So I just read Bill Gates' 1976 Open Letter To Hobbyists, in which he whines about not making more money from his software. You know, instead of being proud of making software that people wanted to use. And then the bastard went on and made proprietary licences for software the industry standard, holding back innovation and freedom for decades. What a douche canoe.

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[–] rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 91 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Watch the TV movie from the late 90s "Pirates of Silicon Valley" which pretty much paints both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as really shitty people. I mean just look at what Gates did with the Altair. Said he had an operating system, didn't have an operating system, and what have you.

Then there's the whole Xerox Park thing where neither Apple nor Microsoft would be where they're at today without the engineers at Xerox who were pretty much forced to hand over their stuff because Xerox execs didn't see value in a GUI and Mouse. Gates and Jobs both were more than happy to go in there and pillage what was developed in order to create Windows and The Macintosh/MacOS

[–] melfie@lemy.lol 29 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yeah, that’s a good one, and I also enjoyed Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography. Stories like Jobs getting a bonus when Wozniak was able to design a board with fewer chips and then not mentioning the extra money to Woz are perfect examples of how sociopaths like Jobs and Gates operate. It’s sad that ruthless charlatans like them who exploit the true geniuses and innovators are allowed to accrue so much money and power in our society.

[–] monotremata@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 weeks ago

*Xerox PARC. It's an acronym for Palo Alto Research Center.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

Yep I remember that movie, but read Steve Levys Hackers. Gates was always a douch. I also read the letter he wrote. I think it was an opinion piece in a newsletter.