Are people starting to like Bill Gates?

I sometimes wonder what people will say about me when they are gathered round someone’s house or hopefully down the pub after my funeral. I hope they are sad for a second and then focus on my entertaining, stupid and amusing anecdotes and stories.

The reason I wonder this is that when ever someone dies people only have good things to say about them, rightly so in many ways, you want to remember and focus on the good qualities of people when making a brief statement about their life. Still I hope that someone might say that I could be a bit of an arse, argued a lot and often made a bit of a nuisance of himself, I mean who want’s to be liked and doing good things all of the time, bugger that a bit of selfish thinking never did anyone any harm.

Why am I talking about this, well I was wondering if we will start to see a change of opinion about Bill Gates, a slow changing of opinion towards nerdy Bill. This can happen now that Bill Gates has retired from Microsoft, although not working for Bill Gates is probably only working 37.5 hours a week I am guessing. Bill Gates will have a glimpse of the kind of things people will say at his funeral as social commentators routinely write articles on him from now until his actual death, if indeed he can die and hasn’t replaced his living organs with a biochemical version of windows!

Gates has been seen as the enemy, part of the windows led dictatorship of the home PC. In some ways Bill Gates has been lionised as the Darth Vader character in Star Wars and all, he was “the man” many people were rebelling against. A lot of PC users liked to see themselves as Han Solo’s or Luke Skywalker’s working in a small Rebel Alliance trying to work against the big corporate machine/imperial army (to labour on with the Star’s theme).

I have noticed this rebelling and rally against popular/mass used entities before, it often happens to bands. After a certain time when a band becomes so popular then the people who want to be different/individual and not go along with the norm will start to distance themselves and dislike the popular band. I read about one instance of this, it was when the Bee Gee’s had 5 singles in the top of the American single chart and was around the release of Saturday Night Fever. Showing perhaps there is truth in the saying that the only way to is down. Recently we have also had Cold Play, what most people seem to complain about is not the music but the band and their ubiquity.

So Bill Gates and Microsoft had a monopoly and then fought to keep it using nefarious bullying tactics and crushing any smaller competition which had the temerity to try and compete against Microsoft.

Recently I have noticed a small change in the opinion of Bill Gates, I personally have had a grudging respect, in a similar vain to the respect I have for the ruthless efficiency of seven times Formula one winner Michael Schumacher. I freely admit I do not have the focus to control as long and as hard as either Bill Gates or Schumacher and am not sure if I would be willing to act in the way they have done (although it is distinct possibility if I was in their position) but I can appreciate their actions in a cold calculating historical reflection. It has been successful because it is Bill Gates and Michael Schumacher that we know remember and not the names of the people who they bested.

Now Bill Gates has chosen to dedicate his time and considerable wealth to philanthropy will also make it easier for people to warm to him, which is saying something because he seems to have a impatient manner which often precocious intelligent child geniuses have when having to talk to well rounded but less intelligent individuals. I will use this opportunity to tell this trumpeted up self important little brain bullies, all the time you were locked away studying the rest of us were out on dates and socialising with people and having fun and no fun cannot be defined by making up a new calculation or formula or in Bill Gates’ case a new operating system.

I will add I think it is noble thing for Bill Gates to do, many businessmen often spend their time and money in making more money, so regardless that Bill has more money than anyone, the media attention, time and money he is putting towards good causes is a benefit to the mankind and so should rightly be applauded, Well done Bill you weasel faced uber nerd, there I said it.

So with the Gates shuffling out of Microsoft (is he a rat leaving the sinking ship?) and his focus on philanthropy, you will see history slowly rewritten to paint a nicer version of events which make nerdy Bill sound a bit more human and less Microsoft. It will also focus on his many achievements, especially on the start of Microsoft and his school days where he put in an incredible amount of work and thinking to propel him and Microsoft, which for a long time people could tell where Microsoft started and Bill Gates finished.

The plus side of Bill Gates giving his money away is it will hopefully stop people telling how many millions Gates earns a second or a minute, who cares, I bet he doesn’t it. It will also stop me wondering if you could buy your own country for 50 billion and what you would do with it.

So prepare yourself to join the new Bill Gates appreciation society as the world starts to like the person who was once the Darth Vader of the computer industry.

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