Bill Gates Myths
William Henry Gates III
Straight to the myths here
|
|
Bill Gates Myths
William Henry Gates IIIStraight to the myths here |
|
|
This website aims to debunk some untruths, or myths, about Bill Gates. Such myths are frequently heard not only from his avid admirers, but also from others who take them as gospel and repeat them. For most users, Windows is the "face" of their computer, so it tends to get all the credit for what the machine does; and Gates, being the man behind Windows, has become the personification of computing in the average user's mind. Yet these myths are easily dismissed with some readily accessible facts. One myth for example is that he invented the personal computer, or at least that he was single-handedly responsible for popularising it, and that without him we would all still be in the Stone Age - figuratively at least. The fulsome nature of some of the praise, which often uses the word "genius", is as nauseating as it is misplaced. The adulation that Gates receives is especially suprising because he has some serious personality faults. It is unusual for a major corporate leader, or object of hero worship, to possess such faults and weaknesses so visibly - a poor public speaker who gets tearful in public for example, and one who throws tantrums in business meetings. Some points here are personal, which is fair game in Gates' case, just as it is with politicians, because he has deliberately adopted a high profile using the attention that his enormous wealth has gained him, and also because he is held up by some as a role model. He is also known to be free with personal insults himself. Below is an index to individual myths, or you may start in sequence from the first or via the "Straight to the Myths" link above. Each page has forward and backward arrows to the previous and next myth. I was using computers, including a home computer, for some years before I even heard of Microsoft and Gates, and saw the non-Microsoft, non-IBM PC, home computer boom of the 1980s, followed by the epidemic (and often underhand) near total take-over by the PC running Microsoft DOS and Windows in both offices and homes in the 1990s, and finally Microsoft's decline from dominance from around 2008. My concern is to give credit where it is due. |
|
Notes and References Links |