Gates gives $100m to fight HIV, $421m to fight Linux

Source: The Register

We do hate to rain on a high-profile corporate love-fest, but we have to point out that in addition to the much trumpeted $100 million Billg has donated to India's fight against HIV, he's funding the Microsoft jihad against Linux to the far more impressive tune of $421 million. That means that Linux is more than four times worse than AIDS to Billg and his happy Redmond family. God forbid any of them should learn the bitter truth the hard way and start talking sense.

Billg's personal $100 million goes to health initiatives over ten years, while $421 million of Microsoft's money goes, over a mere three years, to support MS-friendly development and 'educational' initiatives. And being a monster MS shareholder himself, a 'Big Win' in India will enrich him personally, perhaps well in excess of the $100 million he's donating to the AIDS problem. Makes you wonder who the real beneficiary of charity is here.

Oh, and let's not forget the five, count 'em, five, vanity puff-pieces appearing in the New York Times this week glorifying Billg's generosity, one of which he wrote himself. That's worth quite a lot too, in PR brownie points for both him and his company. It's far better than free advertising; it actually looks like news and therefore has immensely more persuasive value.

Interestingly, the NYT neglected to mention the gargantuan MS marketing tie-in and obvious bribe against, and obstacle to, Linux adoption in India. Certainly they've been falling all over Gates in their eagerness to give him ink, so we're at a terrible loss to explain why they could find no place, among those thousands of words, to plug in a brief mention of the $421 million in anti-Linux ammo he's delivering.

if i was bill gates i would do exactly the same

hey its all loose change to him i was watching a tv program last night about the richest people in the world and guess who came first with a cool $37.5 billion

hey i agree with Johnny Knoxville id do the same

[riot mode]
down with linux!
down with linux!
down with linux!
down with linux!
down with linux!
[/riot mode]

j/k i couldnt use linux if i wanted cause good ole' billy has gone and brainwashed me...

I always enjoy reading UnseenMenace's stuff on bill gates Always keeping us up to date with mr monopolies every move.



I would imagine maybe bill wants to capture more of the server market. Anytime i buy hosting packages I always choose linux, its cheaper, I guess having to buy liscenes and multiple copes of windows is a waste in some cases when you can run them off a free linux distro.

Ive tried linux a few times, I cant get used to it, many have said how much they love it, im sure its powerfull, but something I would need to work on for a long time and adjust too i guess.

It was a very logical decision for Mr Bill and cronies to make: aids is a terrible thing and needs more funding, research and so on.

But Linux is worse! It has taken a lot of low and mid-level server possibilities away from MS (that is what NT was created for) and has started to encroach upon the user desktop too!!!
No wonder Mr. Bill et. al. are spending so much to combat them.
Profits after all, are profits.



Seriously, I find it to be no surprise at all: business is business, after all.

Thanks for the info

until a great deal of boxes come with linux loaded on them, microsoft has nothing to worry about. imo, i believe linux will never be any more widely used than mac os. it's not user friendly enough for the average joe to put it on his computer... i just don't see it happening but i understand microsoft's concern when it comes to the low-mid level servers...

Okay Unseen. The world won't end if India doesn't adopt linux by and large. Many other countries are, so lower your blood pressure. Fact is the *nixes are more popular in large corporate networks and so on than M$'s NT platforms and for those of us who know them, it comes as a calm "duh".
No one should get all ****ed off about how linux isn't popular in home systems. Last I checked, it was estimated that only about 1% of home systems use linux. If someone gets all upset about *that* then they need to come off of their high horse and accept the fact that the vast majority of computer users aren't bestowed with such Godlike enlightenment as they are. And with some computer companies putting out systems with the Lindows garbage, we'll see if that makes any impact. Linux simply isn't as versatile or user friendly as the MS platforms are for what the majority of home users want - certainly not as the only operating system on their comp. To get upset at this fact is getting ****ed about something you can't really affect much. What moron is going to tell most people that linux can be used for all their games or M$ or Mac specific titles? Sure there are plenty of linux clones of a lot of programs and you can only do so much with Wine.
Personally, I like to use linux for coding and networking related "stuff". XP for games and some other M$ specific progs. There's little point in addressing the OS war as if "sides" could be discerned akin to the controversial debates on abortion. Fact is, unix-based systems are superior for their networking/server abilities, but not so for many of the uses the average home user wants. No point losing ones cool about it. I'm sorry to say, but there are bigger and better things in life than whether or not in every article about Gates's "donation" includes some rant about how he's doing as any businessman who has any business being in business would do - do what needs to be done to look out for the company's future. Geeez, surprise, surprise. To think that the masses would even give a damn about M$'s competition with linux is plain naive. Oh, and I use linux and BSD OSes and love it.