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Old 05-04-2014, 11:11 AM   #26
Prestidigitweeze
Fledgling Demagogue
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I'm no believer in Jobs as an especially good person, but if you think Gates hasn't contributed directly to the fall of civilization with his charter schools and furthering of neoliberal privatization at the expense of ordinary citizens, then you're paying too much attention to his tax write-offs and pro bono work -- pro bono: that exercise in hindsight in which the corrupt try to buy back their incinerated souls -- and not enough to his primary focus over the past several decades.

Pitting Gates against Jobs means falling for Jobs' false distinction. Wozniak would tell you that both men took open options away from the user in different ways. See Gates's famous "Open Letter to Hobbyists," in which he railed against open software long before Jobs did. Note the castigation of hobbyist users as "thieves."

Windows is an incredibly useful platform and, like Jobs, Gates has accomplished a lot -- even more so as an actual engineer. But that doesn't make him particularly fair or good -- he simply looks like a fairer and less egotistical guy. He's quieter and more restrained, but that doesn't mean his actions are innately more moral.

Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 05-04-2014 at 11:20 AM.
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