"50yrs from now, Jobs will be forgotten - Gates revered." - Agree?

What you should remember is that Bill Gates has alleviated more human suffering than any person in all of human history.

Look up thread.

^ "Watson! Come here!"

LOL

For a real example of a robber baron who left a brilliant legacy, read up on Andrew Carnegie.

Methinks Melinda Gates is getting shortchanged. Bill provided the gas pedal, but she probably had a lot to do with the steering wheel.

Gates was a tough businessman, but he made a lot of people wealthy and he fed and cured millions. I was never a Microsoft fan, but I think it takes a sick mind to belittle or disrespect his philanthropic accomplishments.

AKA an A$$hole. I suspect future generations have more important things to consider.

By harming the community at large through monopolistic depradations

He has a charity foundation. So would I for the tax breaks if I was that rich.
As for the 'cured millions,' -- specifics ?
No doubt he became extremely rich, and handed back to society a small fraction. That is hardly novel among the ultra-rich. No legacy there.

Gates and MS are road-kill, now that their two decades of piss-poor proprietary software is increasingly irrelevant. His only legacy might be as a case study how patent law was abused and misused, due to a quirk in software that allows code to effectively be encrypted as a binary.

For a REAL giant who will be remembered, read up on Richard Stallman (RMS). As for S Jobs, he will be required reading for a long time to come for anyone interested in user interface and industrial design. The size of the bank account for these three is the least interesting aspect of their lives.

^ Richard Stallman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It was remarkable how little Bill Gates donated to ANY cause before he was married.
His wife is obviously the philanthropist .
It just never crossed the nerds mind before.

But who no one knows. A rather ironic example considering the topic is who will be remembered.

Another ironic example since Carnegie is best known for the work of his philanthropy has done many years after his death. Very likely Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the most heavily endowed philanthropy in history, will ensure that Gates will be the most remembered 50 years from now for things his foundation will be doing after his death.

In regard to Jobs vs. Gates, that Jobs did not create a foundation similar to Carnegie or Gates, history teaches us that it means Gates, through the work of his foundation, will be the most remembered.

Read more:

http://priuschat.com/threads/50yrs-from-now-jobs-will-be-forgotten-gates-revered-agree.110571/page-2#ixzz1xjzZxR8R

No one ? Are you speaking for everyone ?

Proprietary operating systems will eventually all die, and new ones will not be built. That is one hell of a legacy, thanks to RMS. Very few Merkins can remember much if anything about Gauss either, but then most stop at the funnies when it comes to reading.

Carnegie's legacy is founded on supporting elite arts and education. That is not by chance.

Eyup. You picked an unknown as an example. You were really saying here is someone who SHOULD BE more well known but is not.

Carnegie didn't invent any operating systems but he is remembered.

Carnegie (your example) is remembered for the work of his foundation. Same is true for Gates and why Jobs will likely not be remembered though it all depends on what Apple does. Gates will be remembered for Microsoft and his charity, an distinct advantage over Jobs, just Apple, as your example of Carnegie demonstrates.

Public libraries were his biggest focus actually, decidedly common people stuff vs. the "elite arts".

Definitely not. When I say elite, I mean of the people, not socio-economic status.

I cannot say whether the bulk of his philantropy was in public libraries, but CM University could not have been cheap. In any case, I tend to view libraries and universities in much the same light. I mean real libraries, not the pathetic child-care centers communities are now offering. The kind now almost extinct in the US, where scholarship and invention are their reason to exist.

Ah...I was going more by the dictionary version and the context.


e•lite

Pronunciation: (i-lēt', ā-lēt'), [key]

—n.
1. (often used with a pl. v.) the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.
2. (used with a pl. v.) persons of the highest class: Only the elite were there.
3. a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group: the power elite of a major political party.

Read more: elite: meaning and definitions — Infoplease.com http://dictionary.infoplease.com/elite#ixzz1xkEQ1dVd

That's a pretty bold statement, and one that I think is completely wrong. Proprietary OS's won't die for a few reasons. First, consumers generally don't want to think about their OS, or about patching it, or about how to install it, or about compatibility, or anything like that. They'll stick with what they know and what just works. Second, businesses don't want to have the burden of customizing and maintaining an OS beyond regular patches sent to them from the developer. Third, businesses need compatibility with many pieces of proprietary software, and a lot of that isn't available in a nice, user friendly package on anything but Windows/Mac. Fourth, OS's are a massive market, and the big companies behind them (Microsoft, Apple, Google) aren't going to let them go. It's in their best interest to lock users into their OS - there's less incentive to switch if you know you have hundreds of dollars worth of software that won't run on the competitor's OS. Having everything be open source is a nice dream, and it works for the relative few who know what they're doing, but it's not for everyone.