extract YOUR source code from it!?! Hell of a way to get some competitive knowledge, isn't it? 6) Not only IE IN W98 is ridiculous, but also the fact that you can't access all web pages with it!! Some confusing error message is meant to keep you from competitive web pages.

interesting, isn't it? These were just a few examples...try this URL: http://www.student.uni-kl.de/~naeher/mstext.english.html

I just hope for more competition to see some BETTER products.

-- D. (d.p.vandervelde@its.tudelft.nl), May 26, 1998.

You want better products. As soon as Bill Gates reviews what's new out there that's selling, and decides it is to his benefit to include it with his product, you will see them under his flag. First he will just copy it. If that doesn't pass the copyright laws, he will try to get an exclusive license. If that doesn't work, he will change a few lines of code and copyright it. Every hardware company should have their own flag. Until they come down on Gates, we will continue to see his flag only. Surely they are big enough to take him on - they are just a bunch of wimps. Most of DOS and NT were written by IBM or under contract to IBM. The multi-tasking part of both Windows and NT were ripped from OS/2 when he was IBM's contractor. The hardware companies are such wimps they say they are IBM compatible. If they have a compatible operating system standard without Gate's flag, they can use their own flag and still be compatible. Then maybe one or more of them could develop a better operating system and gain an edge over competition by including both. There is plenty of room on the hardfiles.

-- Bill Monopoly (bobesman@bellsouth.net), June 04, 1998.

I believe all this stuff about the anti trust suit is Bull. Microsoft and Bill Gates in particular is so rich because he worked his ass off for it. Anyone who has read his books will know how he built the corporation giant. Sure he buys 200 million dollar companies like I would buy a case of beer but that is the life of a billion dollar corporation. I would like just one chance to make a comment to the DOJ. I would ask them how in the hell they can take this kind of action againt microsoft when a corporation like DeBeers has a world wide monopoly on diamonds. The answer lies in the bitterness of competing corporations like Netscape, and Sun Microsystems. They are realizing that they are unwilling to spend the money that Microsoft puts into research and development. I am a Microsoft user but am very inpressed with netscapes latest browser. I could go on and on about this topic but I won't. That would be to much like Netscape and Sun Microsystems. Hopefully Bill Doesn't end up like AT&T, or should I say the corporation formally known as AT&T!!!!!

-- Trevor Miller (trevor@publib.nf.ca), June 08, 1998.

The reason Windows 95 has so many bugs is because bill wants you to upgrade for months!!!

-- Iggy (yawgmoth@angelfire.com), June 10, 1998.

Back in the "good old days (circa 1990)" there was an internet and there were people using it. Back then, it was a source of information rather than advertising and you could be sure that, if you asked a question on Usenet, you'd get a reply.

Nowadays, with what seems like the majority of the civilised population on the internet, what has it become? It's a marketplace - every dweeb out there thinks they know something about computers because they can click on a hypertext link and find something out. Or they think they can make a buck out of it. I've seen 3 line programs classed as 'shareware'. Please spare me.

And why is that? Because Bill told you so - he made you *think* you needed a computer, he made you *think* you needed the internet.

How many of you think you know databases because you can use or at least construct a "set of tables" in MS Access? How many think you can program because you can write an Excel or Word Macro? How many want to become a programmer or database administrator because of these skills? In recent times, I was unfortunate enough to come across a load of MS Visual Basic, Visual C++ programmers and they were, in all honesty, the most pathetic bunch of problem solvers I have ever met. They expected everything to work by clicking on a button - if it didn't, I'd get a "ohhh, it doesn't work" type of question. Mind you, these people were getting paid to solve problems - it seems when there was a VB bug or compiler problem they were all too willing to put it down to "oh well, it *is* an MS product" but when it was something where they had to use a bit of thought power, it became a bit too hard.

Of the above responses, anybody who has said "duh, it's because of all the money he's got" or anything else that is remotely close to resembling any support for Microsoft is because you've been fooled by Bill's geeky charm. Ask yourself the question "what is Microsoft to me?". If you come back with the answer of "Word, Excel and ummm the games that are available" then you really need to sit down and have a good think about why you support Microsoft; get out there on the net and have a look at the truths - believe me, they're not hard to find.

Furthermore, if you did think that any of the three examples above was why you support Microsoft, then remember that they are just bits of software (stolen, nevertheless) that should be able to be ported (or written so they are portable) to any platform with the obvious adjustments to API calls. Why aren't they? Because the OS is the big money spinner for Microsoft - if you want to use MS software, then you are (almost) forced to use their joke of an OS.

Many of you have said that Bill has made computers accessible to the "average" person (whatever that's supposed to mean). Sorry to disillusion you but this affordability is brought about by supply and demand and guess who was demanding it?

Nobody else in computer software has attempted to be a dominating force in software. What happens when the ideas run out (which has happened already)? You get encouraged to upgrade.... and if you don't, you won't be able to read the files of the people idiotic enough to do so.

Finally, I'd just like to say that the "features" promised in NT 5.0 have been available for over ten years on other operating systems that are available for *free*.

Flames and comments are more than welcome.

-- Andrew Lister (lister@syd.net.au), June 11, 1998.

Bill Gates, I think you are evil. You are also the Anti-Christ!!!

-- K.K. Kuruvilla (velyakundy@madras.com), June 19, 1998.

Why is there so much hate for Micro$oft?? A simple question really. For anybody that has ever ran Windows 95 has experienced the endless "Program caused a general production fault in...." error messages. And for no reason they accept it and move on. It is unreliable. One day it works the next day it doesn't. It must be reinstalled at least 12 times a year. It is a good idea to tape a folder to the side of your PC, label it Windows 95 Installation disk, write the OEM number on the disk with a permanent marker, and stick it in the folder for easy reference. It's too damn bad that nobody cares about the crappy products that are being made by the Software giant's controlling MONOPOLY. Every upcoming computer related company has either been bought or smothered by Micro$oft. Then they take the company's product and turn it into a Micro$oft one. Not to mention the numerous features on Windows 95 that have been copied (crapily) from Macintosh. Even while Macintosh makes MUCH BETTER PRODUCTS, people are still putting up with the crap from Micro$oft. DID YOU KNOW THAT THE MAC G 3'S ARE TWICE AS FAST AS THE PENTIUM 2 PROCESSOR?? OR THAT MAC OS 8 IS ALOT MORE STABLE THAN WINDOWS 95?? OR THAT 85% OF MAC USERS BUY MACS AGAIN?? WAKE UP AMERICA, TAKE A STAND, YOU WOULDN'T SETTLE FOR A CAR THAT CONSTANTLY NEEDED TUNEUPS AND REPAIRS, WHY WOULD YOU EXPECT IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER? The new IMacs only cost $1299. Powerbooks are the fastest notebook computers in the world. By no means do I hate Bill Gates. I respect all that he has accomplished. All that he had to do was copy other people's ideas and then prevent all other competition in every part of the computer industry, and now he is the richest man in the world. Netscape only controlled 85% of the web browser industry, until Microsoft integrated Internet Explorer into Windows 95 and 98. Now Netscape owns 55% and falling. This would be okay if you enjoy being forced to use a certain product. I guess there is no way to convert someone, and I am wasting my time. All I will say is PLEASE, TAKE A FEW MINUTES OUT OF YOUR SCHEDULE AND VISIT WWW.APPLE.COM. Then ask yourself why your PC that you bought 2 years ago is already outdated, and why your computer runs fine except...................

-- anonymous (ricksmith26@hotmail.com), June 20, 1998.

OK, the Question is "Why is there so much hate for microsoft" not, "Why do we all hate bill gates" There were many posts claiming that we where all "jealous" because of bill gate's fortune. And the notion that he worked hard to get this money. This is not true. MS-DOS was bought from another company, microsoft never invented it. Then Micrisift made a deal with IBM, so that every new IBM computer produced had an MS-DOS operating system. This deal is the reason why most of the people out there have a computer sitting on their desk, or in my room in my case. Next, the reason I hate microsoft is because of their sly underhand schemes to win more market share, and to destroy competing companies, no matter how insignificant they are to the Microsoft market share. Microsoft is also using their monopoly in the OS field, to spread and claim monopolies in other markets, IE, the Browser war, JAVA with "Windows only" functions etc

-- Ozymandias (bysshe@cyberspace.org), June 23, 1998.

Bill Gates is a looser, but he won thanks to a lot of luck. That's why people feel that they HAVE TO stop this guy.

Anyway, M$ products are the worst I've ever seen, but alternative systems will only start to gain market share around 2005; a good system needs something like a 10-year-long conception, and alternative systems started their development in 1995 (the year of introduction of Windows 95).

-- Thomas K. (anonymous@world.com), June 26, 1998.

Mc$hit has never innovated, or invented a damned thing. They bought or stole every idea, and corrupted it, or executed it sloppily. Their operating systems are easy to use and reliable if you don't fucking do anything but piss about on the web!

Try to develop software for serious commercial use on windows, and you get a terrible development environment: Constant crashes, bloated software that demands more and more memory and processor power for less and less benefit. Point and click is OK for beginners who just fartle around surfing the web, but it just DOES NOT WORK for system management. Sure, the command to backup all files owned by user XXX that are over 1 month old and have not been backuped up since last week to tape X (and have your OS check that there is a tape in tape drive X, and send a message to the tape operator is there isn't (VMS only there!)) is a long command line, but system managers used write scripts (DCL, or unix shell) to perform these complex tasks. Now you have to click this, open that window, check that box, click into that window, type the username, close that window, click OK, and then click the button EVERY FUCKING TIME.

Micro$hite operating systems keep the rest of us developers down. We are forced to create software for their crappy systems because of the sheepish users, who just think that because surfing the web is easy with point and click, then all computing is easy.

VMS RULES!!!!!!!!!!

-- vmsman (vmsman@vmsrules.com), June 26, 1998.

Oh that's is an easy one, because Micro$oft consistently produce extremely bad products period!

-- Big bill hater (heavyfish@hotmail.com), June 27, 1998.

I think I know why Micro$oft products are so bad! Because the programmers are here telling us how great that fucking geek is! insted of writting decent code!!!!

-- kokok (heavyfish@hotmail.com), June 27, 1998.

I think people are just suckered into believing that they hate him....but what are they using...almost all microsoft products of course. Bill gates and Microsoft have provided the world with easy to use programs that are for the most part reliable and in their category, The best!!!

-- Tomas Fabian (fabiusse@sunletter.com), June 28, 1998.

He is an idiot who is part of a conspicary to steal our money and get obscenly rich by selling software full off bug's so you'll be upgrading for years, and can only buy Microsoft products' The sod!!

-- Paul Andrew's (JCH@B.COM), June 29, 1998.

Because Bill is a JEW!

-- Karashan Jubijo (admin@microshit.com), July 01, 1998.

The question ['Why do so many people hate Microsoft?'] is a diluted one. It removes the focus from the two essentials which is the real focus of their hatred. Their hatred is directed towards Bill Gates. Why Bill Gates? What distinguishes him? Bill Gates is a creative genius, clean and innocent, who has translated the function of his mind into material values that are of immensely beneficial to humanity in all areas of activity [from education, to business, to science and communication]. Bill Gates is one of the most moral men the world has ever known. What specific, and essential, characteristic of Bill Gates in particular [and mankind in general] makes all of the above possible? The Mind. The primary target of their hatred is the Mind. That is what those envious little pip- sqeaks scream in hatred of. Bill Gates is a symbol of and the physical embodiment of mental action guided by principles, by reality. In contrast to Bill Gates power (economic power=ability to produce values], in face of Bill Gates moral superiority, these envious peons feel and face their own insignificance and impotence. That is the source of their hatred. Microsoft is only a macrocosm, a more abstract, entity of the result of a thinking mind. People who hate Microsoft secretly hate themselves for being to lazy and dishonest to achieve what Bill Gates has. from The Stronghold of Intellect

Meta_Mind@yahoo.com Cory-Michael Boston

-- Cory-Michael Boston (Meta_Mind@yahoo.com), July 08, 1998.

Apple rule, down with microsoft and down with bill gates. Bill gates is the biggest loser in the world (he's a mizer the biggest mizer around)KILL BILL GATES!

-- julian roben stewart (pstewart@extra.co.nz), July 09, 1998.

I have read half of this page now...and I gotta get out...I'm getting sick!!! I'm horrified when I see how many people actually thinking that without "god ol' bill" we wouldn't use computers. I work with computers and computer networks...I actually make a living out of it...and you know what?? I don't use Windows...I actually found another OS that was capable of running a word processor and spreadsheet...CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? Have you people ever heard about OS/2 and Linux...both is beating anything MS have ever come up with by a mile...and there is actually a growing number of users.

Wake up and smell the coffe....there are other OS's out there that's much better than windows...Bill isn't the worlds biggest genious on computers....on marketing on the other hand...I'll have to give him that.

I hate Gates...and I hate IBM (well not truly..but I'm angry at them) for the lousy marketing-job they have done on OS/2. If OS/2 had been exposed as much in the media from the beginning as windows was....windows would not have been today!

-- Friday13 (Friday13@mindless.com), July 10, 1998.

The real problem with Microsoft is that half the world is using a product that sucks my large hairy penis. First, when Windows 95 originally came out, back in the day, it had over 11,000 KNOWN bugs. Microsoft knew of 11,000+ things wrong with it, yet they marketed it anyway. Then all they had to do was make an upgrade to "fix" those bugs, and sell it to the poor losers who bought it in the first place. That in itself is bad enough, especially since thousands more people use it everyday. The worst part is that now they've come out with Windows 98, which is really just the same damn thing with a GUI that's a little bit happier. All that crap about things running 36% faster and improved plug-and-play is BULLSHIT. If it doesn't work for Bill Gates himself in front of thousands of people, there's no way in hell I'm ever gonna use it. The saddest part is that so many people will think Windows 98 is all great and go out and buy it, when really all they're buying is a different looking version of WIndows 95, thereby making Bill Gates the only person in history to sell the same piece of software to the same thousands of people three times. I think the only reason Bill Gates is so damn rich is that he is an incredibly good salesman. In the beginning, when it was just him and Steve Jobs, Apple had the better product by FAR. The only reason Bill jumped on top was because he could write a better business contract. There are SO many operating systems out there that the world could be using that wipe their asses with Windows 95. For instance, Linux is very stable and virtually crash proof. It is a very well-written operating system, with a very efficient filesystem. If you partition a 2GB drive with FAT32, by the time you fill that drive, you will have WASTED 40% of it, because of the GIGANTIC clusters. Linux FAT uses clusters that are MUCH smaller, so very little space is wasted. Also, one time I saw a web server running Linux run for 48 days straight without even the slightest error. Try doing that with a WIndows box. I wish people would wake up and realize that Windows 95 and Windows 98 are both crap, in any form. All I have to say is if it doesn't work for Bill Gates himself, it's definitely not for me.

-- Panzwami (Panzwami@hotmail.com), July 13, 1998.

Their is not a lot of hate for bill gates and the ones who hate him are jealous of his success. Nobody should hate bill gates he gave us many Os systems and without Microsoft we would probably be using Macs so we should thank him not hate him!

-- John ray harshbarger Jr (jharsh@netlane.com), July 22, 1998.

R35P3C7 70 8i11 G473$ but... FuCk MicRoSoFt

-- John Doe (sna.ke@usa.net), July 27, 1998.

Well I have many reasons why everone hates bill gates the owner of Microfucks Corp and ill put what I would do if i were him

1. He is rich and buying whatever he wants I would use my money for preserving land and pollution control and I would donate to the poor

2. hiss products CRASH all the time I would try to fix it

3. he develops the woods with his dam office buildings and stuf I would bye an old office buillding or build in an old field

4. He is so lazy to turn a light on and off he has a computer do it I wouldn't be so lazy

5. like in the thing ware netscape was sueing microsoft because microsoft set it up so that when ever you turn on your computer it will have all these sites and it says click to see one one internet explorer

6. I would hate have to shut that program down every time i turned on my computer I would leave it alone

-- Steve Z. (Steve_man321@yahoo.com), July 27, 1998.

Because he SUCKS!!

Like ALL the OS'es I've ever heard of can whup MS. Problem is the average guy doesn't know about them (Linux, etc) or he doesn't want to buy a new comp to get it (Mac) Bill just copied off Mac OS to make Windoze, except Windoze sucks, the MacOs doesn't. I think some otehr OS (probably Mac, maybe another one) would be the one we use now if either the other OS ran on IBM compatible systems or if Windoze didn't run on IBM compatible.(IBM Compatible was what they called PC back then). Windows just sucks... especially when something goes wrong and you need to fix it. Like I can't use my printer and modem at the same time, because of Windoze and is dumb IRQ ###'s.

Also now its like they haven't toke over the internet, now we should do that. Lets make it so that even if u want to look at your hard disk u go into MSIE. (go to the store, and play on the comps there that have Win98... its scary.)

I wonder what next... probably games. So far all MS games have sucked, except my friend says he likes AoE.

And then Bill gates has a vision of the future where it is like your house is freaking RUN by Windoze 2010 or something. It will be like I can't turn on my lights without screwing up everything in teh house, and I have to "reboot" my whole house 5 - 10 times a day. I will probably gwet trapped too, and die in a fire or something because the door won't open.

And then he blames us because of bugs. He says if we were using the software right there would be no bugs. And then some1 asked him about all people who hate him (like me) he said, "When you are as popular as me, some people (in a condescending tone) will always hate you."

Tim Bolbrock "There are more cockroaches tehn people in the world, but cockroached are not superior to people. The same can be said about windows to other OS'es."

The line left out of "Start Me Up" when it was used in MS ads "You make a grown man cry."

-- Tim Bolbrock (timb@advinc.com), July 29, 1998.

To be short I will say that no matters how You make Your money . Only thing is important - no prevent others from living . Compe- tition ? Yes ! It only stimulate Your brain to develop .

-- ABIAN (prabian@hotmail.com), August 01, 1998.

How do I hate Microsoft? Let me count the ways... 1 Nerve left 2 dead computers (funny, it good to throw them from the roof) 3 lost term papers (70% done) due to Win 95 crashes 4 hours trying to recover missing data mysterioulsy erased by Win 95 5 jobs i left because they used windows 6 days - the longest tech call i took - they used windows 7 minutes - the amount of time it took to code Win 95

-- Virtual Julie (sysmanmom@juno.com), August 05, 1998.

It's funny. I see all of these answers where people use their big words and computer jargon as if to prove that they know a little more about computers than the rest of us. One guy even referred to himself as a "computer genius" to illustrate that he, of all people shouldn't have problems. I would suggest that if a computer beginner like my mother can use MS programs without problems (AT ALL) then this "computer genius" should re-examine his self proclaimed title. Next issue is a basic marketing fact. If you take away everything MS stands for and every problem that their products have, you are left with a marketing genius. Bill Gates has taken an idea (unmarketable by others) and turned it into one of the most revolutionary things in the computer industry. Unfortunately for all of those people out there that "hate" Bill Gates and Microsoft, the problem has nothing to do with them. If MS is a thriving organization and sells bad products, then the consumer is to blame; not on an individual basis either--one person will not affect MS. The final problem is the accusation that MS is a monopoly. Look at the definition--MICROSOFT IS NOT A TRUE MONOPOLY. Perhaps it fits the description of an ologopoly but that is a very legal thing in this country--not to mention important (how many car companies are there?). In conclusion, it's important to remember that whether or not you hate Microsoft, their product has changed our world forever.

-- BigAl (alanbriggs@yahoo.com), August 07, 1998.

Because of the fact that he's successful and rich and he's giving none of his dosh to his kids

-- Michael Talbot (ZERO_COOL_TALBOT@HOTMAIL.COM), August 14, 1998.

Without Prejudice

Speaking from this side of the pond I have heard that computer sellers in this country (UK) had to pay a fee to MS whether or not they sell a computer loaded with a MS product (ie DRDOS). Non compliance results in slapped wrist and a "your not part of our team so you not really suitable to sell our product". this results in a MS product withdrawal Oh yes I'am using win95 for internet, Supercalc and Arnor WP for dos. MS products are Ok but it's their policy which irks a bit

-- Chuck Dell (c.dell@btinternet.com), August 21, 1998.

Contribution to society from Bill Gates it's important : Windows O/S gave the opportunity to everybody to use computers.This is bad??? The days were computers were used only in business are gone. Remember: computers are just a TOOL!!!!!!!!!!!

-- fernando uribe (sonorpro@tetakawi.net.mx), August 22, 1998.

I think all you people have way to much spare time. There are quite a few people richer than Bill Gates, just as long as Microsoft keep improving software, it doesn't matter... the "bloatware" argument has no glue anymore, with memory being so cheap.

-- Craig Martin (craig@asuk.com), August 23, 1998.

Most of the "Bill Haters" hate him because of his company's monopoly on the computer software market. If Microsoft is providing us with quality software for our computers (which they are!) then they have a perfect right have a monopoly!!!!!

-- Joe Memo (joe_memo@hotmail.com), August 27, 1998.

Ya know, the only reason anyone hates Bill Gates, they want what he has ! Its that damn simple. Hell, I want what he has, well, not the wife thing...not me...but the Money ! Oh Yeah ! Hey Bill, if ya read this Send me some....like you'd miss a few thousand ?!?!? (120,000 in debt...hey pay off my house, would ya ?? PLEASE !?!? )

I've been using windows since it first came out, and now presently upgraded to windows '98. Yeah they have all had a few bugs in 'em, but what new software doesnt ? From what I've seen on the market, windows still kicks the competions butts.

-- Whitby Wise (LurkNshdw@aol.com), September 01, 1998.

I NEVER KNOW HIM, BUT FUCK TO ALL WHO HATE HIM.... CAN'T ALL OF YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE? I LOVE HIM .....AND I LOVE THE WAY HE CHANGE OUR PC!! DON'T ALL OF YOU SEE THAT? JUST FUCKING LEAVE HIM HAPPY OKEY, STOP CONDEMMING HIM, STOP TALKING BAD ABOUT HIM.... MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS !! AMEN....

-- nadzif jay zainal (nadzif_jay@hotmail.com), September 02, 1998.

I'm looking for some info on Bill gates and the reverse Engineering debate. I would appreciate any info that any one could give.

Thank you

-- Mathew Carr (Squishy60@hotmail.com), September 04, 1998.

Thiz Windoz ninetyyyyfifeeeeeee, it's suckin my harddriiiiiveee

-- Bruno Faborotti (brutto86@hotmail.com), September 05, 1998.

They make substandard software....and make us figure out what's wrong with it. Gawdamn that MS-WORD!

-- Lucky Jackson (lucky_jackson@hotmail.com), September 09, 1998.

They create software and release it before it's ready.

In reguard to Win 98..."Say have you heard Microsoft's new moto?" "What can you Beta Test for us today?"

-- Larry Powers (powersld@micron.net), September 10, 1998.

How many of the people that hate Microsoft still run Microsoft products on their machines, or create programs that will only run on Microsoft Operating Systems?

Bitch all you want. Only your monetary vote counts in this world. If you don't like Microsoft, use your rights as an intelligent consumer to find or create a better OS and/or applications for your computer.

Microsoft is a business. It is only as powerful as you allow it to be.

-- C. McNeal (BnCMcNeal@sprintmail.com), September 11, 1998.

I am also a programmer, but I'm tired of Microsoft, bugs & all. I will not get Windows 98 because of the fact that Explorer is built in. With Windows 3.1, I went to the nearest ISP to get onto the Internet, who provided me with FREE Explorer 3.0. Trying to install it was a joke, it got me on the 'Net quickly & easily, but crashed every logon in 5 minutes or less. After about 3 trips to the ISP for support (they gave me new disks each time because "the disks we gave you were corrupted") I gave up and went to the local computer store to BUY Netscape. (Before e-mailing me to flame about downloading for free, re-read the above about crashing in 5 minutes or less). This summer, I finally got Win95, and Explorer 4.0 crashed in 5 min or less. I still had the Netscape CD, however, and Windows 95 only gives me a "illegal operation error" every couple of hours. Maybe because Smartdrive loads itself into memory that Windows flags as available for use? Anyway, I'm keeping an eye peeled for a Linux CD somewhere, I'm also thinking about buying a separate computer to run it on, but I want to buy said computer with a PRICE CUT since I don't want Windows on it. It's practically impossible to buy a PC without Windows, since "genius" Gates told the computer OEM's to install Windows on every single machine or none at all. Anyway, if I can't get this price reduction, I'll have to fire some e-mail to Microsoft to ask about a rebate. (Allowing 3-4 weeks for delivery, since I assume they use Explorer)

-- Arthur Kalliokoski (pepsikid@coastalnet.com), September 12, 1998.

I recently bought a mini tower PC to replace the desk top PC now owned by my son. My mini tower came with Windows '98 already installed.

From the very first day, my PC crashed. I had to use the scan disk program more than once. It seems Microsoft Explorer loads when Window '98 loads and gets in the bloody way.

My PC is now at the repair shop after spending hours on the phone trying to get technicial support to fix my software errors. Even they were stumped. Nothing worked and I don't hold out much hope of things inproving when my PC returns.

I am writing this message on my son's PC which has Window's 95 and doesn't crash all the time. I have lost months of important work. If anyone hasn't seen Windows '98 I advise you not to rush into anything.

Keep your old Window '95 disks just in case. I have also been told if you have a bug in Windows '95 and you then upgrade to Windows '98; whatever bugs you already had on your hard drive increase thanks to Win '98.

Bill Gates is a greedy SOB as far as I am concerned. He has produced yet another inferior product and is trying to force everyone to use his crappy browser. Please use Netscape when surfing the net. If you want web pages to load quickly for heaven's sake do not use Microsoft Explorer. Version 3.02 still has bug's in it. Several pages I have accessed today have stalled and then there are the error messages.

I hope he is sued and sued worldwide for giving us such a shitty product. What does he do with all that money?????

-- Manchie (manchie@yahoo.com), September 13, 1998.

MS is great Bill Gates is Greater. World domination for MS and Bill. Intel and MS should join for total Domination.

I don't need to explain these opinions to all you haters. Just think about it and you will realise. Look up to bill gates don't hate him and you will be better off.

From DA_NEW_DON

Ps. remember there is always another way.

-- Denny Murray (dazina@yahoo.com), September 16, 1998.

I can't understand why all the nice people are whining about, saying win95 cannot multitask.

I have no problem with that.

I can boot and crash at the same time.

-- Einar Fredrik Nyheim (astridi@online.no), September 17, 1998.

I don't hate Bill Gates. I support Microsoft, I support technology. And as for IBM. The company has spent too long getting recognized for its' charitable contributions. DO SOME WORK!!!!!

-- Diana (DWashin547@aol.com), September 22, 1998.

You wrote:

People hate what they don't understand or fear. Peaople fear Gates and Co. because they have been told to by his competitors. Sure, everybody says "Unfair competition" but where are they? Using Macs? or PS1's? This is the old DOS vs windows debate. What debate!?#@ MSDOS is windows. Not everybody wanted to learn DOS or COBOL. Most of the world wants to use a computer not build one. Bill and Co gave the "use" back to the user. If you can click a mouse and check out your bank balance on line, it's gates and co, not GEOWORKS!

Hard nosed? Ruthless? Greedy? Why do any of us work? To fufil our destiny? Or rather to get a nice car, house and other stuff. Ego is everybody's bane. I owe my company to Microsoft. Nobody thought it could be done before Bill Hell the Internet was military before!).

In Response:

Just to let you know Microsoft had absolutely nothing to due with the success of the Internet, they were one of the last to come to bat in the web game. They are still behind the eight ball, no native Java support (must be run through a browser), slow TCP/IP stack, only a 32 bit operating system; in fact if Microsoft had it its' way we would all be using the less than thrilling MSN. Microsoft actually fears the Internet and thus the reason to attempt to make Java just another Wintell solution by coming out wil J++. Microsoft is not an innovator, they rob, steal, and destroy. They do not embrace open standards and attempt at every turn to "lock out" competition by engauging in deals that force OEMs to place Microsoft products on their computers.

This only just barely scratches the surface of the so called "Microsoft caper".

Think twice before defending unethical companies. They found a movement in the stripping of rights for all of us.

-- Bill Blake (wstudio@cadvision.com), September 26, 1998.

People, pls read cos it gives u the chill somehow or another... > >anna > >>Subject: FW: Is the internet Satan's tool to destroy mankind? >> >>>Is the internet Satan's tool to destroy mankind?~ >>>Is Bill Gates Satan's reincarnation?~ read on...... >>>since we're all using MICROSOFT products here, I thought I'd just let >>you >>>know these facts... >>>Do you know that Bill gates' REAL name is >>>William Henry Gates III? >>>His official REAL name NOW, is BILL GATES III. So, what's so eerie >>about >>>this name? OK, if you take all the letters in Bill Gates III and then >>>convert it in ASCII code (american standard code for information >>>interchange) and then ADD up all the numbers...you will get 666, which >>is >>>the number of the beast!!! SICK!! >>>Coincidence har? Nope. Take WINDOWS 95 and do the SAME >>>procedure and you will get 666 too!!! and the same goes for MS-DOS >>6.31!!! >>>Sicko rite? >>> >>>Okay, that's the first part, now for the second part, for those of you >>>fellas who still have the OLD excel 95 (not office 97)then try this out >>: >>>1.open a new file >>>2.scroll down until you see row 95 >>>3.click on the row 95 button, this highlights the whole row >>>4.press tab, to move to the second column >>>5.now, move your mouse and click on help THEN about microsoft excel >>>6.press ctrl-alt-shift and click on the tech support button >>simultaneously >>>7.A WINDOW WILL APPEAR, TITLE : THE HALL OF TORTURED SOULS this is >>really >>>eerie okay...it has a doom style format and you can walk all around the >>>hall...and on the sides of the walls are the names of the tortured >>souls... >>>8.NOW WALK UP THE STAIRS AND THEN COME BACK DOWN, FACE THE BLANK WALK >>AND >>>THEN TYPE IN EXCELKFA >>>this will open the blank wall to reveal another secret >>>passage, walk through the passage and DO NOT fall off, >>>when you get to the end, you will see something really >>>really eerie... >>> >>>At this point of time, countless witnesses all over the world have >>verified >>>this point... it's really an eye opener. It could be a jokeby MS >>programmers >>>or is it? >>> >>>Wouldn't be surprise if Bill Gates was "The Antichrist", >>>afterall it was already foretold in the Bible that >>>someone powerful would rise up and lead the world to >>>destruction. >>> >>>And Bill Gates definitely have that kind of power in his hands. More >>than >>>80% of the world's computers run on Windows and DOS(including those at >>>Pentagon!) >>>If all his products have some kind of small program embedded >>>(like this Hall of Tortured Souls) that can give him control, setting >>off >>>nuclear arsenals, creating havoc in >>>security systems, financial systems all over the >>>world,etc......all from his headquarters isn't a far off reality! Just >>using >>>Internet Explorer may just allow him to map out what you have on your >>>computer bit by bit each time you log on. >>> >>>Perhaps the endtimes are near and this is just a tip of the iceberg!? >>> >>>"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich >>>and poor, free and slave, to >>>receive a mark on his right hand or on his >>>forehead, so that no one could >>>buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the >>>name of the beast or the >>>number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If >>>anyone has insight, let him >>>calculate the number of the beast, for it is >>>man's number. His number is 666."..............Revelation >>>13:16-18 >>> >>>An eerie E-mail for everybody to think about... >>>The Bible, in the Book of Revelation says that without the sign of the >>beast >>>one would not be able to buy, sell, do business transactions, etc..... >>and >>>.......My question to you know is this..... >>>Is Internet now a necessity in doing business? >>>The Internet also bears the sign.... Note that the Internet is also >>>commonly known as the World Wide Web or WWW..... >>> >>>One other way we write W is V/ (VI), so ..... >>>W W W >>>VI VI VI >>>6 6 6 >>> >>>This gives me something to ponder upon ...Isn't everything going >>towards the >>>Internet? >>>(i.e., buying / selling goods, business transactions) Isn't >>Microsoft >>>always on the move to have a monopoly when it comes to software >>technology? >>>And now the Internet? >>>Revelation also says that the mark of the beast will be carried on >>one's >>>Hand and one's forehead..... If the Internet would indeed be the sign >>of the >>>beast aren't >>>we all starting to carry it on our hands and foreheads??? >>>Screens (forehead) and make use of the mouse (hand) ??? >>>Are things finally falling into place or are we just letting our >>>imagination run??? >>> >>>Remember, the devil came to cheat, steal, and to >>>destroy......... so be VIGILANT !!!! >>> >>>About Bill Gates and Microsoft. >>>PROOF that Bill Gates is the Devil: >>>The real name of "the" Bill Gates is William Henry Gates III. >>>Nowadays, he is known as Bill Gates (III), where III means the order >>of >>>third (3rd) By converting the letters of his current name to the >>>ASCII-values and adding his (III), you get the following: >>> B 66 >>> I 73 >>> L 76 >>> L 76 >>> G 71 >>> A 65 >>> T 84 >>> E 69 >>> S 83 >>> I 1 >>> I 1 >>> I 1 >>> -------------- >>> 666 !!!! THE NUMBER OF THE DEVIL....... >>> >>> Some might think ask, "How did Bill Gates get so powerful?" >>> Coincidence? Or just the beginning of mankind's ultimate and total >>>enslavement???? Before you decide, consider the following: >>> MS-DOS 6.21 >>>77+83+45+68+79+83+32+54+46+50+49 = 666 >>>WINDOWS95 >>> 87+73+78+68+79+87+83+57+53+1= 666 >>> >>> Coincidence? You decide.... >>> "To agree or to not agree with the WWW or the Beast", is not the >>question. >>>What if the WWW is the 666? Or Bill Gates be the Beast? what will you >>do?? >>>Cancel subscriptions to the Internet? >>>Resign from Microsoft? Set out a campaign against Bill Gates in the >>>Internet? Shut down all Windows95 forever? It will not do you any >>>good.....think about all this and pray, pray really hard, or >>>else.........Never Stop Believin.... >>> >>>Peace, Love, Empathy, SliVer >>> *************** >>> damn the man. save the empire.** >>> choose life....... >>> choose a career....... >>> choose a job....... >>> choose a big television....... >>> choose stuffing junk food into ur mouth....... >>> but why would i wanna do a thing like that....... >>> >>> >>> >>>God bless

-- Victor Kim (ylkim@singnet.com.sg), September 27, 1998.

Coz Bill Gates never wash his hair

-- CL (cannigia@geocities.com), October 10, 1998.

People hate Bill Gates because he can be a monopolizing jerk.

-- Chris M. Rogers (rogers_c@hotmail.com), October 14, 1998.

People and the industry don't particularly hate Gates, the man, it is his companies RUTHLESS business tactics. And before you Gates wannabes start arguing over whether or not Microsoft is ruthless read this: IBM then the nations largest and most prestigious computer manufacturer made plans to go into the Personal Computer market, but they needed an operating system. They had heard of an OS named CPM and traveled across the country to speak to the man who developed the OS. When they asked the man to port the software he refused, in steps Bill Gates who REVERSE ENGINEERS the software and DOS is born. Mirosoft began selling it's software to other software companies and their business practices were RUTHLESS. They charged companies for their software (DOS) for every computer the companies made - EVEN IF THEY DIDN'T LOAD IT!! MS was hired to develope OS/2 for IBM it was to be a graphical user interface. MS stole ideas from the developement of OS/2 and WINDOWS was born. These days, Microsoft tries to steal other peoples ideas but if they can't they just buy the company and then they own the ideas. THESE DAYS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PURCHASE A NEW COMPUTER WITHOUT WINDOWS 95/98. And to tell you the truth, it isn't even an OS - it is STILL a GUI on top of DOS 7.0. If you don't believe this - just start your WIN95 computer in "DOS" mode and then type WIN ad press enter - Just like the Win3.1 days. It is still there. MS sells it mediocre software and we are forced to buy it because it is "the only game in town". Applications are not written for other operating systems (OS/2, MAC-OS, Unix, BE-OS, etc...) That is why we hate Microsoft because without competition (real competition) you have to live with mediocre products because they are "industry standard".

-- Cowboy From Hell (Cowboy@hpnc.com), October 14, 1998.

To all you people out there that complain about Windows not working for you..... obviousl you are doing something wrong. If you install the OS correctly and use it properly then it works fine. Once you mess around with it you are sure to run into problems. Win95 was made for the user who knows how to use a mouse, not for the msart ass that thinks he knows to much. If you want to screw around with your OS go get LINUX.

-- Chad Lindstrom (clindstr@uvic.ca), October 18, 1998.

People hate Bill Gates because he is so rich and powerful. Thats why even the government hates him. Bill Gates should be president. He can't be any worse than Bill Clinton. I don't know why the $@#% people complain about him because if they were good enough they could make as much money as him if they had their own business, that person that complains could of been Bill Gates, except they complain about him.

-- A Person (ron17mny@yahoo.com), October 18, 1998.

Bill Gates is a self centered egotesticle turd chaceing bastard. The ex-ceo of apple said himself that Bill couldin't understand when someone didn't go along with his shit ways. Bill is just the head sheep leading all the rest of you windows lovers. BAAAAAAAAA

-- IDI (powerhitters@hotmail.com), October 23, 1998.

That our good friend Bill is so rich, does not bother me. That he runs an unscrupulous business which produces inferior products, does not bother me... much. What bothers me is that in the process he has managed to destroy anybody else's ability to produce better products, because there is no longer any capital incentive for them to do so. One of the beauties of capitalism is that it is supposed to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Still, the real problem with the computing industry, or with the world in general, is not evil but stupidity. Bill didn't storm all our houses and hold us at gun point while men carrying submachine guns installed Windoze on our machines, we bowed to his stick of our own accord. The situation we have now is the fault of the consumer. Apple is also partially to blame, for taking the ridiculous approach that they would win out just because they have a superior product. There is absolutely no excuse for blind idealism in the face of reality. Where do I stand on the question of the suits being filed against Microsoft? Although I hope Microsoft will lose (against my expectations) I would have to consider the charges frivilous (sp?) and dismiss them if I was running the court. Defeating the opposition through whatever means are available is not illegal, merely unscrupulous. It is so typical of Americans to cause a problem, then whine about it, finger some well known figure like Bill or the president, and expect the government to fix everything. The truth is that in the modern world, no one person has much power. The president and Bill are still just one human being each.. even if every command they issued was carried out without question there simply wouldn't be enough time in the day for them to make much impact on the world as a whole. Behind their desks they are still insignificant human beings, like the rest of us. Their shit still smells bad, and they are out of shape. Any serious problem which develops is the fault of the people at large, not some quirk in the legal code or one greedy man. The only thing that really chills me about Bill is that from the little I've read I get the impression that he actually believes the shit he loads generously out onto us. That reflects an aspect of humanity I don't much care for -- the ability to convince ourselves of outrageous lies in order to justify the ends we desire.

-- Richard Heaton (uncouth@sunstag.org), October 26, 1998.

I think Bill Gates is a wonderfull person, when he came to the capital (Brussels) of my country (Belgium), somebody threw a pie at him. He didn't react, but just took the vest of an other person and continued his visit wearing the worst possible combination of clothes.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, good luck BILL x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

-- Freek Van Baelen (Freek.VanBaelen@rug.ac.be), October 28, 1998.

Hey People, If you all think windows 95/98 and NT 4.0 are hard to use, then obviously you have never tried to run Oracle Workstation or UNIX then have you. These are by far the simplest OS's out there. And who said the Mac O/S was perfect???? And another thing, if you hate Microsoft so much, then don't buy the products!! Oh i forget, to run most any program, you have to have a Windows Enviornment. IBM did the same thing in the 80's when it became the industry standard for computers!! Did you all forget that?? And All You people--Remember Bill Gates Helped Develop the Original Macintosh!! Did you seem to forget that?? I personally admire the man, he had the guts to fight against IBM in the early 80's and come out a winner---What's wrong with IBM and Microsoft sharing an industry standard? Sure Windows Crashes, but then Microsoft is not god!!!!! They are prone to have problems, becaue the programs are made by HUMANS!!!! Do you people never make mistakes???? Long live Bill Gates on the Road to Trillionaire!!

-- Fahim Mughal (TheDream32@Juno.com), October 30, 1998.

I think that people hate Gates for the simple fact that he has done something that all companies want to do... succesfully mass market a product! You people belly aching about "Big Brother" and "Gates is the antichrist" are all just lazy. You have gotten use to Windows and you don't want to go to something new. If you don't like Windows, get Linux... it's free, right? Wrong! Sure you can download everything you need to run Linux off of the internet, but where? Linux is an Operating System! How fast do YOU download at the house? Think about it and do the math! Linux is also as problem prone as Windows AND there is no tech. support for it either. Sure there are books, but there is no widespread technical support for Linux. Oh yeah, it also comes in numerous (to many to count here) "flavors". So if you decide to go with Linux, you have to research a version that is right for you!!! There is something to be said for a little bit of standardization. Linux is a bitch to install. It is definately not for a novice user. And to those who say that Linux doesn't crash... you're full of shit!

-- Billy Vines (billyv@greenvillenc.com), October 31, 1998.

It's a combination of ever-present jealousy, atavistic fear of computers in general, and anger because of monopolistic tendencies.
The general problem,
annoying especially people that know something about computer technology, is that the software being written nowadays is overloaded with enormous amount of compiler overhead, a product of programmer bugs times the compiler bugs times the BIOS bugs times the processor microcode bugs times..., universal massive programming objects etc. etc., which means, that the ever-improving hardware doesn't benefit us as much as it could. We are running programs that are 1000s of times larger than say 10 years ago, and yet they usually work slower than in the good old '286 days. Why should we use a 100MB wordprocessor, when a 400KB CHI-Writer was everything we needed back in the 80's, and it had international characters support (I'm from Poland), a spelling checker, various font options, and was running even on an 8088 XT machine with Hercules (monochrome 768x384) graphic card with acceptable speed (in fact, more comfortable, than say Word6/Win3.11 on a 486SX 25MHz). A couple of years ago having a computer with 64MB of RAM was a dream of a DTP person, even the most complex photo editing was than a snap. Now try to do something with a 1200dpi photo with PhotoShop or Corel PhotoPaint on a machine with 64MB... murder.
We are spending more and more money on hardware upgrades, only to discover, that the next version of our favorite software really runs 2 times faster, than the previous, but on a machine 8 times faster than before...
The sad part is, that there is no stopping it. We will get more and more complex software, the next step will be probably not even writing the code in ANY 3,4,5+ level language, but just inputting the ideas to a generator, that will produce a complete application. It will be built of such universal components, that to write the evergreen "Hello, World !!!" on the screen in less than a second would involve purchasing a machine equivalent to today's Deep Blue or even more.
Microsoft symbolizes this tendency, because of the obvious: it has such a market share, that nearly everybody in the world cried out at least once: "Blast this damned Windows, it crashed just when I was about to save my day's worth of work!" Stan Winiecki

-- Stan Winiecki (stavi@polbox.com), November 11, 1998.

Microsoft is a crap, unruly little company. Why? Because it nicks ideas. It stole the idea of a GUI from Apple (and still today it is just a crappy DOS based shell). Apple did all the work, and just 'cos they aren't to good at marketing, Microsoft goes and pinches their idea and gets rich. Bastards.

P.S is anyone interested in making an Anti-Windoze s

-- Alastair Stuart (huddum@aol.com), November 20, 1998.

They are not jaleous at all, jalous of being dishonnest ? Of never innovating ? Of always copying the others ? Of making the computer-science GO BACK ????

Hitler was very rich: Are you saying to that people hate him because he was rich ??? Therefore hate doesn't mean rich

Ted Turner or Steeve Jobs or Michael Jackson are rich. Are you saying that people hates them ??? No, because rich doesn't mean hate...

Therefore there is no arguement for bill gates or microdollar that aew worth anything !

-- Denis Bucher (dbucher@horus.ch), December 01, 1998.

I HAVE read the web page and so far no one has given a convincing argument of why microsoft is defective. Please let us leave the money issue (Bill Gates' wealth) aside and concentrate on the pros and cons of Microsoft O.S. Then we can acquire a definitive understanding of what is happening. It is not helpful for people to insult Bill Gates without giving enough facts.

-- eldridge kgaswane (eldridge@geophysics.geol.wits.ac.za), December 10, 1998.

Why do people hate Bill? I don't know.. I agree with many of you that your particular Unix environments are great. I agree that they never crash. But I still disagree with the arguements most of you are giving. Why? Because, although I took the time to thoroughly learn different OS's, and use them everyday as my network servers, when I sit back at my desk or at home, I want to be able to just point and click my way around. Laziness I guess. But isn't that what a computer is? a machine... something to make my life easier?

Well, enough ranting. But I do have a question for all of you. Why do you care if Bill makes billions? If you don't like MS or their products.. DON'T BUY THEM. The arguement makes no sense to me. I prefer Coca-Cola over Pepsi, but I don't hate Pepsi-Cola Co... I just order Coke.

-- ZeroFill (me@myhouse.com), December 12, 1998.

I NEVER KNOW HIM, BUT FUCK TO ALL WHO HATE HIM.... CAN'T ALL OF YOU JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE? I LOVE HIM .....AND I LOVE THE WAY HE CHANGE OUR PC!! DON'T ALL OF YOU SEE THAT? JUST FUCKING LEAVE HIM HAPPY OKEY, STOP CONDEMMING HIM, STOP TALKING BAD ABOUT HIM.... MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS !!

-- Mohammed Sharif (sharif@netcom.ca), December 22, 1998.

Ok. Microsoft is the biggest, most successful softare company in the world. Bill Gates has taken many ideas from other good companies, ones that used to be popular. Let's take for instance: Apple is a good company. They had the first original graphical interface. Apple has the calculator, the control panel, find files, all the same things that Windows has. They are both good OS s, but, people just take Microsoft's products and talk bad about the company. I have Windows. I like Windows. I like Macintosh also. People say that there is not enough software made for the Macintosh. Well, people just started taking the "Most successful but most hated" Os and started making software, and making it fast. Microsoft is a big and extremely successful company. People may not like the owner, which I don't particularly like, but people should not hate the company, just the owner. I hope that people consider this message and listen to what other people say.

-- Brent Schneider (brent0226@hotmail.com), December 22, 1998.

Why is there so much hate for Micro$oft?

'Cos it's a big pile of crap.

Anyway here is a little thing that I read in a Mag...

"... While surffing the web the other day, I had the misfortune to click on an MSN banner. In the process of just three pages, I was sent no fewer than 40 cookies!!!! What the hell is Micro$oft running, a biscuit factory?"

-- FatboySlim (huddum@aol.com), December 23, 1998.

To all you pathetic Microsoft-hating freaks out there : Get a life!

For all the sane, reasonable people out there : The government is using your tax dollars to deny you choices! They're spending your money to help Microsoft's competitors!

Defend Microsoft by Clicking here : http://www.moral-defense.org/home.html

-- Sam Pai (windowsfan@aol.com), December 24, 1998.

Loonix is the most unusable OS out there.

It's a bitch to install and even crappier to use.

-- Sam Pai (windowsfan@aol.com), December 24, 1998.

You all need to get off your butt and actually make something useful!!! You are just sitting on your butt and complaining about Bill. Why don't you go invent something useful???????????

LONG LIVE BILL GATES!!!!!!!!!

-- Can't make up my mind (???@???.com), December 31, 1998.

Yeah i want to point out my views and just want to say that Bill Gates is a real intelligent man and why can't people just leave him alone. Because of him the computer has made it big in our life time. Sure some of his actions are not just but otherwise he should just be left alone. Thanks

-- Karan Parkash (karan13@yahoo.com), January 01, 1999.

BILL GATES IS A GREAT GUY, HE STARTED FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS WITH PAUL ALLEN, THEY WORK HARD, THEY DON'T EVEN OWN A COMPUTER THAT TIME THEY ARE TALENTED AND WORKING. THE PRODUCTS ARE GOOD IF NOT GREAT, BUT BILL GATES IS GETTING REWARD ED FOR THE HARD WORK HE DONE

-- Michael Lee (metal_slug@flashmail.com), January 07, 1999.

Look, everyone just use what you fucking like and just shutup about the whole thing. If you can come up with something better than by fucking God do it. I'll buy it.

-- Matthew Lee (mlee1194@aol.com), January 13, 1999.

I think that people don't like microsoft because of the fact that they do not make good products. 3/4 of the Windows os (operating system) is from 1984!! That and the fact that the products of Microsoft are pieces of crap. Gates is a stupid man who needs help. He has the stupid idea of my products or none. He has made more enemies then friends!! I would like to say JUST SAY NO TO MICROSOFT!!

-- matthias shoemaker (macmatt20@zdnetmail.com), January 25, 1999.

We should be happy that a man like bill gates created microsoft, and the windows ms dos o.s the man is the god of operating systems, and people please keep your copy of win95 in a safe protected area, and throw away win98

-- ROBIN CAVICANTE (kf6lil@earthlink.net), January 26, 1999.

Hello All, Let me begin by saying that a lot of the responses I have read here today have been shoddy, unitelligent, and uninformed. It seems as if the brainwashing has reached every home in america, and it saddens me. As for my background, I am a computer science major at the University of Michigan. Windows is not only an extremely poorly written operating system, but the fact that they seek to mainatin backwards compatibility causes them to use and reuse old code dating back almost a decade. Keeping 16-bit compatibility is not only foolish, but it is the source of hundreds of instabilities and performance issues that Windows95 and Windows98 faces. To be honest, I run WindowsNT 4.0 on one machine and RedHat Linux 5.2 on my other. However, WindowsNT's kernel was not written by Microsoft, and does not contain the kind of 16-bit support that Windows9x does. I have not even moved into the Windows98-specific problems, but needless to say, there could be a book written on that subject. As for Bill Gates himself? I am not jealous of Bill Gates.. not one iota. He used to be a man of the programming world, but now he sets himself high atop his perch and sneers down at the hard-working computer professionals. He has become out of touch with the machine and more in touch with the money. Bill Gates is not fit to be anyone's role model, and should learn a lesson from Linus Torvalds, a REAL programmer for the people. In conclusion, although many of you feel that Windows is God's gift to computing, you need to stop playing FreeCell and start learning what "computing" means. It is only then you will learn what you have been robbed of for all these years by Bill Gates and his white-collar henchmen.

~Chris

-- Chris M. (JohnDoe@umich.edu), February 01, 1999.

Because they dont use current standards, the make their own. They Copy others ideas. Sometimes make the copys worse than the originals giving the originals bad names. They have a virtual monopoly. Their programs often have irritating bugs. Programs are expensive and not worth the money. ALOT of people have ALOT of problems with their products. I cannot check me Yahoo-mail account with IE(mac). Every new version of one of their programs need more harddisk than neccecary and more RAM than neccecary, and still use old techniqes f. ex. DOS in Win98. People say that RAM is getting cheaper. I have an older computer and do I have to buy a new computer for thousands of dollars just to type? Heck no, ill use a typewriter... Or my Mac...

-- Karl Baron (kalleboo@yahoo.com), February 01, 1999.

Because people think that Microsoft deserves hatred.

-- Karl Baron (kalleboo@yahoo.com), February 02, 1999.

I think that Microsoft, though very powerful and wealthy, is not totally in the wrong. Ever since computers came out, greedy corporations have made the computer industry a dog-eat-dog world. This is by no means condoning what Microsoft does. My feeling is that Bill Gates used to use his programming skills to make honest money, but not anymore. His corporation (he probably only goes to the board meetings nowadays, and is out of touch with the actual business) hires, fires, and operates automatically, without Bill being at the wheel.

As for the issue of DOS vs Windows.... I hate 90% of how Windows does stuff. The only things I actually like about it are the fact that I can have about 20 million programs running at the same time (multitasking) and the long filename support (DOS probably could have been rewritten to accomodate 32-bit filenames and the FAT-32 system, which is, consequently, based on the hard drive itself.). The one other feature I like is the automatic hardware detect/manager stuff (it does make it a little bit difficult to test whether or not hardware is working right sometimes though...) Actually, the only reason I use Windows 95 is because I have to have it to run newer programs, like Visual C++ (could anyone get me a Disc Image file (*.ISO) of that one? not to sound like a pirate, but I don't happen to be made of money...)

DOS itself, albiet very rarely, had some bugs and errors too. But when compared with Windows 3.xx (and earlier, these were simply graphical DOS interfaces, called GEMs) pure DOS systems were very reliable, very stable, were very compact, only screwed up when the program (not the OS) had a bug in it, and very quick (even on an Amstrad 2-3Mhz???), didn't need lots and lots of drivers to do stuff, and uninstalling was as simple as telling the computer to delete a bunch of files.

In contrast, Windows 95 take up about 100MB of space on my HD, is kind of slow to load (slower than DOS), has those annoying windows keys (I hit them by accident a lot, which stops whatever I'm doing), drives me nuts with file operation confirmations (after clicking on OK 15 times, it still asked me "Are you REALLY REALLY ABSOLUTELY sure you want to delete this file?" The message is a little exaggerated, but it actually happened to me.). It has to have twenty-something files (10MB) in order to run my sound card. I have to fight the computer to uninstall something (yes, some programs don't have an uninstall feature) That's a little backwards logic (fighting with your tools...aren't they supposed to make the job easier?) It also tends to get bitchy about running some really old DOS programs (yes, I still play old shareware games from the mid-80s). Oftentimes, I simply run the computer in DOS mode simply because it seems to stay running better there.

With Windows 98, I have found it to be even more "helpful(?)". It attempts to help the user at every turn, with no way to say "stop" to it. It is incredibly sluggish during the bootup (I clocked a friend's at 7 minutes). In the file manager (isn't that basically what an OS is?) if I try to enter the windows directory, Windows gets helpful again, this time warning me that entering that directory could damage the system (It doesn't do this intrusively like usual, it puts a little hyperlink at the bottom of the window, inconspicuously). Which brings me to another point about new OSes. They all have on line help? Didn't that used to mean that you could get instant help from the system? Seems like they all have their on line help on the internet now. That's kind of funny, because even with the popularity of the internet, not everyone likes to pay exorbitant internet access charges for online services, which are slower to download the help pages anyway (I wonder who agrees with this opinion?). Otherwise, other than a few minor bugfixes, Windows 98 is the same piece of shit as Windows 95. I'm expecting Windows 2000 to be about the same.

Also, if anyone has a readily installable version of Linux (It can run stuff made for Windows, right?) I'd be more than willing to try something new.

That's the reason why people still flock to Microsoft for the Windows OSes. They need it so that they can run their programs.

Listen to this, it gets better :) I turn 19 years old in eight days, a freshman in college. With a planned major in Computer Programming.

-- Eddi Adami (fenejd@loras.edu), February 02, 1999.

A small addition:

There are tradeoffs between DOS and Windows.

With DOS, you have more need for user understanding, and the interface is somewhat more complex (command lines, file handlers, FCBS, buffers, etc...), but the space it takes up on the hard drive and in memory is minimal.

Windows is designed to be simple, with little need for in-depth user input (low level commands). The basic design concept is that Windows is a "hands-free" OS. The tradeoff here is that it takes up an inordinate amout of HD space, memory, and CPU time. But what the hell? It's the simplest, easiest-to-use, and "helpful" OS around.

The simple premise is that you trade simplicity, compatibility (and lack of storage space) for functionality and storage space.

It's not like you have much of a choice though. Everything is made to work in Windows now, otherwise for general everyday computer use, you can use that shitty Macintosh OS (which is even slower, and less user- interactive.)

-- Eddi Adami (fenejd@loras.edu), February 02, 1999.

I believe all this stuff about the anti trust suit is Bull. Microsoft and Bill Gates in particular is so rich because he worked his ass off for it. Anyone who has read his books will know how he built the corporation giant. Sure he buys 200 million dollar companies like I would buy a case of beer but that is the life of a billion dollar corporation. I would like just one chance to make a comment to the DOJ. I would ask them how in the hell they can take this kind of action againt microsoft when a corporation like DeBeers has a world wide monopoly on diamonds. The answer lies in the bitterness of competing corporations like Netscape, and Sun Microsystems. They are realizing that they are unwilling to spend the money that Microsoft puts into research and development. I am a Microsoft user but am very inpressed with netscapes latest browser. I could go on and on about this topic but I won't. That would be to much like Netscape and Sun Microsystems. Hopefully Bill Doesn't end up like AT&T, or should I say the corporation formally known as AT&T!!!!!

-- greg breber (fare@mailcity.com), March 07, 1999.

Why do people love to hate microsoft? answer

#1 They dont know JACK -They see it on the news, they want to participate in the conversation, or they went and deleted the windows system directory and are wondering why their pc isnt working... THESE ARE THE MORONS THAT SAY''MAN I HATE MICROSFT''

#2 They use Linux or Macs -READ REASON #1

-- vince (shabang@comnet.ca), March 07, 1999.

Why is Microsoft Successful Is Bill Gates a Genius?

By: David K. Every )Copyright 1999

I've heard it 10,000 times. Someone in a store or a party talking about how Bill Gates is a Genius, and how that lead to Microsoft's success, and so on. If I hear it one more time, I'm going to have to start dishing out the wedgie of death (turning one person into two, by tugging really hard on their undergarments!).

I know, I know -- because I don't want to kiss Bill Gates ring, I am some biased Microsoft hater or Gates basher. Honestly, I don't like a lot of things that Microsoft does, but they are just a Company. I can't say I admire how they operate -- but there are worse evils in the world (like the press' incessant ability to misinform the public, because sensationalism makes a better story). Well, the hype about Bill Gates is one of those sensationalist stories. Of course the hype about Steve and Steve (Jobs and Woz) is sensationalized too, but this one has fallen out of favor of late. But let me explain why I don't think Gates is a genius -- let's start at the beginning of (personal) computers.

A bunch of geeks got interested in computers because they were fun, and they didn't have much of a social life. Many of these people were sharp -- but not THAT sharp. They geeked around and played with electronics and computer BECAUSE THEY LIKED IT! Now some of these people happened to be in the right place at the right time, and had the wisdom to take advantage of it -- but lets not pretend these guys were that insightful! They were doing what they enjoyed, and it just happened to be in an industry that took off (like cars in the 20's and 30's), and they rode the tide upwards to success.

Bill Gates was one of these. He was lucky, had connections (and wealthy parents), and happened to be in the right place at the right time. Oh, yeah, and he wasn't stupid either.

The 70's

Bill Gates (after dropping out of college) and a friend (Paul Allen) started making software (Mid 70's). The first thing they did was steal (uh, borrow?) some computer time from a college and they implemented Basic (a Language) for the Altair Computer (made by MITS). Basic had been around for many years before Bill implemented a version of it . They did provide a service, but it is not that impressive technically to take public domain code from one machine and port it to another. Yawn. It was also very questionable (ethically) to sell a language who's definition was in public domain, and develop it on computer time borrowed from a school. But I don't think ethics bother Bill Gates too much -- and in the over all scheme of things, this was one of the lesser of the "moral gray areas".

Before this time, most commercial software was written under contract for big businesses and mainframe and minicomputers, so writing software for Microcomputers was a bit of a risk. If Gates had been really smart, they could have made a fortune by programming professionally (for others). But Gates and Allen wanted to play on Micro's -- it was ego and fun that was the motivation, not insight or business sense. Of course it is easy to be "gutsy" when you have no overhead (you are a kid living at home or college) and your parents are quite "comfortable" and you have a safety net to fall back on.

Computers weren't mainstream yet -- so writing this language was not about money (at least not about making more than a few bucks), it wasn't about business sense -- it was about doing something that was fun. They got some prestige in the geek circles, and they made a few bucks, but were not exactly wildly successful -- just college kids playing big-shots. Bill Gates managed to piss off most of his market when he and MITS charged more for the language than the computer itself cost. This pissed many off, and so they started pirating Gates Basic. Ironically, the pirated versions got the bugs fixed and features added, and was a better version of Basic than the commercial one, and it was better before Gates Basic was even released. But Microsoft has never been about quality (more about marketing). Gates threw a tantrum, and wrote a letter than called all the people improving his product thieves for stealing his software (ironic since his software was originally public domain and developed on stolen computer time). This tirade pissed off his customers -- last I checked, knowing your market would be a part of being a "marketing genius" that Gates is credited with, but I digress. Basic was better than programming in assembly language, so they had some sort of business going and that was the beginning of Microsoft.

Well, Gates thought Languages were cool and was going to be where the money was. So they produced a couple (mainly flavors of basic for different machines). They sold OK, but their Basic never really followed the standards -- but when you are the only game in town (as they often were), even bad implementations would sell. So part of Microsoft's early success was that there was no competition for languages in Micros.

Microsoft continued to grow. Much of that success was because there weren't many commercial applications yet and people had to program them themselves, so people needed Basic. Because Basic made many computers useful to businesses, many hardware companies (like Apple) licensed their languages from Microsoft. These royalties paid the Bill's (so to speak) -- but the big money was in Application Development (something Gates didn't learn until his company was a decade old).

Then a guy named Dan Bricklin created VisiCalc. It was the first spreadsheet for computers. Basically a spreadsheet allowed for business people to lay out numbers into columns and make the computer add them up for you, enabling it to do all sorts of wonderful things (for accountants and business people). This was known as the first "Killer App". It not only sold a ton of copies of itself, but people bought computers (Apple]['s) just to run VisiCalc on. This package revolutionized Microcomputers and brought them from hobby devices into many more businesses and far more homes -- and seriously contributed to the success of Apple][ (and Apple Computers). Did I mention that Dan Bricklin went to Bill Gates and Microsoft and asked them to sell the package for him, but Gates was disinterested? Seems Microsoft didn't think it would be useful (or not important enough to market). Again, you seldom hear this story when talking about Bill Gates Genius -- Microsoft (and Apple) had turned down what was the most revolutionary Application in the history of Microcomputers, the first Spreadsheet. No big deal, later Microsoft ripped off the design and they made their own version, Multiplan, which later became Excel. Of course others ripped off the concept as well, and companies were built around rip-off products, like Lotus (1..2..3). But the point is that rejecting Multiplan was not a move made by a Genius or a visionary.

Actually, the real Genius of Microsoft seems to be how they handled it. Let someone else do things (and take the risks), then when they start becoming successful, they rip them off. Then Microsoft uses their size, money and unfair advantages (by making the Operating System) to steal the other company's market -- not through quality of product and features, but by just forcing them out because of size and deep pockets. Though I don't know how much Genius there is in that (unless you call muggers and bankrobbers "Geniuses").

So after 6 years of having a Software Business that was doing puttering along, in an industry where Millionaires were being made daily, Microsoft (and Bill Gates) got their big break. Notice that Microsoft was not a huge Company (going in to 1980) -- Apple had far outgrown them (in less time), as had many others. Up to this point in time, there doesn't seem to be any Genius or Magic to Microsoft or Bill Gates. Then the fortune of the company changed.

Things will never be the same again (the 80's)

Mary Gates (Bill's Mom) and a high level Executive at IBM (Akers) were chatting (they were both involved in the United Way), and somehow it became known that IBM was looking at getting into the Microcomputer business. Well one thing lead to another, and Bill got a visit from IBM (because of his mom). This is another big secret to success -- be born into the right family, and get the right contacts. Some call it genius -- I guess it takes a smart kid to pick the right parents.

IBM left their brains back in Boca Raton Florida when negotiating a deal with Bill Gates for their Disk Operating System (DOS). Bill Gates didn't even have a DOS, but he convinced IBM he was almost finished with one. (Another element of business Genius seems to be being a pathological liar). Perhaps it had something to do with the President of IBM telling the small team creating the PC to "see Mary Gates son Bill" that influenced them to be blind. Microsoft then bought DOS off someone else (Seattle Computings' Quick- and-Dirty OS, QDOS). This product was actually a cheap rip-off (clone) product of a friend of Gates (Gary Kildalls' CP/M) -- but therein lies another part of Genius; the lack of integrity/scruples. So buying a product for $50,000 (a fraction of what it was worth), and a little back-stabbing to your friend is an acceptable business maneuver. If you worship success over scruples, then this was worthy.

Gary Kildall was quite offended, because Gates and Kildall had a Gentlemans agreement -- Gates wouldn't do OS's, and Kildall wouldn't do languages. Imagine Gary's surprise when Gates not only did an OS, but it was really a poorly ripped-off copy of his own OS. Microsoft lacked the imagination to write their own OS or think of anything new. Why should they, when they could just steal someone elses design? Do you notice a pattern?

The only real genius in the deal (or stupidity) was in IBM letting Bill Gates have control of DOS. Basically the deal was written such that IBM paid Bill Gates (Microsoft) to create DOS, then IBM agreed to let him have it, and be able to sell it to whomever he wanted. Try to figure out what they were thinking -- because many other experts have and they all wander away scratching their head pondering this blunder.

There is more to this story, read IBM's Choice if you want more.

IBM paid Microsoft to develop (buy) DOS. There were better products for PC's out there -- but IBM only really leant their name (enthusiasm) to Microsofts DOS, which starved out all the competition. Then IBM continued to pay Microsoft for improvements, (that Microsoft repeatedly delivered late, if at all, and most were buggy). Microsoft already earned a bad name and reputation - - but people were already saying, "Sigh, well what can we do, they are the standard?". How could Microsoft fail, they had IBM's name and reputation behind them? Is there Genius in getting a cushy deal and riding on someone else's coattails?

IBM obviously felt the problem was that they weren't paying Microsoft enough -- so they then got involved with Microsoft to make a "Windowing" Operating System (Called OS/2) -- to make the PC's more like the Mac. For over 10 years, IBM gave Microsoft BILLIONS of dollars to develop software for Microsoft (1).

(1) Note, I didn't say IBM paid MS to develop for IBM -- they had agreements where Microsoft would get to keep whatever code they created, and IBM got the code as well; but since Microsoft had all the people that wrote the code, they were the ones that could effectively use it (support it). The real hero of Microsoft was their lawyers, and the complete stupidity of IBM's lawyers and negotiators. In the end this one way deal -- a way for Microsoft to get Billions of Dollars, and get to use the IBM name -- and IBM got, almost nothing (except mediocre code and the opportunity to make another company's executives rich).

Needless to say, Microsoft grew tremendously in the 80's. Billions of Dollars, IBM's name -- that is always a recipe for success. Microsoft (Bill Gates) did magnify their success in a variety of ways. They were known to hire lots of high-school kids and pay them dirt to write code -- then beat them into the ground. If you got kids working for you before they worked anywhere else, they didn't know any better. Of course the few that survived in that hacking environment (not engineering) got stock options and became tyrannical immature millionaires.

Microsoft then relentlessly used its position as keeper of the OS, as a way to destroy any competition -- it wasn't about being the best, it was about being the only game in town (and making sure of it). Whenever Microsoft needed to gain market share in the Application Market (where the real money started to come from) -- they would come out with a new version of the OS, that would "accidentally" break everyone else's Applications, but somehow, Microsoft Apps would always work and take advantage of the newest features (and undocumented ones built into the Operating System itself). I guess there is Genius in illegally using your position in one market to drive people out of other markets. Microsoft even pulled the greatest scams of all times -- they convinced the entire industry that OS/2 was the future of IBM, Microsoft (and all computers). Then when all the competition was committed to making Apps for OS/2, Microsoft came out with Windows 3.0, and had all their apps working for that (and started saying how OS/2 was dead, and Windows was the real future). In the time it took the competition to rewrite Apps for Windows, Microsoft had already captured most of the Application market (2). Microsoft would later distribute their Apps with their OS, and make it conditional that if you wanted their OS, then you had to take their Applications as well. And so on. They succeeded, but only through means that would embarrass a crook.

(2) Microsoft claims the deception was all just an accident, and to a small point it was, but it was not like they didn't know that writing Applications for Windows would guarantee its success. Even if it was an accident (as many in Microsoft claim), that accidental success is not the result of genius or planning. So it was either an evil plot (and fraud), or incompetance -- you choose.

So Microsoft was not so much brilliant, as it was unscrupulous. Some of it was by accident (they certainly didn't want to break up with IBM and lose the OS/2, as long as they had such a wonderfully parasitic relationship). Most of it was not accidental. They cared about winning -- but the thing that enabled them to win was always their size, IBM's name (and later their own name). They didn't win because of good products -- their products were never that good (they weren't that bad either). They didn't win because of brilliant marketing -- their marketing wasn't that good. The didn't win because of any ability to see the future or anticipate markets (remember things like Bob, the first two versions of Windows, and so on) -- mostly they followed others, they just used their size and name to force the others out. They basically just won because they could afford to, because IBM was paying their way. By the time IBM finally caught on to this, and broke off the relationship, it was the 90's, and IBM had paid to develop DOS, Windows, most of Microsoft's Applications, and for the creation of WindowsNT -- and turned a small software company into the "evil empire" that we all know and love.

Conclusion

I know that people worship success. Fine. But lets not call it Genius -- it is a combination of luck (timing) and connections. Bill Gates (and Paul Allen and many others in Microsoft) did create a Multi-Billion Dollar Company (and one of the most overvalued companies on Wall Street Today). Bill Gates is sharp, and was a ruthless, slightly insecure, opportunist -- that was in the right place at the right time. But the catch is who couldn't have succeeded with Billions of IBM's Dollars, and getting to use IBM's name for over a decade? I am sure there are many people that couldn't have made Microsoft AS successful as Bill Gates did. Gates is not stupid, and did quite well. However, I doubt there are many people that could have failed with Billions of Dollars and IBM's reputation. I am just as sure that there are many many other people that could have made Microsoft a far more successful company than Gates did, and without as being as amoral as he was (or his company was). So where is the genius?

So next time someone starts to talk publicly about Bill Gates Genius, give them this URL, and ask them to read it before they cram their foot in their mouths any further -- and you never know when some crazed geek is hiding around the corner ready to give them the wedgie of death!

This is the history as I remember it. Some of this was a tad before my time -- I was involved in the late '70's (and I asked a lot of questions). So even though some of this was a few years before me, I do have a pretty good idea of what was going on. I would welcome people to research more (and give me any feedback if you find anything else out). If you doubt any of this, then look it up and learn - - but help me fight myth and misinformation (and be historically accurate).

Many people have a thing against people (Bill Gates) because of their money -- that is stupid! Why resent people over that? Bill Gates (Microsoft) has employed tens of thousands of people (directly and indirectly) -- so I could care less how rich he is. I wish him, and his company all the best (financially). I just refuse to let people forget how they got where they are, and what they did along the way. I don't like his company's actions -- and think ultimately he is responsible for those. I'll will remind people of that, in hopes that they can learn how not to do things they are later ashamed of (or should be).

-- the man (bb@net.com), March 09, 1999.

IF you have to live in an environment where NT Server run, and if you depend on that stuff, then you are going to start to hate the Mickeysoft-Crab. It's not about Bill, he might be insane or whatever, I don't care. But I avoid M$ - Software, whereever I can (and I almost can ever). For all Bill lovers: Stop playing and start working (e.g.with sensible data) and you will see...

-- the hack (k.x@friends.com), March 20, 1999.

Microsoft has the morals of the mafia, and bad software.

If they only had bad software I'd forgive them. If they just forced users to good software, maybe I'd forgive them.

But they're forcing users to bad software and we can't escape. This is unforgivable.

-- Yoni Elhanani (yonie@usa.net), March 20, 1999.

It's because they write so poor code. Nothing can slow your PC down like a Microsoft program.

Anyway, when I skimmed down this page I noticed one strange thing - all the girls on the page liked Microsoft, and Bill Gates in particular. Actually, this is not so strange, because women are attracted to men with power.

Also, generally speaking, women know nothing about computers, and Microsoft's products are targetted towards people who know nothing about computers. That's what Microsoft's products are good for - they look good (well...) and they allow any idiot to use them as long as you don't try to perform anything unusual with them. (Macintosh flashback, anyone?) All anti-microsofters, visit this link.

-- thomas (missljud@yahoo.com), March 23, 1999.

Thomas (missljud@yahoo.com)is an asshole. He hates women and he likes to get fucked in the ass!

-- The feminist (hemligporr@yahoo.com), March 24, 1999.

PEOPLE LOVE TO HAVE HEROS AND VILLIANS JUST LIKE MOVIES . THEY TEND TO CLASSIFY EVERYONE IN THESE TWO CATEGORIES .

IS BILL GATES A HERO OR A VILLIAN WELL HOW MANY OF US CONTRIBUTE ALL OUR LIVES TO SERVE THE POOR AND DESTITUTES 1 OUT OF 100000000000000000000

SO WHY BLAME BILL GATES FOR BEING INTELLIGENT AND TACTICAL TO EARN MONEY BUT CERTAINLY HE'S NOT A HERO EITHER SO I GUESS HE'S JUST A SHY NERD WHO SPENDS HIS TIME FOR MEANINGFUL PURPOSES WHILE FOOLS LIKE US WRITE ON THIS WEBPAGE AND DISSCUSS ABOUT HIM

-- sumeet kaul (cybervilla@hotmail.com), March 27, 1999.

Yes, this is a big issue, but we must say this about Bill Gates and his company Microsoft is just brilliant...and there is no law that states a person can not be paid for his/her brain encountering much more information than others... So face the fact that Bill Gates is really a great person that took his time and started small and now has advanced up to the top with help from consumers that supported him and now as he hits being the richest man on earth... That is sort of agravated to people with smaller companies and smaller environment. That is where the issues compile and others fill that they are doing there best and should deserve as much profit as Bill Gate and his firm (Microsoft)... Instead of feeling greif or renvenge we should as a nation become strong and come to a sort of agreement about this and learn how to face the truth that Windows 95 and 98 and NT are the best products that can be trusted out on the market...

-- Michael Ingram (mikembi@ayrix.net), March 29, 1999.

I'm going to keep this short. Poeple (including me) hate Bill Gates and Microsoft because he forces the PC users into doing things even if they don't want to. He forces everyone to use Windows, and, believe me, if there was any GOOD operating system which would run all the programs made for windows, I'ld change imeediatly. But all the programs are designed to run with windows! (and in most of the cases with windows they just don't run at all)

-- Joeri Hendrickx (qbmax@usa.net), April 07, 1999.

I am a QBasic Programmer. (c/c++ programmers, I know what you're thinking ;) if anyone who reads this thinks Bill is a genius, read this.

Some years a go Micro$oft had a little compiler called Quickbasic. (a compiler is a program wich creates EXE files you can run) 5 Years ago it was discontinued. There is NO way of getting it anymore. NOT A SINGLE WAY There are a LOT of QB programmers and they're all looking for a copy of Quickbasic 4.5. But there's no way to get it. There are also a lot of petitions to get QB45 back into the stores, but billy just won't listen. If he's sutch a genius, why doesn't he put it back into the stores? With all those poeple looking for it, he could really ake a lot of money. OK, so he is the richest man in the world, so to him that might not be a lot of money, so if he doesn't care about the money, why doesn't he just make QB45 freewrae, so that everyone can download it? I'll tell you why: becuase he's heartless. He likes to see us all looking for it , but unable to find it, he likes to see us all unhappy.

Just my two cents.

-- QBMax (QBMAX@usa.net), April 07, 1999.

i`M 14 aNd wHeN i GrOw Up i' WaNt tO bE jUsT lIkE bIlL

-- robert (r.pinckney@worldnet.att.net), April 12, 1999.

Microsoft has castrated the computer industry by forcing software developers to limit their product to the unstable Windows environment. We should support the few who have maintaned their manhood and gone against an otherwise conforming society of non-conformists. If Microsoft releases a product there is another just like it cowering behind a rock because of the corporate giant. I say Take A Stand and break a window to protest the attrocities of Microsoft.

-- Graham I am (grahamorama@ihateclowns.com), April 15, 1999.

See I believe that when you reach the type of level that Mr. Gates have achived, you begin to see the world as a big video game. That isn't a knock on Mr. Gates but I feel that it is a fact. Bill Gates has reached super stardom and fame by being dedicated and driven. He may not be the kindful or niceful man, but he IS a MAN. Money is not the solution to emotions or hurt. It just make you feel like you are in a better position to deal with those stressful anti-climates. Bill Gates may have the biggest bank acount in the world, but how big is Mr. Gates heart? Mr. Gates, I did my whole high school thesis on YOU and your Microsoft. I am fascinated and intrigued when I hear about your SUCCESS not your MONEY.

-- Nick Edward Thompson (netco@corp.com), May 12, 1999.

See, I believe that when you reach the type of level that Mr. Gates have achieved, you begin to see the world as a big video game. That isn't a knock on Mr. Gates but I feel that it is a fact. Bill Gates has reached super stardom and fame by being dedicated and driven. He may not be kind or nice man, but he IS a MAN. Money is not the solution to emotions or hurt. It just make you feel like you are in a better position to deal with those stressful anti-climates. Bill Gates may have the biggest bank account in the world, but how big is Mr. Gates heart? Mr. Gates, I did my whole high school thesis on YOU and your Microsoft. I am fascinated and intrigued when I hear about your SUCCESS not your MONEY.

-- Nick Edward Thompson (netco@corp.com), May 12, 1999.

Time and time again, people say, if it wasn't for microsoft I wouldn't have a job. This is so narrow mindedness. People would be using a different operating system, not microsoft. computers would still be as popular if it wasn't for microsoft. Therefore, you would still have a job. Microsoft have always been second best, for example, it wasn't until Windows 95 that microsoft operating systems could multi-task. Novell DOS (dr-dos) could multi-task years before microsoft could do this. Also, why was it that IBM O/S 2 could run windows (16 bit) applications far better than Windows 3.xx itself??

well, it speaks for itself doesn't it. Microsoft cannot code bug free, efficent operating systems for itself. They have to buy software companies don't they!

-- Stewart Hector (s.hector@virgin.net), May 15, 1999.

Microsoft has pushed countless companies out of business, while still continuing to release the already third and counting upgrade to win95, which still crashes for no apparent reason. I say, everybody goes to linux--free, powerful, runs on a 386, and never crashed once in my 2 year experience with it.

-- edward (eg344@nyu.edu), June 06, 1999.

What is wrong with bill gates, he is the model of the 20th century businessman. He eliminates his competition, trying to become super powerfull, isnt that what all companies try to do? All the people who complain about how messed up windows is probably just dont know how to use it. Shure my computer has some problems, but whose dosent, You cant possibly make a os that is flawless unless you also make the computer (like apple) because theire are so many variables. They cant make windows compatiable with all the thousands of combinations of hardware. If you dont like it dont use it, if nobody buys ms products they will go away, thats how capitalism works.

so evrybody stop whining and accept ms or dont use theire products.

-- Brad (guy23@hotmail.com), June 07, 1999.

I like Bill GAtes because he took the nerd out of computer nerd. Or it's ok to be a nerd because nerds are successful. From hearing him talk, he sounds like a nice guy. Why should anyone have to tell the secrets of their success, nobody else does. The guy with the subway shop or other little or big stores all have their own little secrets on how they get the best price for things.

-- Lenny Bud (len@studentcenter.org), June 09, 1999.

I don't hate Bill Gates or Microsoft. I think they are very effective tools. Nothing is really free for you or me. How about the printer scam.. Whatever printer you buy, you HAVE to buy the ink from that same company no matter how much they charge you for it. That's not fair!!!!!!!!

-- Lindsaybeth (lindsaybeth@studentcenter.org), June 09, 1999.

People hate Microsoft because they are the prime example of capitalism exploited to the point that it's net effect is the same as communism. They sew up the market, not with technical excellence, but strong arm business tactics, lying, cheating, and stealing. Then they vomit out a continuous stream of buggy mediocre software that everyone is supposed to slurp up and be thankful for. The net effect is not unlike the centrally managed socialist economies that collapsed in the last decade. If Microsoft produced a good product and competed fairly based on the inherent value of what they produced, people wouldn't hate them.

-- poobah (mskilr@deniz.com), June 19, 1999.

I can see now why so many people hate Bill Gates. I just got finished watching the movie on TV. You stole from Apple & Steve Jobs!! Makes me want to go buy an iMac!!

-- Nikki Wiebe (Nikki28@aol.com), June 21, 1999.

According to this list, there are a number of reasons to "hate" Microsoft. I have never liked the business ethics (the lack thereof) of Gates. I did not know until recently the extent of his ruthlessness and business greed. This approach impacts me as a customer and I believe will have far reaching consequences on every persons access to information (true and honest information) especially with regard to Microsofts ventures in telecommunication corporations. Lastly, like the last respondent, I was totally discusted after seeing the TNT special re: Microsoft and Apple. My response...today I purchased an Apple G3 and dumped my microsoft stock. As to the software...why do people tolerate such poor quality and continue to buy microsoft products?? Amazing. Mary Laves

-- mary laves (lavesma@aol.com), June 22, 1999.

And you too can steal from us.

-- Phil L. Smith (smithpl@xerox.com), June 30, 1999.

I don't begrudge Mr. Gates or the empire he has built. However, as an IT profressional for 20+ years I can say with certainty that Microsoft has contributed to the degrading of the knowledge and expertise levels within the IT industry as a whole. By leveraging the monopoly on the desktop to work explicity with NT servers,(as opposed to open-source such as LINUX) we have new generations of IT professionals managing networks and systems that fail to understand the fundimentals of TCP/IP and Operating System principles. The cure is to Restart, Reboot, or Rebuild. Typically, it means hours on an MS support line listening to elevator music, or risking hacking a registry that will potententially lead the third "R" (rebuild), due to the poor construction of their NT OS. Keep in mind the difference between 40 million (NT) and 40 thousand (most UNIX) which will likely hav emore bugs and be slower. You do the math. But not to worry about the technical details, Microsoft will do the thinking for you.

This trend will be bad for the industry, and eventually the consumer. To repeat the most accurate quote I've heard to date "Microsoft has done for the computer what McDonalds has done for the hamburger".

-- Not Important (mike@prismnet.com), July 07, 1999.

BTW, that is 40 million lines of OS code verse 40 thousand lines of OS code. Opps, leaving out little details can definately change your meaning. Ask Microsoft, it's apparent in their OS.

-- Not Inportant (mike@prismnet.com), July 07, 1999.

Okay, to add my two cents. I don't hate MS but they scare the hell out of me. You combine a total lack of ethics, paranoia and monopoly domination of the computing environment and you have all the elements of a dictatorship. Considering how much of your personal and information flows through the internet, this is not just a false alarm. What if Bill hooks up with rightwing conservatives and decides to "monitor" your computers to make sure nothing is said which is "bad". As for me, I run Linux/MacOS/BeOS and don't send a dime to Bill. Ihave to use Windows (NT/95/98) at my business and technically..well it sucks. Why do so many people buy into inferior, expensive MS software? Ask PT Barnum... and frankly I run into many people who happily switch from Windows to Mac.. but very VERY few who go the other way willingly.

-- Jamie Ross (jross@starboundtech.com), July 26, 1999.

Bill Gates is a person too. Shame on you for mocking him. You are all jealous of a very successful business man.

-- Roby Romance ('Nesschi@hotmail.com'), August 03, 1999.

Why do people hate Microsoft ? Simple...they steal technologies from others, and put their Windows logo on it in a nice little package. (then again, Apple did technically steal their point and click UI from Xerox)

Being in the software industry myself, it's kinda hard to distribute our programs to different standards. (Windows, various flavors of Unix, Linux, MacOS, etc) But I found a way to not hate Microsoft anymore...Java.

-- Danny Combs (microsoft-sucks@mindspring.com), August 29, 1999.

Why do we hate Bill Gates? Yes, he stole ideas from MacIntosh; yes, Windows '95 is not the perfect system; yes, he has a great monopoly over the computer industry. But the true root of our hatred is simply that he is the embodiment of all that's good and all that's bad in the capitalist system. He makes Billions of dollars, donates billions, and is the successful underdog, college drop out that some glorify. He also used manipulative, schemeing ways to acquire his wealth. It is th e classic story of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Today's world depends heavily on computers, so although Windows is defective, we buy it to keep up with the times. And then we complain because we had no chioce. As a student, I can tell you that some techers will not accept a paper if it is not typed.

So even though we have adequate reasons to love Billy Boy, we have many reasons to hate him too.

The choice is yours.

-- Mikella (mikivetti@aol.com), September 20, 1999.

Really, I guess he's smart and all, but seriously, his hair is really screwed up. You'd think with 80 billion dollars he could get a decent hair cut every now and then. It looks like he cuts his own hair.

-- Nick Leners (cybercub23@gocubs.com), September 25, 1999.

People seem to either hate Bill Gates or respect him. Microsoft certainly has amassed a large portion of the market for operating systems on personal computers - despite having a product that is buggy compared to an operating system like UNIX. Whether Microsoft has violated U.S. laws or not is now the subject of ongoing lawsuit by the U.S. "justice" Department. I personally am horrified at the idea of Janet Reno deciding what features should or should not go into a computer operating system but can sympathize with the companies that are outgunned by the shear power of Microsoft. Perhaps the lawsuit itself will make Microsoft a "kinder and gentler" competitor.

It is hard to sympathize with companies like Netscape and Sun, who run to the government when they do not get to establish their own monopolies. Where is the government when Intel is strong-arming vendors? Perhaps it is just that they knew better how to grease the Democratic money machine. Nearly every company in Silicon Valley covets a lockin for their standards - but is Washington DC the solution to maintaining a competitive technology marketplace? Seems to me more like a life support system for lawyers and politicians. The best insurance against monopoly in technology might be for the government to fund more research and then put it in the public domain for all to use (the Internet itself is a good example of this). Would government support of open source operating systems help?

-- richard (zpub@sirius.com), October 11, 1999.

I hate Microsoft because they actively subvert or destroy new ideas or technologies they can't control, not with better ideas or technologies but with bullying, subversion, market-dumping, lying or stupid ideas. In the mean time, they impose software that is bloated, quirky, unreliable or just plain inferior.

Bullying examples:- Per-processor license payments by PC vendors, even on machines that never see MS software. The demand for PC vendors to remove their Windows 98 warnings.

Subversion examples:- The Undocumented Windows [system services] book derived from reverse engineering MS software. The Windows 3 beta that detected DR-DOS [rival to MS-DOS] and produced error messages.

Market dumping examples:- Internet Explorer, to kill Netscape. DoubleSpace, to kill Stac.

Lying examples:- The minimum spec for Windows 95. The difference between NT Workstation and Server.

Stupid ideas examples:- Integrating an application (IE4) into an operating system (Win98). The memory model of Windows 3.

A monopoly promotes standards and simplifies integration? If only their software was any good.

In short, I hate Microsoft because they are holding back progress in computer technology.

Matthew Greet

-- Matthew Greet (mgreet@warmachine.u-net.com), October 14, 1999.

Simply because he is rich and successful.

-- j flowers (jflowers@postmaster.co.uk), November 16, 1999.

Why do people hate microsoft? 1. At the early days of microsoft, gates was stealing lots of utilities of Unix. For example Unix already had in his early days multitasking functions. It's not just only that micrsoft stole utilities of unix, but the quality of it's self-made stolen utilities sucks. Linux truely gives more garanty!!! 2. Because his software crashes to much 3. For the expensive prices you expect some tiny bit of quality

You should also look it at this way: 1. 90% of the companies and people are working with Windows 60% of the users don't have much experience with computers and Gates gives them exactly what they want. The man is brilliant. No doubt about it!!! 2. Much software companies and peole are just jealous, if they could have done what he did, of course they would have done it!!!!. 3. Most of the persons who dislike microsoft and love Linux are working most of their time with windows and they are from a new generation(not Linux). So what the hell are they talking about!!!

-- Valentino (someone@someone.com), November 18, 1999.

MICROSOFT ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- cody datty (qoo@ytc.com), November 22, 1999.

I don't bother myself thinking about such issue. Microsoft goes, Another Microsoft comes. if ( microsoft = 0 ) another "microsoft"; /*else perfect world;*/

-- no-one (aalanba1@tampabay.rr.com), December 27, 1999.

There is so much hate for Microsoft because their programs dont work 100% of the time, under any hardware configuration. Therefore the program should not cost 100% of what it is and Bill shouldn't get the 100% he gets.

Bill should get off his now powerfully fat fass and FIX THIS CRAP!

Needless to say, software companies should make sure their software works with ALL OS SYSTEMS, NOT JUST &^@%ING WINDOWS!!!! Some of the BEST games out there work only on Windows... Why is simply beyond me.

If other OS' (like linux and unix) work all the time under any hardware configuration then why the hell arent THEY the billionaires?

I myself dont have a grudge against Bill or Microsoft but am a very annoyed windows 95 through 98 user. I shake my fist in frustration at you, Microsoft.

-- Psychosis1999 (thechaoselement@hotmail.com), January 09, 2000.

1) Buggy programs but Intel:s Pentium >2 are 32bit proc and dos are 16 ,windows are a mix of 32 and 16 and NT is only 32 ,so hardware troble are not the issue here right. Whether bad memmory bad softwareprogrammers with bad drivers and all viruses ,lets face it its all microsofts BillG fault.

2) Monopoly ,Ms buys and conquer. Opposite loses.

3) Price. Buy win95 today ,pay for win98 tommorow ,uppgrade to win2k the next thing you do ,can anyone aford to stay out ,wihtout being old?

4) Seeing is beliving ,how do man treat a god? Allthough god is allmity don't we demand something from god? Is BillG different then god ,do we know how to treat him right. If he doesn't perform absolutley best ,don't we bark like maniacs?

Sorry for the geman (Dohhhh?) Comments welcome.

-- Joakim Svensson (de9541@hotmail.com), March 27, 2000.

I think most people who hate him are jealous. They are jealous at the fact that Bill is smart enough and had enough intuition to make a good computer program. He deserves a great deal of respoect and credit for putting such ingenuity into his software, making personal computers for the average male and female much easier to use. Bill also doesn't seem to buy everything in sight regardless of the fact that he has so much money. I saw him on tv a few days ago and he wasn't wearing anything real fancy. The only ring he had on was his wedding ring. If I had that much money, I would have a $200,000 dollar ring on each finger besides my thumbs. I used to say that if I had a lot of money that I wouldn't flaunt it but now I know damn well I would, because why not? Bill's definitely not greedy with the money either. He gives a lot away, like the $1,000,000,000 he gave away to minorities for education. It's things like that and the people who give away the money who make huge impressions on the lives of people who aren't so resourceful. Because of Bill's generosity much more people will have the chance to get a college education, which previously they couldn't afford, and get the sort of education they need to be able to have a good income and support themselves and/or family. Anyone who hates Bill for any reason is immature and bitter over what they either haven't done or couldn't done.

-- brian (supanova1a@aol.com), April 09, 2000.

Microsoft customers should start a class action suit, country by country and hold Billy boy responsible for continually launching bogus OS's, error ridden MS software, NT (notworking) nightmares to put an end to MS's Ponzi scheme in defrauding its customers. The FTC should also join in by slamming a cease and desist orders on all of MS's present and future attempts to sell MS software until the misleading practice to the public has stopped and only bonafide products are released. Microsoft should be split up into two companies:

Company A's job would be to reimburse all of the customers that were screwed in that they were helping to finance BG's bogus 'ideas of Grandeur' going back at least five years. Cash reimbursements are easily administered by Microsoft using its own product key code (the only segment of MS's software components that really work !)

Company B must re-engineer and re-design the entire existing product palette (line) to fit the (B)bill

Carlos Los Reyes

-- Carlos Los Reyes (layaguara@yahoo.com), April 10, 2000.

I think people hate Bill gates because 1) he makes a lot of money 2) his company is on the verge of engulfing all of the market 3) he makes a lot of money 4) his software is very buggy and takes up a lot of space and memory 5) he makes a lot of money 6) he "stole" Apple's code 7) he makes alot of money 8) his company is not in silicon valley ( the tech people there must be really pissed off) 9) he makes a lot of money, and 10) he got that gay hair cut every freaking year

-- Q (quyv14@yahoo.com), April 20, 2000.

In my civilization, our technology developments are far superior than your best IT company, which is on your planet Earth, your company labelled Microsoft. Interesting enough, our IT Center that develops Binary Quechua Base 20 has a similar name, Mixroczoftl. This makes us think that one of our mind-locked dissidents travelled in space time to give our knowledge to your Bill Gattes (sp?). As an inter-galactic emissary, I've watched your company for 50 years and have concluded that your company Microsoft has burned down the Orion Council's patience and we have decided not to release our vigesimal binary codes to improve your deficient hexadecimal system until your Bill Gattes decides where he wants to go today or tomorrow in the future. Our mathematical revelation has to wait until 2003 because you people are too hateful as well as greedy in the case of your Microsoft. My concern is a look at the Microsoft link http://www.microsoft.com/catalog/navigation.asp?subid=22&nv=6 that tells me kids software developed by your Microsoft is unacceptable in pricing. The Magical School Bus costs $19.95 per CD, and your Microsoft has segmented the complete program in eight CDs. That's a total of $160 for a family that wants their kids proficient in Patolli computer use. Translated into our monetary currency in our small planet in Orion, means, this currency is the total budget of our governments for peace purposes. I'll come back to this board if your Microsoft can fix the IT corruption and monopoly of Gattes' empire. Otherwise, the human race will be lost for another Millennium. In l'akech. (I'm another yourself) Pakal 23 Chief Supreme Emissary of Orion Council Nexus Tzacol

-- Pakal 23 (pakal@excite.com), May 27, 2000.

There are people that hate Bill Gates?????????

-- Sebastian Mclaughlan (BigDaddy926@hotmail.com), June 05, 2000.

Microsoft's current CEO is a bit transparent. But to be honest, it's kind of fun watching Bill Gates and lackeys start to act like children having a tantrum after being disciplined by a parent. But my personal glee (regardless of which direction the final outcome goes) is unimportant to this thread.

The point I would like to emphasize is that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer refers in his latest interview with FT.com to being a small company in the shadow of IBM and succeeding anyway. What he does not point out (proving Microsoft is willing to shed alligator tears for public sentiment much as a prostituted politician would) is that during the period of time to which he refers in his interview, IBM was under an even heavier anti-trust litigation burden then than Microsoft is now. In fact, it was such an onerous burden to IBM that they were intentionally modifying their anti-competetive business practices even without any behavioral remedies in place to try and escape the grip of the 12 years of litigation. What this means is that they were squirming under pressure from the Fed or they never would have given Microsoft a chance. There is NO WAY we would even be aware of Microsoft and they would be but a bug splat on IBM's windshield had not the Fed stepped in. PC's would now be selling at $5,000+ per unit at entry level and there would be a TON of consumer benefiting creativity and technology that would never have been developed. In short, computing would be expensive and it would basically suck were it not for FEDERAL INTERVENTION. So swallow that, all you brand name junkies that don't understand the situation, the history, or the ecconomics of this anti-trust suit. Ecconomic myopathy of the masses (who happen to be swayed by 30 second sound bites and commercials for Melrose Place) is no excuse for allowing a Monopoly to illegally take advantage of the public and the livelihoods of the employees in rival companies.

And as to the monopoly question... the courts determine that definition. If you're relying on Webster, you're asking an etemologist to litigate for you and I'll pin your ears back in court every time. IBM only had 70% market share when they were locked into the anti-trust suit that allowed Microsoft a chance to even exist. Microsoft has over 90%. They are a monopoly (properly determined to be such by the court) and anyone who says otherwise is blowing smoke. Yet the question seems to remain. Some would have you believe that Microsoft doesn't act like a monopoly. BOGUS!!! Just try to buy a PC from any of the 12 top PC OEMs without windows. You'll find that unless you are buying 10+ computers at a time (and for most, of the 12 OEM's, even this wouldn't be enough) they are unable to help you due to illegal agreements with Microsoft (which these OEMs were coerced into signing by the real business consequences of dealing with a monopoly... consequences that had more power over their decisions than the very force of LAW!!!) In fact, you cannot even buy a RAW computer with NO operating system. The truth defies ignorant commentary on Microsoft's business practices. To say Microsoft does not act like a monopoly is sheer Bolshevism (using deceptive labels and outright lies to sway public opinion). This is a truth anyone can test. I challenge all readers to test it themselves. Either you believe it now, or you convince yourself on the basis of personal experience that no opinionist can hide.

As to stifling creativity, I think I've already addressed that. But to clarify, a free and competitive market with little or no barriers to entry (which Microsoft has set about destroying) has proven itself to be the most powerful force for innovation ever created or experienced by mankind. Microsoft's own existence is proof. Without the Federal Government intervening and prying open that market, our giant, stained glass friend wouldn't be alive today. And yet, that very same market can still accommodate very large companies like IBM and Microsoft (and incidentally, Microsoft will not disappear after the split... they'll continue to thrive and innovate to our benefit, just as CEO Steve Balmer said they will in Oslo this week). But like the farmer trying to maximize the number of pigs in his barn, the babies have to be protected from the mother rolling over on them and killing them. Otherwise, a lot of bacon never gets brought home. Microsoft's attempts to control or kill Sun Microsystems' Java is only one of the latest examples of what happens when we let a bloated sow do as she pleases.

What is more, this anti-trust suit has good timing. It has allowed Microsoft to achieve a huge market prominence that makes integration at the levels they have achieved possible without allowing them to be so fully integrated that it no longer serves the consumer, but only Microsoft's pocketbook. We were lucky to catch them now, before we reached a level in our operating systems where you are no longer able to tell if you are surfing the net just by clicking a simple help button, or dumping your personal history and data into a remote computer's database without your permission. Personally, I feel a lot safer knowing that a company who does this and who also has shown a propensity for illegal behavior is in fact capable of being hacked in two. I want fear to reign wholesale across the face of the corporate world where the shareholder vote effectively nullifies any one individual's sense of ethics that might otherwise protect me from abuse. Fear of retribution is the only deterrent we have built into the system and it MUST be there or I can guarantee that we will ALL suffer.

As for shareholder concerns... the company will probably be worth much more when you can actually own it in stead of ride piggyback on the ownership of Bill and be overridden at any selfish whim. There are even currents within the Microsoft organization itself that favor proceeding as two separate companies for this very reason. What we're talking about here is control. And as much as you might feel like your misplaced trust in Bill Gates is all you need, that kind of trust allows stock brokers to retire early in a foreign country on your misappropriated retirement funds. So if you wanna be a sucker in stead of literally owning a company that is likely to be worth more separated than it is in one piece, be my guest. I'll laugh all the way to the bank. The only person the break-up doesn't make good financial sense for is the current primary stock holder, namely Bill Gates (which is why, I suspect, he has been unable to keep personal pronouns that exclude the other shareholders out of his expressions of woe, anger and defiance.)

So you see, the Party Line is nothing more than that. If you have a brain in your head, look at the facts and form an opinion based on them. That's what I've done (and am continuing to do). I was fortunate to unload my Microsoft stock just before the drop. But I will value the company after the split more highly than I did when I originally bought into it. I'm looking forward to owning stock in a better, leaner company that finally has appropriate market influences determining the direction it's technological developent takes, rather than one man's notions that have largely departed into the realm of his whims rather than real market awareness and desire. Microsoft has adopted the role of wise and all-knowing Oracle in their own eyes, which means the rest of the world would be prudent look at them as the Draconian entity that they are. The barriers to entry they've illegaly built into their market have removed any possible need or incentive to actually act like the consumer advocates they claim to be (and if you need proof of that, just try to find a consumer feedback area with anything that looks like a relevant survey as to consumer desires for future products anywhere that is legitimately connected with Microsoft... you'll fail).

To be honest, after seeing the evidence and following this case as well as Microsoft's market behavior over time, I, like the judge, do not trust Microsoft. And I didn't even have to read "I Sing the Body Electronic," to arrive at that conclusion. Though as soon as I get some time, I will pick up a copy.

-- Paul White (excelsior@lgcy.com), June 09, 2000.

I found this good answer at a website:

1. Microsoft tries to force people to buy its stuff 2. Microsoft tries to keep existing customers from switching to other OSes 3. Microsoft steals ideas from other companies 4. Microsoft sells inferior products 5. Microsoft doesn't support its products 6. Microsoft is watching you 7. Microsoft cares more about profit$ than security 8. Bill Gate$ has a secret agenda (possibly conquering the world)

-- WimVI (wimvi@htomail.com), June 10, 2000.

Visit my forum at http://maycrosoft.com and find out why microsoft is great company

-- Roman Borisenko (birom@mail.ru), June 11, 2000.

People hate Bill Gates because he has to much $$$$$$$$$ & 95% of the time they blame Microsoft for problems when in reality they are the problem. Everyone should use there hate in a more productive manner. Hate Jahova's whitnesses instead.

-- HUSH (hush@hotmail.com), June 17, 2000.

Windows Works Perfectly Fine, it is usually hardware or somethin that can be fixed in two seconds, have a problem, then learn how to

FIX IT!!!!!

-- Pat (turles1@hotmail.com), July 05, 2000.

First, reading this site is funny, everyone is saying the same damn thing over and over.

Here's the question. Why do you use Windows? Alot of people will say that its because its user-friendly. Is it? What is your basis for comparison? DOS? Sure the GUI is a great tool, but GUIs have been around alot longer than Microsoft - I've been computers since the mid 70s.

Why do you use Windows? For some people, its the software. You make your resume, and these days, you don't print it and buy stamps, you email it. What format do you send it in? Plain text doesn't wow anyone. HTML? Thats an option, but often not an accepted option, even though its a standard. RTF? Not a good standard and often poorly implemented. Postscript? Most PCs can't view it or print it, but thats not MY fault. PDF? Hey, there is another good one, but what format does everyone want? They Word, and usually it has to be Word9x or probably Word2000 soon. The file format is absolutely rediculous as a cross-platform interchange format, especially considering its format constantly changes, and is undocumented, and contains old editions of your file unless you turn off 'fast-save'

So why do you use it? You use it because everyone else does, and everyone else does because they have to use it because everyone else does. Its a vicious circle. How did it start? One monopoly begets another. IBM puts DOS on its machines, its machines were purchased by corp america, and when people cloned them to get a piece of the pie, they put DOS on it to take advantage of the software available for IBMs. A new standard was born - from code that Microsoft did NOT create. The GUIs were available a long time before MicroSoft Windows, but it was the Microsoft monopoly that forced the applications, and it wasn't until then that the computers could run it, or do you think you could use Word on a CGA or EGA screen?

Why don't people switch? Well, part of it is outlined above, but there are 2 more reasons. Windows makes people scared of computers. They are afraid it will crash and they will lose everything and they don't know how to install an operating system and they really don't wanna read a manual to find out how. The corporate deals that put windows on your computer before you buy it have been around forever, and until people know an alternative exists they won't push the computer makers into having another OS pre-installed.

Linux users like to install it themself pretty often. Now, if the OS was stable, people would play with it more and learn about it more, and they will teach themselves how to be power users. It starts with being easy in teh first place, and personally, I think current releases of Gnome and KDE are both better than WindowsXX. In fact, the machine at work was killing me with swapping and constant crashes - I installed RedHat 6.x in seconds - automatically configuring its network from the corp DHCP servers, and I'm now much more productive. The applications like netscape for imap-email and such work identicle, just crash less.

Why hate Microsoft? Because they don't want to compete on a the technology front, they compete on a business/corporate front. They use money to make money. Bill Gates is no genius, he simply was in the right place at the right time, and has good business sense. I admit he has VERY good business sense, but when it comes to technology, I don't see it.

I think the OS Amiga is working on looks good. Macs new OS is a rehash of the NeXT Step OS - good, yes, but nothing new. Linux isn't ground breaking either, but it finally becoming a competitor and its totally supported by the user - you can have it YOUR way, and that I really like. Why have it GATES way when you can have it YOUR way?

Gates wants Windows in every household. I want whatever OS works for you to work with whatever your neighbor users and whatever you work with at your job. Universal file formats and network protocols and open APIs. Fast efficient systems that can be logically debugged and fixed - rebooting should NEVER be an answer and reformat and reload is downright silly, but Windows is so closed and poorly written that there is no alternative.

Why don't people change? Most people don't know that windows is bad. They accept the bugs and reboots as just something you have to put up with.

My question to you now. What do you use your computer for? Can you do the same thing with another OS? I bet you can. Can you do it as easily? I bet you can, maybe even easier. What do you have to do? Well, linux can be installed by partitioning windows, along with windows on the same drive (this is a slower option and NOT recommended, but you can see if it works for you and then erase it if you don't like it, or install it the right way if you like it). The easiest way is to boot off the install CD and format all your drives - after all thats the ONLY option for Windows, at least Linux will play nice with others when you install it, but Microsoft doesn't WANT to play nice with others. Thats the whole point. They are a like a hateful abused teenager that wants to rule the world and get back at everyone for being poked fun at, and someone just handed the kid an unlimited bank account and just enough smarts to use it.

-- Evan Langlois (goth_74@sabre.com), July 10, 2000.

WHAT HAPPEN HERE???

-- killer (x@x.com), August 09, 2000.

Part of thr reason people hate billg so much is his rapacious GREED. Other reasons include bloated bug-ridden software,bloated bug-ridden software,bloated bug-ridden software,bloated bug-ridden software and most of all bloated bug-ridden software.

-- W. Alfred Anderson (infomed@mediaone.net), September 25, 2000.

for havin' so much money and not doing anything with it accept building a house.. duh! Invest in space engineering, instead of dominating the world...space gates final frontier!

ahahahahaha

devlin

-- devlin (blackops@bigfoot.com), October 16, 2000.

There are so many reasons why microsoft suck that I am going to put this link here: http://www.kmfms.com/ which is an anti-micro$oft site. You should take the time to read the reasons why Micro$oft is bad for technology.

-- Tom (trgibbings@ucdavis.edu), November 09, 2000.

You Suck!!! You Jack Ass!!! I'm saying it to Bill Gates, I'm sain' it to you!!! Bill Gates is really cool!!!

I think everyone hates Bill Gates because they are just jealous of him. You don't like him because he makes his 36,400,000,000 a year. I know, I would want that kind of salary also, but it takes work! If you sit on your ASS all day complaining about Bill Gates making so much money, you shouldn't. Be like him, get off you BUTT and go develop something that people want or maybe need.

-- asd ads (a@yahoo.com), November 15, 2000.

One of the thigs I've noticed on this list is that a large number of people believe that Bill Gates should give most of his fortune away to deserving causes. I have no problem with the theory but the vast majority of Bill Gates wealth is tied up in Microsoft shares. Now just think for a moment what would happen if Gates cut his shares in Microsoft by half (from about 13% to 6.5% I believe). The markets would take one look at that and immediatly start selling Microsoft shares. Bill Gates isn't going to do anything which would directly damage the company he has spent his life building up. As for Windows being so crap, think about this: If Windows is so bad, why do people continue to buy it? Conversly if Linux is so good and free why isn't everybody scrambling to get it and install it on their systems? Windows is the dominent system on the market place because it is well established and has a reoutation for being successful. Other companies look at this and develop their programmes around it so they can reap the benefits of what Microsoft has sown. The computing market place may not have a state of Perfect Competion but it is a long way from being a Monopoly.

On a side note; If Linux became the dominent system then research would began to slow down. At the moment companies like Microsoft are taking up the burden of theoretical research which used to be funded almost exclusivly by the government. As linux does not create any peofits it could in no way fund this research.

-- Thalim (thalim@berserk.co.uk), November 16, 2000.

I don't begrudge Bill Gates his fortune. I don't even mind a monopoly, as long as it is benevolent. But Microsoft has successfully insinuated all manner of inferior software throughout our society and it is now a royal pain-in-the-ass to try to extricate ourselves from this crap software. What makes their software crap? For one, Windows and Office are extremely bloated in size, taking up far too much space for the usefulness that they provide. For another, Windows is far too buggy and unstable, even after several generations of releases (95, 98, ME)! Someone suggested earlier in this thread that Windows bugs are mostly myth and that they can largely be attributed to user error or bad hardware. Well, I've been a software engineer for over twenty years and I've spent the last seven years working with Windows NT and 2000 (ostensibly the most stable of Microsoft's family of OSes), and I can tell you that these platforms have **always** been flaky. They rarely crash, but they often exhibit obvious bugs. Imagine how much worse Windows 9x is, without a protected kernel. Windows 9x has a deserved reputation for crashing at the drop of a hat. And its code is a horrible patchwork mess, making bug fixes perennially problematic. Why should society put up with this? Just because Microsoft is so supremely masterful at marketing this crap to the rest of us?

-- Richard Eng (richard_eng@hotmail.com), November 16, 2000.

fuck you Bill Gates. You have too much money so give 'em all to me you dirty faggot.

-- blah blah (suckass@yourmom.com), December 06, 2000.

There are lots of reasons to hate Microsoft, such as envy of the amount of money that they make, or because of the problems caused by their often badly designed and bug ridden software. Personally I hate MS because of their lack of innovation. Despite all their resources they have failed to come up with any new and clever ideas that have moved the computer industry forward. There are loads of little companies that come up with clever new ideas, but they dissapear as they can't compete with MS dominance.

Microsoft didn't get into their current position through making good products, they were simply lucky to be picked by IBM. Much of their software wasn't even written by MS, even DOS was bought from another company. I have yet to hear anyone come up with a single innovation that was created by Microsoft, imagine how far the computer industry would have come if they hadn't stiffled many of the companies that are willing to create radical new ideas. If MS had dominated the computer industry during the 80s as much as they do now we would probably still be using DOS.

-- James Philips (j_philips@my-deja.com), December 10, 2000.

Bill gates stole from Xerox, plain and simple. The only way I would not see the company as a big bully is if they did not overprice the software, but they do. Office is way too expensive and an essentual product. If office 2000 pro were around $99 or so, I would not hate them as much, but no, it has to be over $299, thats stupid. As for windows 98, that charged way too much when it came out, and windows ME does not have a very good backwards compatability with some programs. But what is the worst is their invasion of privacy. And get this, they think by 2005, they will be able to fully enforce their anti-piracy laws with use of their spyware. Then again anti-spyware acts would sort of cancle it out. Hopefully, some other company will come along and make a better user friehndly OS, but that is unlikely to happen any time soon. Int the Meantime, if microsoft is going to sell it so high priced, it had better not be buggy.

When all else fails, you could always go to MAC.

-- X (like I am going to tell my name) (x@x.com), February 13, 2001.

I think people hates MS because they feel that MS got a monopoly position from which it can eliminate competitors even though these competitors have better products. People says that MS fights competitors on a field that is not the quality/price of the products. This can’ t sound good to many people because it’ s against technology evolution, against production, against the market, against end-users interest, and because it makes seem untrue that market competition leads to better products.

-- Davide Vecchi (davide.vecchi@infinito.it), February 17, 2001.

People you are sick, I love Microsoft, Bill is my best friend! I like blue screens! I love the Microsoft sign when I boot my computer! I tried Linux 5.3, but this sucks! DOS and Windows rules the world!

Bill I love you! Windows I love you! DOS I love you! Internet Explorer I love you! Microsoft I love you!

-- Erw!n (dodos@dds.nl), February 23, 2001.

I personally don't like microsoft because they are dishonest, a monopoly and they always promote vaporware (software that is just coming out and is much better than their competitors ect., but doesn't even exist.) Then, when their competitor is out of business because nobody bought their software because they were waiting for the vaporware. When microsoft does release it (Way behind schedule,) it is not finished and full of bugs. They "fix" it with a patch that is late too.

Macs used to be much more reliable than Windows, although it had some features Macs didn't. Over the years, windows copied things from Mac and visa Versa. Now, they're almost the same in features and user friendliness/reliability.

There are two main reasons why Windows is more popular than other OS

1) The afor mentioned Vaporware tactics 2) Apples' marketing department SUCKS, Microsofts’ is okay, (now).

By the way, if you don't like microsoft, why do you have your email at hotmail (I noticed that a lot of you do.)

The only reason I put my real e-mail is because of this message "Please don't use a fake e-mail address; it creates a lot of technical problems for the community. For example, this software will send you an e-mail alert if someone responds to your message and those alerts will bounce back to us if the address you type isn't valid."

but please don't send me an e-mail unless it's important.

-- Vorsoth Archer Bravo (tophert_2001@yahoo.com), February 24, 2001.

I think because of Bill Gates' success people are jealous and they take it out on everything that gives him money. Unfortuneatly people don't realize that Mr. Gates worked very hard for his fortune. I have much respect for Mr. Gates.

-- Heather Wells (kandykid2001@lycos.com), February 26, 2001.

My reasons for disliking, maybe even hating Microsoft at times. I use their products, but only because I have to in order to play games, so I bear with the garbage that comes with it.

1. Their software is WAY too expensive. $199 for Win95/98/ME? $299 for Win2000 Professional?? $489 for Office 2000 Professional??? I just don't see how the average working class can afford that. I can't. How does Microsoft justify that kind of price tag?? What is the cost for Microsoft to develop the product? Vendors and resellers don't make any money off it. It goes straight to Microsoft and Billy Gate's bank account.

2. Their Win9x operating systems are bloated, are resource hogs, way too unstable, and very SLOW. WinNT and 2000 are a different story. They have great memory management, are much more stable, but are still bloated. An operating system should only take 50 megs at most, not 500.

I remember when I went from Windows 3.11 a year after Windows 95 was released. I was perfectly happy with Win3.11 and I felt that I really didn't need to upgrade, but I had to conform eventually. I was very disappointed. My Pentium 75 that flew at Mach 10 (very fast for the time) under Windows 3.11 slowed to a crawl. It took forever for my computer to boot. And that's even after I had upgraded my memory from 8 megs to 24.

3. They're money hungry sharks looking to dominate the computer software industry, and maybe even the hardware industry eventually.

4. They're destructive to the technological community. Anything they've tried to "invent" is more like a virus and crashes your computer somehow.

5. Win9x IS a virus! Ever noticed how it spreads and grows on your computer slowly? And it's not because of Internet Explorer either!

Oh and just an FYI for some of you who question people who have Hotmail. I have a Hotmail account, but I had one long before Microsoft bought Hotmail.

-- Chad (muzcmn@yahoo.com), February 28, 2001.

IMHO the hate for Microsoft and Bill Gates is simply based on jealousy. Who wouldn't want to make that kind of money? And people... have you ever thought of that Bill Gates is rich because people buy the stuff he created? I think that proves that he knows what people want and need. Buggy? sure, but if you have a problem with it there are options. And for all the programmers complaining about windows... Create your own OS and lets see how good you do.

-- Erika (erika.rasila@iobox.com), March 14, 2001.

I'M NOT A FUCKING CONSUMER< I'M A Human BEING!____WHATEVER THAT IS?

I absolutly do not want to make that much money~"I would cease to know myself"

BESIDES, CASE AND MUTE~THEIR ARE ANTI TRUST LAWS~*HINT*(about the government that is!!!) Freeken Social Construct, Normal My ASS, no way is he normal.

"NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE IDEAS, UNLESS I CAN--->EXPLOIT THEM!" --BILL GATES, Microsoft Window's Millenium 2000 presidencial blue chip Inoguaration speach with George Bush!

Imagine ALL THE PEOPLE! --->Paul Mcartny

You are stupid if you think life is a comercial! --Chris Conroe.

-- Chris Conroe (UNKNOWNDEAPTH@HOTMAIL.com), March 22, 2001.

THE ANSWER IS RETORIC! SLICK MARKETING CAMPAIN NEVER FAILS WHEN IT COMES TO THE STUPIDITY OF THE MASS POPULATION, Espesally now that we don't really care about education in this country or on this planet any more,only corporate bi~paritisanism. Global Paranoia...Hehe. You do what I day now slave. Micro~Soft IS THE NEW WORLD ORDER! that is how i put apple in the hole. of course that basterd fucked shit up with his lagitamate genius like creation of Unix as he released it over the web for free. knew I should of stold that too.

-- Bill Mater Bates (BILL@GATES.COMMY), March 22, 2001.

I thought this was supposed to be a board for sensible postings, not ridiculous ramblings!

-- Thalim (thalim@berserk.co.uk), March 23, 2001.

i think ppl don't like bill gates just coz their jealous of him coz he's like got like 60billion dollars or so. you know the ppl who hate him they like probably like wish they had all his money and since they dont have it they like decide to say ok i hate ur @$$! so yeah.

-- S.P (3145@eggs.school.nz), March 27, 2001.

(I have read all above)

Personally, I don't think microsoft should charge so much. The only way to get them for any resonable prices is to be a student, you would only pay $55.99 for windows ME or $99(if you are lucky) for 2000, but you would only be able to use them for educational and personal use. Microsoft is targeting towards businesses, that is why the prices are so damn high. Perhaps if ol Bill made educatonal or home licences for all his software, no one would complain, except for the bugs. If you are tired of so many bugs and crashes, get windows 2000, or get a mac. Hopefully OSX will be released for the PC as well. No, I am not a fan of bill gates, I think he is greedy and power hungry. The governemt hates him, the DOJ hates him, and many other software compnaies do not like him very much either. He has allot of enemies, but aperently he thinks he can buy frinds. You can have all the money in the world, but without people, its worthless. Some may disagree, but its true. money cannot buy happeiness. windows EX will be relesed next year, and this time, registration for home users is manditory. You have to connect to the web site to get an authorization signal. In may opinion (and many other's opinions) this will make people hate them even more. Are they trying to destroy themselves? honestly, they need better marketing techniques. As for the spyware thing, microsoft cannot use it the way they want to, and even by 2005, people won't listen to them. Do I blame Bill gates compleatly, well, no, there are allot of greedy Businessmen in Microsoft corp, rich busnessmen in general are ususaly greedy.

I am begining to understand Linux, and learn it, and you know what, its not that bad, and very stable, and to make it better, its free, and so are its apps. Staroffice is a good word procesor, and there is allot of support for the OS. Perhaps if Microsof does disspaear, Linux will take its place. If not, than maybe OSX will come out for the PC. However, Bill Gates will still have his money, and he will most likely retire without a scratch. If there is an afterlife for him, perhaps he will go streight to hell...

-- wes (RaptonX@email.com), March 30, 2001.

It is incredible how all you self-righteous Apple, and such, users are about Microsoft's "inferior products" and its cruel manipulation of the market, ignoring that this has been the practice of corporations for the last five hundred years. Money is not made through ingenuity, it is made through marketing and buisness savvy, both of which Mr. Gates possesses. And you have no right to chastise him for being a better salesman then you can ever hope to be in your miserable useless little narcissistic lives!

On another point, to all you "free software" users out there; you KNOW that you can never dominate the market and hopefuly you know not to try. If we eliminated any form of capitalism in software as some do (RMS), we are left with a barren empty field, in which no one is inspired to do ANY work, as there will absolutely now reward for their efforts.

Apple is juvinile and obsessed with stylish junk, Linux is destructive and counter-productive and the rest are all jokes. Windows may not be perfect, but its a hell of a lot better than every thing else!!!!!!

-- GOD (God@Jesus.Christ), March 30, 2001.

Why does everyone hate MS? From experience with Macs, and PC systems, there are a few factors involved, and not just one. The first factor is the Window's operating system has just too many bugs, unlike the MacOS, there are a few bugs but doesn't occur very often, only in rare cases...depending on how stable the OS version is. (ex. MacOS 7.5, and Win 95) - unstable. Factor two, from the statement of Microsoft's competitors....it seems as if MS is just a bully. "Intuit's CEO says his company dealt with Microsoft out of fear." - Busi ness Week

Another factor is there are alot of Netscape Loyal Consumers out there, and though I do not favor IE or Netscape. I do know that IE downloads the web pages slower than Netscape. I have both of the them IE 4.5 and Netscape 4.71 Netscape runs alot smoother, and loads faster. Unfortunately, "MS has thought of Netscape as a threat" - Boulder County Business Report

One more factor, is MS WindowsOS is not as easy to use as the MacOS. There is less plug and play technology with Windows though many hardware companies try to make it seem like it from it's box cover, or advertisement. For example, if a Windows user wanted to purchase a third party mouse/ethernet card/keyboard for his/her PC..it is required for the user to install a driver for that mouse/ethernet card /keyboard. On a Mac system, installing a driver is optional. You can install the drive that came with the hardware, but what for? It works just by pluging it in from the box...without installing a driver. Windows have a lesser plug and play technology.

Finally, a major factor involved is...if you ever notice, the PC systems starts slowing down in the long-term use. The hardware becomes useless to newer software after two-three years. "I have been able to run the Internet, as well as 2000 software on a Mac that runs on a 60 Megahertz Motorola 68LC040 Chip. It runs as well as a Pentium 1 running at 120 Megahertz. But there are rarely any 486 PC that can run a software that was made to run at 120.

-- Francis (fdelap2937@yahoo.com), April 03, 2001.

yes i agree bill gates is the antichrist. he and myself has had sexual intercourse, he touched me in places that would make you sick. he started out as gental then showed me who he really is a sex crazed machine. thanks for reading from:Paul Stephanes

-- Paul Stephans (evilguy_70@hotmail.com), April 11, 2001.

I NO WHAT THAT PAUL GUY IS TALKING ABOUT BILL GATES IS EVIL MAN NO JOKE. I WAS THERE WHEN HE FELCHED AND GERBALLED PAUL IT WAS VERY SCARY.PAUL U HAVE MY FULL SUPPORT. LONG LIVE MY FELCHING FREIND PAUL. I NO HOW U FEEL AND OH YEAH DONT DO DRUGSMY SCUZZY FREINDS. BLUE JAYS ROCK THATNKS FOR LISTENING . HEY EVERYONE SHOULD GO TO HIS FELCHING SITE AT FELCHER.COM THANKS ONCE AGAIN. BILL IS EVIL

URS TRULY SPANK GUY FREIND SEE YA

-- FELCHER (SPANKGUY@HOTMAIL.COM), April 11, 2001.

Bottom line: Microsoft makes inferior products. Every person I know who has Windows is utterly distressed with it. I have used it and deciphering the rosetta stone is not as difficult as working with that crap. Why so many people are attracted to it, I don't know. I guess people only buy what they are told to buy. There is no innovation on Microsoft's products nor is there inspiration. Everything Bill Gates has ever made money on has been a rip-off of a previously released--but ultimately unsuccessful--product by another company. Bill Gates' genius lays in his marketing ability, as him and his corporation have gotten millions of people to spend money on a product worse than the Ford Edsel.

I do not resent Bill Gates. I am glad to see the richest man in the country is an intelligent, mathematical and technical genius, and not some arrogant sports or movie star. I think he does both good and bad things with his money. His donations are admirable, but his house, well, it's a little on the side of excess. Oh well. Not my place to judge.

But Microsoft is a different story. Unix is not as bad as Windows. Windows is a shoddy rip-off of the Mac OS, which, yes, was lifted from Xerox. But at least when Apple stole it, they did it well. Xerox would never be in contention for the computer market, so at least Apple got their product out there and in a user-friendly fashion. Windows merely steals the flashy exterior of the MacOS but keeps the essential mind- boggling complexity of DOS underneath. And you all know it. I have never been nearly as frustrated with my Mac as I have been with my PC. Windows is trash and most of the computers they are made for are garbage. Come on, Dell, people? Dell? Acer? Compaq? Ridiculous machines.

So I will say kudos to Mr. Gates for acheiving his current status. He is one in 300 million. But I will not attribute it to his "innovativness", of which he has none. Neither do his products.

-- Cas Fornalski (cas@fornalski.com), April 17, 2001.

(to the guy who calls himself GOD) Ok, you may be right that microsoft has very good compatability with computers, and very sucessful in business, but YOU have no right to call everyone's lives in this room worthless and narcissistic. You made a good point, but your arrogance kills the statement. And who says that none of us will be as good a salesman as Gates, you, are you GOD, I think not. Anyone who would call themselves that in a message board pretty much says it all, arrogant, pompus, come on, really! As for your statement about Linux, it is not destructive, its just free, and good for people who cannot afford Micro$oft products. BEOS was sort of a Joke from its lack of support, and QNX is really bad. But Linux is not a joke, it works fine. Also, if you think the internet belongs to Microsoft, I'll be happy to say that it runs primarelly on UNIX!!! I'll tell you what OS really was a joke Windows ME. The only real good OS from microsoft is 2000, but still. I am not anti-microsoft, nor am I pro-microsoft. I'll use any OS as long as it is stable, and compatible with everythign I use.

-- Nix (x@x.x), April 18, 2001.

People hate the highly esteemed Mister Gates because his name is automatically attached to an incredibly awful operating system. A monopolizing operating system owned and backed by an unscrupulous company. There are a lot of Gates a$$-lickers out there that say we aren't FORCED to use Microsoft computer products, but some of US who DO have to work for a living. And guess what operating system over 98% of big businesses use? MacOS? Nope. Linux? Nope. BeOS? Geoworks? Nope. They use Windows, just about hands down. Now, some of us have to take work home with us. So guess what we will "choose" to have as a personal computer in our own homes? A Wintel box, of course. Microsoft knows EXACTLY what they're doing. They first penetrate the business sector, and almost by reflex those same business people and appropriate "underlings" default to the familiar in their own private lives, thus generating more sales for Microsoft. And then they say that they only want Windows (or nothing at all) to be installed on hardware that THEY DON'T EVEN MAKE!! Sure, Apple only wants MacOS running their machines, but at least they have the balls to produce hardware that can run their software (increasing that software's responsibility TENFOLD). Microsoft is too lazy to manufacture a cheap PC that, since it would be manufactured by them, should "run" their OS okay. But no...they force the Compaqs and the Dells and the Gateways of the world to prepackage with Windows. Sure, the hardware manufacturers COULD opt to not include Windows, but since they don't want to commit suicide, they choose to include it. So as if monopolization isn't bad enough, it's the SOFTWARE that ticks a lot of people off. I remember a time when you could sit down at a computer and actually control what the damn thing did. In other words, if you wanted your computer to drink grape kool-aid, chances are you wrote a program for it to drink grape kool-aid. You had a choice--and not the Microsoft equivalent of a PC that only drinks red kool-aid and vomiting all over you (or crashing) when you decide to "tinker" with it and have IT do what YOU want it to do. Those were also the days of scanty operating systems. Hell...if Windows didn't take up so much space on the hard drive there might EXIST room for them to improve. But their pirated version of a pirated gui (which, surprisingly, isn't that innovative anymore, and is about as stellar now as a slide rule was after the calculator had been on the market for fifteen years) takes up so much space that it forces you to upgrade hardware as well as software constantly. Not only does Microsoft $hit out an "improved" version of some of their crap, they "improve" it to the point where you need more storage space on your hard drive to even use the damn thing. So this is how they fix bugs...cornering you into buying upgrades of their products, which weren't meant to run on "obsolete" (read: 14 months old) machinery, which will force you to go back to Dell, or Compaq to buy a "bigger better faster" machine, which actually feeds MORE money back to Microsoft, albeit in a roundabout way (afterall, whose logo will you see when you boot the shortie up?). So...you know...it's how it goes.

-- Melissa N. S. (abczyx@xyz.org), April 24, 2001.

You religious types are clearly insane. "Bill Gates the antichrist": please!

You should get yourselves locked up immediately you gullible, empty headed fools.

(But thanks for the entertainment

-- charles smith (charlie_vernacular@yahoo.com), April 26, 2001.

Just like the BASIC programming language makes a fool out of a programmer, Windows (a GUI to a Disk Operating System) makes a fool out of a user. Who can stand that?

-- Jakob Saternus (skuba@elex.amu.edu.pl), April 27, 2001.

How can you like an organisation that makes ones life so much more difficult and frustrating than it needs to be?

-- Shawn Hill (nyamanza@hotmail.com), May 21, 2001.

My theroy is that it's because they sell software with known bugs.

-- me (lenny@thwt.com), May 29, 2001.

THATS CALLED ENVY!!!!

-- PAVEL (rookie7799@excite.com), May 30, 2001.

people hate microsoft because they are projecting their own faults on billy boy gates. they can't understand how to make their puters work efficiently so poor bill is made into their scapegoat. i use apple and i don't hate them like ms users do. maybe there's a lesson here ms morons

-- fucktease (cockshankywanky@hotmail.com), June 03, 2001.

A lot of people who are posting these answers don't know how to spell.

Yours truly, Dub-ya

-- George W. Bush (president@whitehouse.gov), June 06, 2001.

fact is that we're STUCK with this winblows bullsh*t and it crashes all the time. if only M$ could include *actual* help files instead of idiotic self agrandizing (sp?) advertizement for how FUNCTIONAL M$ product is!!!! their help files are just more advertisements for thier mediocre CRAP. I'ts insulting that THIS software runs some of the most amazing technology thats ever existed. all i'd like to say is: FUCK YOU M$!!!!!

-- pissed off (billGates@brothel.org), June 08, 2001.

Microsoft is only a software company because that's what sells. They're a marketing corporation. Imagine that Microsoft was a car company, and they owned all of the car factories in the world (akin to reality, where they make application software and the systemware needed to use it). That would be a pretty damn unfair business environment. Microsoft would rent out it's factories to companies who made cars, and if those companies pissed of MS then they would be banned from using the facilities.

This is in essence what they do. They own the media and the medium. Quality drops when there's a lack of competition, and thus MS uses the money is would have spent otherwise to promote it's products.

Here's good link to show the stupidity of Microsoft's marketing campaigns. They apparently tried to create a "home" (complete with actors playing all family roles) that showed how MS products could connect (READ: isolate) family members.

Dysfunctional Microsoft Home

-- James Zird (honzzo@hotmail.com), June 21, 2001.

As I read through this site (having come to it by a surf-mistake), I was really thrown for a loop. I, as many have this or that gripe with the way Windows (3.x/95/98/NT/2000/ME...) MSDOS, Linux, etc. all work. Seems there is never an operating system or overlay that just is exactly what I would want. BUT!!!! ---- I do not wish to sit and write one that is perfect. I have been there. Starting in 1974, on a Control Data Corporation CDC2400 in St. Louis using RPG I & II, ANSI COBOL, FORTRAN, System 360/370, AL and some machine language, punching Hollerith cards, using paper tape drives, magnetic tape drives the size of at least 20 pcs, hard disk drives that looked and worked like bloated tri-disk record players (the size of washing machines), collaters, .......in sum the works. Lets not even talk about the air-conditioning bills. The days when there were 3 types of computer personnel - programmers, operators and technicians.

Heck no, I do not wish to sit and write a whole new way of doing things. Hey you all who like to complain - get out your old CP/M-Z80s, or your Timex Sinclairs with their B&W tv sets for monitors, your TRS80s, or old ATARI or Commodores and do better. Bill and his dream team came along and stepped into a void. Or rather a world of need. Whether we like it or not - this is what we have. Sit and study, learn and write better. Anyone can bitch and moan - but it took a small group of visionaries to actually produce what has evolved to the computer usage of today. So what if it is not just the way you or I would have it? I modify my systems constantly, and I can see no end in sight to where it will all lead. That is what it is all about anyway. The future. It has long been said"those who can do, those who cannot - talk". So put up or shut up.

I could care less how rich or not anyone is. Bill Gates included. He is just one man whose dream and stick-to-edness has shaped our world. Let's see any of us do better before we complain any further.

Just goes to show how lazy and ignorant we really are if all we can do is use the very system we cry about to whine on.

-- Renard (spirdaeg@gte.net), July 01, 2001.

Being a tight arsed wog, I reckon microsoft is bad because you have to pay for it, whereas with linux you get it for free. Sure linux is only for geeks thanks to its complicated to use text interface and strangely named components. However I have used computers since 4 and being a great hardware technician, I am able to set up linux easily althought it may take a few days to get it just right. Being able to compile a component gives me an erection every time. Granted windows is quick to set up, and easy to use, but why should I pay for some one else's intellectual property?

-- S. Falzon (sean.falzon@sukme.com), July 02, 2001.

I was surprised how many people hate bill gates and co.I think most of these people are greed monger's themselves and they can't stand to see a guy who risked his whole future(just walked away from a harvard education} in search of a vision and became very wealthy because of it.Do you actually think ,they could have predicted all of this that we have today ,from way back in the 70's?

A person who could walk away from a harvard education,to go write program's in a fleabag motel room,can be nothing less than a visionary in my book.As for the monopoly and being accused of greed,some one else already posted this but it is worth saying again,why the hell do we all go to work everyday? MONEY that is why

And now,to address,the accusation that he ripped off this software,from xerox and apple.first of all xerox did not have a friggin clue what to do with it,they did'nt even want it.second of all could you imagine steve job's (that rotten bastard)at the top of the heap,he was a kook,a slave driver,a power junkie,and just plain wierd.

All of these company's accusing ms of this or that,would probably be 100x worse given that much money power and influence.

bill has worked for alot of different company's when he was younger before getting himself into position with microsoft.Today microsoft employes thousand's of poeple ,maby one of these people will be the next visionary to lead this technogy age foward for the upcoming year's.I am not just talking computer's i am talking about making it easier for poeple to communicate.

One last thing,I just downloaded,linux from an ftp site(for free),installed it, ran it ,surfed the net with it.all of this with no prior experience with it,so how ms is a monopoly i don't fully understand

-- bill louie (wjlou18@hotmail.com), July 16, 2001.

Cause the products cost so much and have so many bugs.

-- Cody Watson (codyjwatson@home.com), August 26, 2001.

because he's the richest man in the world, yet he still has the nerve to charge $200-$300 for windows and $700 for office for every one merchadise. asshole

-- james (murdoj@iprimus.com.au), September 26, 2001.

Hello Great Genius!

-- Willy (cyberspace@yahoo.com), October 06, 2001.

I cannot understand why people hate Bill Gates, the reason why he has got where he is, is because you lot are buying the software to put him there! Anybody that has bought Microsoft software has contributed to the welfare of Bill Gates and the Microsort Corp. Maybe if you stepped back and looked at it there would not be any of these bad comments about him. He is a business man and what do businesses do?..... Make money and beat of the competition, he has not done it on his own, you have done it for him. So if you are going to hate Bill Gates then you need to look at yourself first and blame yourself as it is all your doing!

-- keith robinson (keith@intense.idps.co.uk), October 11, 2001.

Monopoly my ass! As the dude above said, everyone has the choice of what OS and software to use...If you buy a preinstalled machine, format it and install Linux...Completely in your hands. I wont tell Bill, honest.

Now why do we use Windows software by choice?..because like it or not...the stuff works, it is by far the easiest to use and we like it because we are familiar with it. A tribute to the wonderful business & marketing skills of the man.

If you want command line...be my guest, give me Windows any day!

You are my hero Bill!

-- Matt Ellingham (mellingham@hotmail.com), October 17, 2001.

Why don't you all just whine and gripe because Bill has more money than you all? Everyone is just jealous and envious cause they didnt think up what Gates did and so they dont have his money!

-- TJC (illnevertell@yahoo.com), November 06, 2001.

everyone is not jealous that they didnt think up what bill gates has. people hate microsoft becuz as time progresses, it is forcing consumers to use microsoft products. i am not jealous of microsoft's success, but angry at the pushiness of the company. TJC, u misinterpret the anger of intelligent computer users as jealousy. What i mean by intelligent is that most users in our economy are ignorant to solid facts and only catch what is thrown to them by microsoft, while those who have intelligence see a broader picture, outside of microsoft's 'plushy' box it's set up for its addicts. i challenge u to look outside the microsoft box, TJC. good day! :)

-- mike burns (bikebum2004@hotmail.com), November 10, 2001.

Nobody is forcing anybody to buy Microsoft software. You all have a choice when you walk into a store to by Microsoft software...... Oh I am sorry was that a salesman holding your arm up your back telling to buy microsoft software or else??? It is because everybody wants to be compatible with each other that we choose to go for the same products, it is no good in business when you send an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to another company that uses something other than Microsoft products.... they can't view the files if they use something else can they!! It is like an English Man trying to talk to a German Man!

You bought Microsoft Products to you put him where he is... Think about it!

-- Keith Robinson (keith@intense.idps.co.uk), November 13, 2001.

I like to suck farts out of peoples asses.

I am the best suck fart out of ass person I know.

I listen to free mp3 when I want to cum Yahoo!

I get my pokemon warez chat porn, and then I Jerk Off jerkoff

masturbation masturbate orgasm climax CUM ejaculation ejaculate

after I email download Jennifer Lopez Mariah Carey Pamela Anderson

Britney Spears Anna Kournikova Asia Carerra Jenna Jameson

Christina Aguilera Sylvia Saint Linda Thoren Victoria Silvstedt

Jenny McCarthy Anna Nicole Smith Salma Hayek Daisy Fuentes

Denise Richards Lara Croft Alyssa Milano Carmen Electra

Shania Twain Trish Stratus Natalie Portman Cindy Crawford

Nicole Kidman Whitney Houston Jessica Alba Julia Roberts

Shannon Elizabeth Penelope Cruz Halle Berry Catherine Zeta

Katie Holmes Angelina Jolie Zhang Ziyi Winona Ryder

Katherine Heigl Rachael Leigh Cook Penelope Cruz

Sarah Michelle Gellar Phoebe Cates Carmen Electra

Anna Kournikova Britney Spears Madonna Estella Warren

Pamela Anderson Brooke Burke Laetitia Casta Heidi Klum

Gisele Bundchen Anna Nicole Smith Jenny McCarthy

Victoria Silvstedt Christina Aguilera Alyssa Milano

Cindy Crawford Sarah Michelle Gellar Jessica Alba

Jennifer Lopez Destiny's Child Janet Jackson Mariah Carey

Nelly Furtado Faith Hill Thalia Madonna Tamia Missy Elliott

Lil Kim Christina Milian PJ Harvey Sarah Brightman Enya

Julia Roberts Shannon Elizabeth Penelope Cruz Halle Berry

Estella Warren Brooke Burke Laetitia Casta Heidi Klum

Gisele Bundchen Patricia Ford Alison Armitage Kaila Yu

Cat Deeley Carla Bruni Shae Marks Catarina Furtado

Veronica Webb Caroline Ribeiro Ingrid Seynhaeve Shalom Harlow

Reese Witherspoon Virginia Madsen Alicia Silverstone

Christina Applegate Shannon Doherty Elisabeth Shue Demi Moore

Martha Stewart Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham Clinton

Margaret Thatcher Priness Diana

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Madeline Albright Janet Reno Condoleezza Rice

Oprah Winfrey Miss Cleo Marilyn Chambers Seka Ginger Lynn

Asia Carerra Jenna Jameson Jenteal Lexus Nikki Tyler

Sylvia Saint Linda Thoren Savannah Ginger Lynn Seka Traci Lords

Traci Lords Tiffany Minx Brittany Andrews Celeste Leena

Rocki Roads J.R. Carrington Olivia Davia Ardell Madison

Tabitha Stevens Serenity Bunny Bleu Jill Kelly Cameo Aja

Christy Canyon Victoria Paris Kylie Ireland Heather Lee

Anna Malle Farrah Devon Isis Nile Gail Force Sahara Sands

Alice Springs Rachel Ryan Penny Morgan Raquel Darrian Darian

Barbara Dare Tracy Adams Veronica Doll Shanna McCullough

Amber Lynn Porsche Lynn Barbi Doll Nikki Charm Hypatia Lee

Hyapatia Lee Ashlyn Gere P J Sparxx Sparx Serenity Madison

Kelly ODell Deidre Holland Celeste Leena Jenteal Lexus Savannah

Pussy Cunt Twat Blowjob Blowjobs Cocksucking Cocksucker Cocksuckers

Dicksucker Dicksucking Dicksuckers Sucking Dick Sucking Cock PENIS

Fuck Fucking Fucks Fucked Fucker Fuckers Screwing Screw Screws

Screwed Pussies Cunts CUM shot shots Cumshot Cumshots PORN PORNO

PUSSY CUNT PORNO.

Then I get Harry Potter and Nostradamus to fight Terrorism

and Osama Bin Laden using Morpheus Pokemon and American Flag

against Taliban in Afghanistan because of the Terrorist ATTACK

on the World Trade Center on Sept. September 11 11th

and the Anthrax scare now that AMERICA STRIKES BACK

with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft X Box

using Top Secret technology such as the Intel Pentium 4.

Chuck Lesniak

Charles Lesniak Jr.

Chuck Lesniak

Charles Lesniak Jr.

lesniak@kmr.ll.mit.edu

lesniak@kmrmail.kmr.ll.mit.edu

lesniak@kmr.ll.mit.edu

-- Charles Lesniak Jr. (lesniak@kmr.ll.mit.edu), November 27, 2001.

Why do people despise Microsoft? What kind of a jackass programmer realizes that program is seriously bugged, and still allows its release? Like the Outlook Express scandal, one password, gives you access to thousands of email accounts, and Microsoft knew this before release. All the Windows bugs, that they patch EVENTUALLY, they generally release the software regardless of the problems. Its bad business, and it'll come full circle eventually.

-- ... (thuf25@hotmail.com), December 08, 2001.

Q:Why do I hate Microsoft? A:Because he destroys every idea, every man that wants to do something good. Remember Netscape? Till Microshit was paying AOL to install IE on their customers' computers (Netscape wasn't AOL's yet) up to 1 000 000$ (one milion dolars), it was prospering and being developed gladly. But then... Microfuck smashed Netscape as a worm. It's a miracle it still exists.

I once stopped using Windoze for a month to use Linux. Then I moved to Winfuck again... I couldn't believe I was using such a fuck for such a long time and not realising it.

Remember -> never invent an innovative program... OR ELSE.

-- Adrian Panasiuk (adek336@poczta.onet.pl), December 26, 2001.

It seems to me as I browse through these answers that I can group the answers in two categories:1. I admire Bill for his success in business 2. I hate Windows. Also, without trying to offend anyone here, it appears to me that those who support him have little or no contact with the IT world.Practically every IT professional I have ever talked to has complained about the buggy OS. It's not that I hate Bill (I don't), actually I honestly admire his success.I simply HATE WINDOS. It is Bill's company that released a product wich makes my life a living hell:It has been over two years since we installed our WinNT/Win98 network and to this day ,EVERY DAY, I spend 8-10 hours/day debugging the network. There simply will always be a printer that refuses to print, or a computer that refuses to start.Or a program that crashes. And all of this using OS that has been released nearly 4 years ago. I do believe they had enough time to track&fix any bugs. But what do they do? No,they keep releasing new improved versions of windows that crash even more than the previous ones. (and cost even more).

My question here is: a car manufaturer, for instance, is reponsble (to some extent) for the life & safety of the pasangers in it. Why isn't it this true for computers, software & data?For Windows you simply have to accept a stupid licence agreement before you can install it where you agree that, NO MATER WHAT, Microsoft will not be held responsable. Well, that's just not fair! Windows has becomed a crappy OS, build by iresponsible programmers ( for huge ammounts of money I might add), that hide behind a licence agreement "Microsoft is not responsble for this crappy OS that you are just about to install on your PC". NOT FAIR!! Why is this even admitable by law???

It's no diferent that buying a car (the only available car, since Microsoft covers huge amounts of the market) where you are forced to sign a paper saying "if you run out of brakes and crush into a tree, well, that's just not our fault. Drive at your own risk!". I say MICROSOFT (or any other OS producer) should GUARANTEE (so some extent of course) the safety of your hardware, software & loss of data.

-- Radu Poenaru (poenaru.radu@rcc.rondo-ganahl.com), January 07, 2002.

Microsoft is obviously the most successfull software ever. Do I have to say anything else?

-- Bat-Chen Maitek (bat_chenmaitek@hotmail.co.il), January 08, 2002.

because there is no hate. just think in true way to belive it. thats all.

-- hadi karegar azad (thunderbolt@123iran.com), February 15, 2002.

After skimming though these pages I always notice the trend of 'I hate microsoft, but bill gates is nice cause he is a good buisnessman/programmer'.

First now though, id like to state that im only 16, and this information may be wrong, i dont know, but bear with me. Bill Gates is a good businessman, yes, but he bought dos for how much? $20? Now look at his bank statments.... Yes, he is a good buinessman.

But mircosoft make SOME poor products (take win95, uuugghhh, that was ugly) but also they manage to produce some of the most useful products out there, take msoffice, (xp of course), where would the mordern buisness world be with-out them today? still using typewriters i guess. Also, take a looky at windows 2k, stable as all hell and dosnt eat your ram like some others (*cough* xp *cough*). 2k has only crashed a total of 2 times from the entire time i used it, dont know how long, close to a year i guess, what im saying is that all this stuff about 'windows is crap, they are all unstable as hell, yada yada yada' yet noone manages to mention the os's like 2k, nt and xp, these are all good, 'stable' os's. Also dos is stable, but thats a different story.

Sure, os's like linux and some others out there are stable, but they are'nt as easy to use as your common joe workerman in the office, personally, i belive that the people from ms and bill himself have created a large step in the right direction for all computers.

Thats my 2 cents anyway.

-- Dave Little (trojan@schpaaa.net), March 23, 2002.

Just as simple as that: Imagine you have a washer that memorizes every little piece of underwear that you washed and what size it is ans whose name is on the laundry label. And everytime the detergent formula is changed you would have to exchange the complete timer module of the machine as well for quite some bucks, while the damn thing mails that data out to the manufacturer. And imagine! You throw in some denim jeans, and the damn machine refuses to wash, instead telling the unsuspecting user: "I think these are work clothes, so let's better step up from warm to hot wash". Now what would a classic good housewife do? Kick that piece of junk on the street for garbage pick up. That's why. No single cent to MS in my whole life! Joe

-- Joe Darga (wetterwolf@gmx.net), March 28, 2002.

i think u lot r ugly tarts! dog! donkey! pig! camel! cow! byeeeeeeeeeee! e-mail me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- vikrant (vikpal@hotmail.com), April 08, 2002.

Windows ownz all other OS's SO DAMN HARD!

Linux can suck my balls!

-- n/A (none@none.com), May 25, 2002.

I cant say why there is so much hate for M$. I can only speak for myself when i say that i dont hate M$. Did Bill Gates use some questionable tactics as far as his biz practices are concerned? That is up to debate! Every day companies are bought and sold, with the governments approval, without a thought as to what will happen to the very thing the company was making and what kind of impact the sale will have on anybodys future.Take Time-Warner,for example,nice looking merger except now alot of the "News" is controlled by one "source" in a rather monopolistic fashion. What puzzle's me is how did M$ get to be as big as it is without the government even noticing until it was almost too late. We now have suits on the drawing board but the teeth have been taken out of the suits and the states are squabbling over the table scraps from Mr. Gates.If we dont do something really quick about this monopolistic practise of Bill Gates and introduce some competition into this field of OS's then we might be listening to M$ tell us where we can go to the bathroom in the very near future. I use Windows.I used mac but found it hard to use as a seasoned windows user and just switched back ather than learning another whole os, that was my choice, at least i had a choice. The only real thing that bugs me about M$ is their attitude of indifference towards the very people that put M$ in the place that they are today.Take the Zone for an example,www.zone.com, where i play an online game called Asherons Call there,a sort of fantasy game with magic and stuff.Then one day M$ told us a new login was going to take place and they told us the procedure to log in.This log-in was the new .Net log-in.One very important thing M$ failed to notice was that the ONLY WAY for peeps to get support for having a problem with this new log-in was to be logged into the zone in the first place. Wait....let me say that again....cannot get support for a problem of not being able to log-in unless you are logged into the zone in the first place.What bonehead made that decision and who put him in charge because they need to be fired.How the heck M$ put this stuff together i have no idea.....but they alienated me and thousands of other loyal followers on the zone and for many people on the zone that was the last straw that broke the camels back. Many of us scoured the boards for a source of help only to be told by M$ staff to do the laughable,such as, empty your cache and reboot.To do that is to listen to the standard zone piss off and die routine because we know better than you and it is your machine and not our software problem.errr now i am pissed and ..... I swore that day.....that game was the last M$ product i will ever buy.... Bill gates does not give a hoot about me or you now that he has almost no more things to worry about in his life.....so he makes our lives harder now. Still have not bought anything M$

-- David Sumpton (vze2zz3g@verizon.net), June 08, 2002.

First of all I would like to say that I am a sophomore at UofA, and in the CS college. So me being a programmer many would speculate that I am jealous, but my priorities are not that out of whack and money is not that important to me. microsoft sucks for the following reasons:

1. Its OS frequently crashes and especially with other companies software that it does not create (it has been proven that microsoft intentionally makes other companies software incompatible)

2. Its software hardly ever gets better (is XP that much different from win 95? except for the fact that it does not crash as often but that should have never been a problem.) When the hardware gets exponentially better as time goes on (or else I would be complaining about Intel.)

3. It spends most of its money on creating products that will generate income (advertising them diligently) instead of truly innovative products (those things do not go hand and hand)

4. Software should be open-source (for those of you that don't know- It is where the actual code that is give out to the public, so they can modify it for their own needs) this lets the computer have limitless potential, but instead we must stay within the confines of microsoft’s own vision. Sun Microsystems created Java (a virtually easy programming language) and turned it to the public. This lets anybody do what they want, only bounded by their imagination (in non- tangible terms). But guess what? microsoft tried to make it incompatible with its ubiquitous OS.

5. microsoft is a great business in terms of creating money, but not in creating great software. People wonder why technology has been so stagnant in recent years and it’s because the tools for making a better tomorrow (computers) are under performing.

6. microsoft has created a uncaring software culture. Programmers will send out bug laden software to customers because they follow in microsoft's path (We found out that the public will buy anything we tell them to buy). Guess what? Software does not need to be like this

7. The window's OS is really not that hard to create, I could almost create something like it and I am not nearly as advanced as some of the programmers out there

So you are probably asking yourself "why hasn't someone created better software if it is so easy?". It is because people are paying tons for crappy software. So then Programmers ask why do more work if it yields the same amount of money? Even I might forgo my rebel attitude for a decent paycheck. I am doing this as a warning to the public, demand that microsoft creates better products.

-- Josh Babb (Joshb@email.arizona.edu), June 25, 2002.

Hello, My name is Srinivas. I live in India, am 25 year old young guy, single. I'm Christian.

My Postal address:

Pilla Naga Srinivasa Rao, Jillellamudi Vari Lane, Eastern Street, Eluru-534001, Andhra Pradesh-India.

-- Pilla Srinivas ( Pilla Naga Srinivasa Rao ) (pilla_srinivas@lycos.com), July 04, 2002.

I am coming late to this discussion and have not read every post. But I really don't have too. So going off what I have read and previously heard, let me make my opinion known. First Bill Gates the man: Is he a bad guy? My belief is no. Let me explain why. He starts a company (And yes I know the history, he bought DOS, only after sailing it too IBM. Then stole concepts for windows from Apple/Steve Jobs [A company with even bigger sinister plains, get to that latter] who "barrowed from the hard working employees of Xerox.) markets the heck out of it and lands sales, under him he builds a legion of people. He screws anyone who tries to jump on his wagon yes, but he is in it for the money. The money, glory and fame. You think gates is bad if you compare him to people like Edison and other great industry leaders you see that Gates is not much different. The name of the game is doing as much as you can to give yourself the advantage.

Now let me talk about Microsoft the company: Is Microsoft a curse upon this earth? My belief is no. Microsoft is not that bad. Yes they made it hard for anyone trying to come up but they only control certain realms of the software. Many tactics to over come MS influences are not wise and seek to make the problem worse. What I am talking about is the fascist and socialist styles of computer development. (I use fascist and socialist because as mentioned in previous posts financial power transforms into political.) What we have now with Microsoft, is a use of the masses to manipulate a capitalistic market. (Hence forth Microsoft for the rest of this post will be referred to as MacroSoft too more accurately portray its size.) In efforts to slap Macrosoft some have gone too Mac. Good idea I am tired of a company that partially dominates the OS market lets turn to a company that seeks to have a Monopoly on both software and hardware. If Mac were to take over they would lock out competition. And Bill Gates has stock in Mac. When Steve Jobs came back to Mac, who do you think help him get his job back. So I laugh at people who say let us screw Macrosoft and buy Mac. A limited number of companies with total control. Hum. Don't get me wrong Macintosh has cool stuff but you can't easily build one. But I will stay with IBM format I like changing processors and video cards and having an idea of how everything works. Long live Amiga (a company like Mac) when I went to IBM format I learned more. Now another less popular thing I hear, luckily not here, is total government control. My God when I hear that I run and hide. Let us fix the problems with Macrosoft and the Government by giving the government more power. Hum need I say more about how crazy that would be.

Finally allow me to get to the root of the problem. Let us talk about Window and its alternatives. Windows it is not the best just most common. How do you beat windows, easy Linux. But Linux is too hard for most people. So there in lies the problem, windows sucks but it is more common and easy, making it more marketable. Sound familiar: common, easy and marketable are why record companies push boy pop bands. Linux is the "I stand alone" program but the problem is many people sing the song but don't buy the album. Time to really brake down the market and brake out the metaphors. In one corner you have the Nsyc(windows) crowd who buy the albums cause that is what they do by albums and shop hence pop culture, the music is easy to understand because it best describes itself, "bye,bye,bye" translates into "buy,buy,buy". Truth be told Godsmack is more popular, people from the Ozzy generation too today’s listen too Godsmack. But more Nsyc fans are buying Nsyc records.

Now let me bust on Mac because I have a few dingle berries to pick. Mac claims to be more reliable. Yes such is true but to get reliability, you sacrifice compatibility. Mac claims to be the smarter peoples choice, I laugh cause I know a guy he's smarter then me but what makes him smarter is the question. He knows every movie and TV show. His over all knowledge is greater then mine but as far as everything else like computers he knows little. Macs take no thought at all to use. I have learned more with my IBM format computers. With Mac if you don't know how to fix a problem, it is hard to get fixed. Now when you talk about laptops something in which few modifications are possible Mac has the edge. Laptops have little room for upgrades and are usually not used enough to require compatibility hardware or software. Most information can be converted through the internet.

In conclusion I have talked about First Bill Gates, his only crime is greed. Next Macrosoft, the answer to the issue at hand is not screw Microsoft. Then Windows, the way to overcome windows is to overcome pop culture. Finally Macs superiority complex, there are allot of sacrifices to be made when you go with Mac.

Now I am done I have wanted to get that out for awhile but I am sure someone will find room to disagree.

and too think about it now, I did not even mean too end up here. :P

-- Patrick Boling (Patrick_Boling@hotmail.com), July 24, 2002.

I don't think anyone can be damned for attempting to become successfull. If that where so..then the moment you accepted that job you worked so hard to get into, you should be shunned.

MAC? BAH!...i tried it...wasnt bad. It wasnt any more stable than Windows IMO. The reason? You feable-minded cheapskates cant buy good hardware! MAC operates on MAC hardware. Windows operates on ALL hardware. Try replacing that crystal soundcard...or maybe avoid putting a Soyo Mainboard in your machine. Go ASUS...ABIT...use the 3COM or INTEL NIC's for gods sake! You wan't a $10,000 car?..you get a POS. You have $30,000 to spend? you get a nice car...that lasts.

I read many of the posts before mine and i can honestly say that i see quite a helping of redneck in here. Did your fathers say they hated MS and now you hate them too just because he does? Ask people at random to tell you why they hate Microsoft...9 times out of 10 you get "because they are a monopoly" or "Because Windows sucks". I love that one...then ask them why Windows sucks? What would you change? They cant answer..plain and simple. I was going to make this more elloquent, but i am severely allergic to stupidity and this thread is riddled with it. For those of you who realize that Mr. Gates and Microsoft is much like any other company and shouldnt be hated "just because", excellent thinking! For those of you who "just hate Microsoft", You are little more sheep living in a world of sheppards.

Hearing your slanderish biased and unwarranted insults makes me violently Ill. I would rather bathe myself in a vat of steaming caustic than listen to your sort any longer.

I worked for Microsoft. They where like anyone else....only more concerned about keeping up a good relationship with those that call them for help.

Peace.

-- Gary Klatt (garyklatt@hotmail.com), July 28, 2002.

People who hate Bill must hate capitalism. Bill is a model capitalist.

Ever play the game monopoly? I bet people who hate Bill got their ass kicked at monopoly when they were kids. Sore losers. Yes, he is greedy, that is the motivation behind capitalism, it's our American society not Bill.

-- Mark Graham McNulty (nutty@di.com), October 04, 2002.

First of all, I have a mix of answers. Bill Gates is (I hope HTML works here) a sucessful business man. Anybody who argues that needs to he how much he has. Because in our world, how much you make determine how sucessful you are as a business person.

I used Windows 3.1 for a while and I'll admit I loved it. When we bought a computer with Windows 95 on it, I was even more astounded. However at least once a month we got the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. I knew nothing about computers but they interested me. When we first set the internet up that became my goal. I learnt about Microsoft products from their website and was made to believe, by something no less than propaganda that receiving these dreaded screens and the famous 'You have performed an illegal operation' (the first time I saw this I was scared, I thought I broke the law) prompts were my fault.

Three years later Microsoft Windows 95 OSR3 (otherwise known as Microsoft Windows 98) was released. We however didn't get it as our computer was incapable of handling such a system (one that Linux would have no trouble running on). In 1999 we bought a new computer all together with Windows 98 Second Edition. Much like Windows 95 I received BSODs and illegal prompts again being lied to saying it was my fault. I am glad to say we didn't get Windows Me. I had gained a great deal of knowledge in computing by then, and started to not like the way Microsoft were making Windows.

I was even outraged to hear the Windows Product Activation was being introduced for Windows XP. But In March this year bought a new computer with XP pre-installed. However I've been finding files that I sent to the recycle bin and deleted long long ago still on the computer. Temporary Internet Files and History being stored even after they're cleared. Microsoft using strong measures to hide them, even that as to hide the files so even when you wish to display all hidden files/folders they still remain hidden. I'm in the process of building a new computer now and will be installing a Linux distribution.

The question being asked has no relevance, MS doesn't even care, as long as you use their products and pay them your money they couldn't give two hoots.

I personally don't like Mircrsoft, but not because of jealousy, because I'm sick to death of all these secrets in my computer. If I tell it to do something, it's not like a dog where it may not listen, it's an inanimate object and must comply with the users' commands. Why is Microsoft Windows Operating Systems then not listening to the user?

I have absolutely nothing against Bill Gates, I aspire to become as rich and successful as he, but if I go into the Software industry I also aspire to produce products that don't hold secrets against users and don't display the dreaded BSODs and illegal prompts.

-- Tim (poloktim@hotmail.com), October 08, 2002.

You buttholes can't handle that someone else has a better life than you. He earned his life. You haven't got the brains to come up with something that is as useful as Microsofts products. Well if you think you can do something about what he does or the decisions he makes go ahead and try. But just remember that you will never be as successful as him. Good Luck!

-- Cole kratovil (colek55@HOTMAIL.COM), December 06, 2002.

Because his buggy software have ruined so many people's daily experience at work at home and at play.

-- Laird D. Madison (l.madison@auckland.ac.nz), December 30, 2002.

Because his buggy software has ruined so many people's daily experience at work at home and at play.

-- Laird D. Madison (l.madison@auckland.ac.nz), December 30, 2002.

u ppl are just dumb...windows is totaly the worst os in the world...not to mention the most spying...they see all....no lies here dude...THEY SEE ALL!!...this is fact...learn...read...study about the os...use it for more than surfing the fuckin internet..and you will see....ive never bought windows xp...ive always used pirated versions of windows bcuz i refuse to fuckin support them in any way shape or form...they lick balls..and they are totaly mallicious with YOUR privacy...you dumb basterds..STEAL IT..the best way to steal from micro is to use aol and download the os from there...not only are you fuckin aol bcuz yer usin THERE bandwidth..your also stealing from micro...its all politics..and the best way to fuck up the system is to do it from within..i have aol...and i download warez at 240kB a sec all day and all night...learn ppl...learn how to say you wont be owned my micro..or just get a fuckin powerbook er suttin...windows sux major major balls

-- are you ppl just absolutly stupid? (fuck you@lickballsack.com), February 21, 2003.