Bill Gates

Biography

Early Life

William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955 to wealthy parents. He was the fourth of his name in his family but was known as William Gates III or “Trey” because his father had dropped his own “III” suffix.

Bill Gates’ father is prominent attorney William H. Gates, Sr., a founding partner of the law firm Preston Gates & Ellis (aka K&L Gates).

His mother, Mary Maxwell Gates (1929-1994), was the daughter of J.W. Maxwell, a national bank president. A former schoolteacher, she later became “the first female president of King County’s United Way, the first woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee where she served most notably with IBM’s CEO, John Akers, and the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington’s board of directors.” Mary Gates also served eighteen years on the University of Washington board of regents.

Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne) and one younger sister, Libby (now Libby Armintrout).

Bill Gates’ mother-in-law is Mimi Gardner Gates (maiden name Neill), an American art historian and socialite who is Director of the Seattle Art Museum. She married William H. Gates, Sr. in 1996.

Education

At age thirteen, Bill Gates enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school. (It was sometimes referred to as the Lakeside School for Boys, though it now admits girls as well.) At Lakeside, Gates demonstrated an interest in and aptitude for computers. He began programming computers at age 13.

At Lakeside, Gates also demonstrated a disdain for rules that would become one of his hallmarks. He and three fellow students (including future Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen) were banned for one summer after they were caught exploiting bugs in a computer operating system to obtain free computer time.

Another notable Lakeside personality was a teacher named Gary Little, who, as an attorney and judge, would become one of Seattle’s most politically powerful residents. He was also a sexual deviant who preyed on young boys - even as a judge. It is rumored that Bill Gates’ father was part of Gary Little’s circle of friends, until Little committed suicide in 1988 after the local media reluctantly blew the whistle on his sordid crimes.

Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He reportedly scored 1590 out of 1600 on his SATs, the standardized test for college admissions in the United States, and subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973. There he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft.

While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.

College Dropout?

Most references (including Wikipedia) state that Bill Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard in 1975 and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located. Thus, Gates became one of the world’s most famous college dropouts.

Yet Gates may have been kicked out of Harvard for the same behavior that got him suspended from Seattle's Lakeside School for Boys. Whether or not Gates was officially expelled isn’t clear. The evidence suggests that Harvard and Gates reached some sort of agreement - which Gates later broke, according to some sources. But much of this evidence became publicly available while Harvard officials were trying to convince Gates to donate money and were likely being pressured to clean up his record in compensation.

An article that appeared in the Boston Globe (Harvard amasses a $13b endowment, by Daniel Golden and John Yemma, May 31, 1998) states,

“Harvard’s 12 schools - arts and sciences, medicine, law, etc. - compete fiercely for donors such as dropout-turned-tycoon Bill Gates, who left Harvard under pressure in 1975 but gave it $15 million two years ago.”

Harvard’s sometimes questionable principles are suggested by another statement: “Harvard’s growing internationalization and eagerness to function as a shadow State Department abroad can make it look too cozy with repressive regimes.”

Campus Affairs

Though Gates lived in Currier House at Radcliffe, he often worked through the night at the Aiken Computation Laboratory, which has been described as his true Harvard home. According to the Globe,

“His troubles began when a lab administrator discovered that Gates was using the Aiken computer to write computer code for a New Mexico company. Because the federal government was funding the computer time, the administrator felt that Gates was misusing not just a Harvard facility but also public funds.

“Moreover, Gates was sharing his computer access with a high school friend: Paul Allen, the future cofounder of Microsoft.”

On his Microsoft page, J.D. Paul wrote,

“He was also kicked out of Harvard for stealing computer time (on the DARPA-purchased PDP-10 in Aiken Computation Laboratory), back when that meant something. He used it to write commercial software, i.e. Altair BASIC.

“It is interesting that most hackers hate Bill Gates not so much because he stole computer time, but rather because he wanted to *sell* software. It’s all Bill’s fault.”

The incident is also discussed in a Purdue University alt.folklore.computers newsgroup discussion on February 21, 1999 under the subject heading “Open Letter to Hobbyists.” One person writes,

“Didn’t he use the time on Harvard’s PDP-10 from his student account, which conditions specifically forbid commercial use, and never paid for it? Wasn’t it why he was kicked out of Harvard?”

Another individual replied,

“The following was my introduction to this matter:

“http://www.boston.com/globe/metro/packages/harvard/partone.htm

“Others might find it enlightening as well.”

Gates’ student file is protected by privacy rules, but university officials, friends, and family claim he wasn't expelled. Rather, Gates was reprimanded but avoided expulsion by agreeing to put the code in the public domain, according to “sources” and a 1993 unauthorized biography by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews.

Bill Gates’ father later recalled, “'There was a flap, no question about it. My son felt a little put upon by the Harvard administration’s attitude.” His mother was “very, very apprehensive” about his future, he added.

Cashing in on Mom

But the relationship changed by the late 1980s, after Gates made his fortune. Harvard began its overtures when then-president Derek Bok had dinner with Bill Gates and other Harvard-affiliated Microsoft executives in Seattle. In 1991, Gates’ Harvard dorm mate, Steve Ballmer, was elected to the board of overseers.

After Gates’ mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, died in June 1994, Gates received a sympathy note from a Harvard executive. According to “sources,” Gates responded that his mother’s greatest disappointment was that he had not graduated from Harvard.

Various departments fought over Gates’ money, but arts and sciences won.

During an April 1996 video conference between Harvard’s business school and Microsoft, Bill Gates noted that Stanford University had named a building after him for $6 million, much less than Harvard was asking. Eventually, Gates committed $15 and Ballmer $10 million. Harvard used the money to build the Maxwell-Dworkin laboratory, memorializing their mothers’ maiden names, in 1999.

Dr. Paul Prusky, who attended Harvard Medical School on scholarship, also offered his alma mater at least $15 million for financial aid awards. However, Harvard balked at the conditions set by Prusky, who lacked Bill Gates’ glamour or political clout.

Broken Agreement?

Gates has also been accused of breaking his parting agreement with Harvard. In response to the article Bill Gates to finally receive his Harvard degree (Nancy Gohring, NetworkWorld, March 22, 2007), someone anonymously posted the following message on an associated comments page:

“The Boston Globe once reported that Gates was ‘asked’ to leave Harvard for infringing the copyright on BASIC, which was owned by Dartmouth, and for ‘borrowing’ computer time from machines owned by the US Government and located on campus.

“Gates and the University, according to the Globe, reached an agreement that he would not sell BASIC - which he promptly breached when he formed MicroSoft Corp. and began selling it for the MITS Altair. Oh well, we parole people who murder after a while, and I guess giving millions to the University helped to shorten institutional memory a bit.”

In a Purdue University alt.folklore.computers newsgroup discussion (“Open Letter to Hobbyists,” February 21, 1999), one person writes,

“This Boston Globe article says Gates HIMSELF put the code he was working on ‘for a New Mexico company’ in the public domain IN ORDER TO AVOID EXPULSION. It appears he was being accused not only of mis-using Harvard equipment, but also Federal funding for it. . . .

“Maybe somebody oughta ring up ol’ Ed Roberts [President of MITS] and see if HE knew Basic had been placed in the public domain..... BY GATES..... to AVOID EXPULSION!!!!!”

The legal details aren’t clear to this author. What was the exact wording of the agreement Gates allegedly made with Harvard? Did Gates put BASIC in the public domain, then turn around and sell it? How could he put it in the public domain if the copyright was owned by Dartmouth - or is the statement that it was owned by Dartmouth incorrect?

It also sounds like there may be yet another Boston Globe article(s) that addresses this topic.

Microsoft

Busted Bill Gates was arrested on December 13, 1977 and briefly jailed in Albuquerque. He was allegedly taken in for running a red light (or stop sign) and driving without a license while speeding in his Porsche. Although details are sketchy and records have been lost over time, it was reportedly his second or third arrest. (A similar incident apparently occurred in Albuquerque on April 28, 1975.) Some sources claim Gates was accompanied by Paul Allen during his 1977 arrest. In 1989, Gates was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. However, the charges were reduced.

The January 1, 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured an article that demonstrated the Altair 8800. Intrigued, Bill Gates called the new microcomputer’s creators, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), to demonstrate the programming language he had written for the system. Impressed by the demonstration, MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque on April 4, 1975. In 1978, its annual sales exceeded one million dollars. The next year, the company moved to Bellevue, Washington. From then on, the Seattle area would rival California’s Silicon Valley as an IT headquarters.

In 1980, IBM contacted both Microsoft and Digital Research (DRI) in its quest for a computer operating system. The circumstances of Microsoft’s win are still debated. DRI’s founder, the late Gary Kildall, wrote, “He [Bill Gates] is divisive. He is manipulative. He is a user. He has taken much from me and the industry.” (Gary Kildall in notes for an unpublished memoir Computer Connections)

Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in 1983 and officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board in November 2000, leaving Bill Gates at the helm. Today, Allen is relatively unknown outside Seattle, while Bill Gates and Microsoft are household names.

When asked about his happiest memory at Microsoft, Bill Gates replied, “If I had to pick one it was the launch of the IBM PC in 1981. Either that or back in 1976 when our version of BASIC first ran on the Altair, the very first personal computer.” (Bill Gates FAQ)

Marriage and Children

Gates married Microsoft employee Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on the Hawaiian island of Lanai on January 1, 1994. He reportedly “took over the Manele Bay Hotel - and pretty much the rest of the island, buying up the air space around and over the island - for his wedding.” Gates’ mother died of cancer a few months after the wedding.

Bill and Melinda Gates have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002).

Bitter Harvest

Gates quickly gained a reputation as a ruthless businessman. While he was widely promoted as an example of the American dream, many people resented his tactics and feared his seemingly limitless power.

The year 1998 might be considered the pivotal point in Gates’ career. After crushing the popular word processing program WordPerfect in the mid 1990’s, Microsoft triumphed over Netscape in 1998 during the first round of the Browser Wars. However, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had begun investigating Microsoft by this time.

On February 4, 1998, a video camera recorded Noel Godin shoving a cream pie in Bill Gates’ face in Brussels (Video | MP4 format). The deeply symbolic and highly publicized incident isn’t mentioned in Wikipedia’s Bill Gates account.

U.S. v. Microsoft

On May 18, 1998, the DOJ and twenty state attorneys general filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft, charging the company with abusing its market power to thwart competition, including Netscape. On November 5, 1999, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his initial findings of fact, finding that Microsoft held monopoly power and used it to harm consumers, rivals, and other companies.

The sensational United States v. Microsoft case hit Gates with a double whammy. Besides losing the case (the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, blocking competition, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Ac), Gates’ courtroom behavior (recorded in a series of Videos) badly eroded his already sagging public image.

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson said that Gates suffers from “a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success.”

Many people correctly predicted that Microsoft would be rescued from justice after George W. Bush was elected President in 2000. But Gates had been permanently branded an arrogant monopolist and a tyrant, a perception that would cost Microsoft dearly.

Bill Gates, Version 2.0

On January 13, 2000, Bill Gates created a new position for himself: Chief Software Architect. Steve Ballmer became Microsoft’s president and CEO.

During the following years, the media began discussing Bill Gates’ retirement from Microsoft, allegedly so he could devote more time to philanthropy.

In June 2006, Ray Ozzie assumed Gates’ title Chief Software Architect. On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that Gates would transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, effective July 2008. After that date, Gates would continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects.

Mounting problems for Microsoft led some observers to speculate that Gates was either fleeing a sinking ship, or he was merely pretending to distance himself from his embattled company. By July 2008, Microsoft appeared to be losing the browser war, ranked third in online advertising behind Google and Yahoo, and was greatly embarrassed by Windows Vista, which was driving people into the arms of another competitor, Apple.

Accomplishments

The enormity of Bill Gates’ accomplishments and influence is undisputable. He’s best known for his impact on the IT industry and for accumulating a fortune that made him officially the richest person in the world. In more recent years, Bill Gates has also been widely promoted as a philanthropist, perhaps the greatest in history.

However, there is widespread debate over the nature of Gates’ accomplishments. Are they positive or negative? Criticisms and questions are discussed in more detail in the secitons In the Crosshairs and Conspiracy Theories.

Personal Fortune

Bill Gates will long be remembered as the richest man in the world, even if the true figures are never known. Gates ranked number one on Forbes’ list of “The World’s Richest People” from 1995 to 2007. His wealth reportedly surpassed $101 billion in 1999. In recent years, Gates’ wealth has been reported at about $50-$60 billion.

According to Wikipedia, “Since 2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft’s stock price after the dot.com bubble burst and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations.” However, that’s misleading, as at least some of Gates’ “charitable foundations” are actually investments. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation itself is an investment firm, and Gates has worked hard to persuade (or possibly coerce) public schools to use Microsoft software.

Bill Gates boasts several notable investments outside Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. However, Microsoft presumably remains his primary source of revenue. Windows remains Microsoft’s flagship product. The company’s second biggest source of cash is reportedly its Office suite (Word, Excel, etc.).

As of July 2008, Gates was ranked the world’s third richest person, after Warren Buffett (Bill Gates’ long time friend and business partner, worth nearly $100 billion) and Mexico’s Carlos Slim Jim Helú.

Bill Gates’ true worth isn’t generally known, partly because he has diversified his investments. In addition, much of his wealth is apparently disguised as charity, or philanthropy.

IT

There are doubtless many people who believe Bill Gates invented the computer. (He didn’t.)

It is more accurate to say that Gates did more to publicize the personal computer than any other person. However, the popular assumption that no one but Bill Gates could have popularized the personal computer is misleading. How can anyone know what might have happened if Bill Gates had not been born? Gates didn’t even invent the term windows (or the concept). It’s simply absurd to think that the IT revolution would have come to a grinding halt without Bill Gates.

Nevertheless, Bill Gates, through Microsoft, has done a lot to shape the IT industry, from computers to software to the Internet.

Books and Movies

Bill Gates has written two books, The Road Ahead^W (1995) and Business @ the Speed of Thought^W (1999).

The Road Ahead has been widely ridiculed because Gates badly miscalculated the evolution of the Internet. The book was later revised to correct this mistake.

The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley^W (1999) focuses on Bill Gates and his chief rival, Apple’s Steve Jobs. It is based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine. At least portions of the movie can be seen on YouTube and Digg.

Honors

Bill Gates has received many honors, including several honorary doctorates. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2005.

Many buildings and institutions are named for Bill Gates or elements of his business empire, from the Seattle Public Library’s Microsoft Auditorium to Stanford University’s Gates Computer Science Building to a University of Washington law school named for Gates’ father.

Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Gates, his wife and rock star Bono (U2’s lead singer) were collectively named 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts.

Societal

Bill Gates’ contributions to society apparently consist primarily of giving away money. Few people question the motives behind Gates’ contributions or ask exactly who the money is given to, how it’s used or what it accomplishes.

To date, Gates-funded research has not found a cure for any disease, nor has Gates pioneered any significant improvements to education. Many people believe the city of Seattle (Bill Gates’ birth place) has actually declined, in part due to Bill Gates’ influence.

In the Crosshairs

Bill Gates has had an enormous impact on the world we live in. His influence is very diverse, spanning IT, education, politics and more. However, the nature and value of his influence is vigorously debated and widely criticized, spawning a wide variety of reactions, from legal challenges to defections to rival software and businesses.

Some people consider Bill Gates the best example of a corrupt capitalist tycoon. Scott McNealy, of Sun Microsystems, said Bill Gates is “probably the most dangerous and powerful industrialist of our age.”

Even people who aren’t bothered by Gates’ business practices (or who simply aren’t aware of them) may be worried about his ability to effectively spy on them through his ubiquitous software. When Bill Gates talks about getting a personal computer in every home, is he also opening the door for the CIA? Some people consider Gates more powerful and dangerous in the long run than George W. Bush.

Though hardly scientific, the table below offers a rough idea of the fear and hatred many people harbor towards Gates. It lists a series of words that were typed into Google on August 11, 2008, with the number of results for each one. Many of the references to Bill Gates as the Anti-Christ are humorous, or tongue in cheek. Nevertheless, if George W. Bush is the most hated person in the world, it’s possible that Gates - one of Bush’s most powerful supporters - ranks second.

At the other extreme, some people consider Gates a virtual saint. Some have suggested that Bill Gates should run for President. There’s even a website titled Bill Gates for President!.

In the United States, Bill Gates’ most ardent supporters appear to be predominantly conservative. Nations that might be described as anti-Microsoft tend to be somewhat socialist. For example, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela are among the nations whose governments have officially sanctioned open source software, a major Microsoft competitor.

The opposition has generally been a mile wide and an inch deep. Part of the problem is confusion. It’s hard for most people to understand technical IT issues or legal issues. Combining the two can be a headache even for geeks or attorneys.

It’s also not clear to some people if Bill Gates should be blamed for Microsoft’s crimes. Even if Gates is guilty, does his philanthropy earn him a pardon?

Yet another factor is Microsoft’s adeptness at manipulation. Domestic and foreign governments, businesses and media can be easily bribed or coerced.

Nevertheless, a global anti-Microsoft backlash appears to be forming, with Billysoft under attack on several fronts. Much of it is simply commercial competition, which is only encouraged by Microsoft’s often astonishing gaffes. However, some have speculated that Microsoft may soon be rewarded with some more significant “blowback” as people around the world stand up to Corporate America.

A proliferation of web sites that are critical of Bill Gates and/or Microsoft, along with an astonishing number of random criticisms and rants on countless blogs and feedback pages suggest Bill Gates’s enemies outnumber his supporters.

To better understand Bill Gates’ impact on the world and how people have reacted, let’s examine him from seven perspectives - Personal, Business, IT industry, Media, Legal, Political and Societal.

Personal

Bill Gates is probably best known for his nerdiness, followed by his alleged arrogance and greed. Even supporters aren’t likely to deny that Bill Gates is the world’s most famous nerd. He is especially known for his legendary “bad haircut.” Of course, this is a generally frivolous criticism, and some people even see it as a compliment. Nevertheless, Apple’s famous Get a Mac ads ruthlessly exploit Gates’ nerdiness, with devastating effect.

Gates’ greed and arrogance were on display during his testimony in United States v. Microsoft, which prompted Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to compare him to Napoleon.

Gates is further known for his quickness to anger and his relative lack of social skills. Many observers have commented on Gates “flailing” his arms during TV appearances. (Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8)

Many people question Bill Gates’ honesty. One of his most publicized outbursts occurred during an interview with Steven Levy after Vista was released. After claiming he had never seen a particular Get-a-Mac ad, Gates said,

“You can go through and look at who showed any of these things first, if you care about the facts. If you just want to say, ‘Steve Jobs invented the world, and then the rest of us came along,’ that’s fine. If you’re interested, Jim Allchin [Vista development chief who once sent Bill Gates an e-mail saying he would buy a Mac if he didn’t work for Microsoft] will be glad to educate you feature by feature what the truth is. . . . Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine. . . . Let’s be realistic, who came up with [the] file, edit, view, help [menu bar]? Do you want to go back to the original Mac and think about where those interface concepts came from?”

Strangely, the original interview is apparently no longer online; links to it are forwarded to www.newseek.com.

Some people have suggested that Bill Gates may suffer from some sort of personality disorder or mental problem. A July 2008 public relations stunt serves as a good example. Gates had an Xbox 360 (a computer game) inlaid with mother-of-pearl, then jumped in his private jet so he could deliver his bizarre creation to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

The incident was rife with irony. First, Gates named his creation “Peace,” when the Xbox is renowned for its often violent games, some of which have even been associated with murder. In addition, Gates made his presentation at a time when there was massive suffering in Asia, the result of brutal government crackdowns in Burma and Tibet and a massive earthquake and flooding in China.

The most savage criticism of Bill Gates probably relates to his alleged exploitation of children, some critics even labeling him a “corporate pedophile.” (However, Bill Gates has not been accused of literally having sex with children, to the best of this author’s knowledge.)

Bill Gates vs Microsoft

Most criticism of Bill Gates focuses on his business practices. Though most of the focus is on the tactics Gates uses to beat or even eliminate the competition, he’s even criticized for fleecing his own customers. Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) wrote, “The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place.”

Critics charge Microsoft with being dishonest, a criticism supported by its association with FUD, an acronym for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Roger Irwin wrote, “Microsoft soon picked up the art of FUD from IBM, and throughout the 80’s used FUD as a primary marketing tool, much as IBM had in the previous decade. They ended up out FUD-ding IBM themselves during the OS2 vs Win3.1 years.”

Software Terrorist

Bill Gates is renowned for his harsh business tactics, but the true extent of his behind the scenes maneuvering is poorly known. The popular software programs Netscape and WordPerfect are two of Microsoft’s most famous victims, being largely replaced by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Word.

Tactics employed by Microsoft include what might be loosely termed monopolism, FUD, a so-called patent war and coercion, with many reports of corruption. The charges are generally leveled at Microsoft, rather than Bill Gates. However, many observers regard Microsoft as little more than an extension of Bill Gates’ personality. Gates certainly isn’t known to apologize for Microsoft’s excesses, let alone take the lead in cleaning up its act.

Microsoft has been widely accused of exploiting blackmail. For example, it has threatened to sue companies it claims are infringing on Microsoft patents without revealing what those patents are. Microsoft has even been accused of blackmailing schools.

Bill Gates’ father and the lawfirm he helped establish (Preston Gates & Ellis / K&L Gates) have probably played an enormous role in Billysoft’s success, though that role remains somewhat murky.

Gates is also known for snubbing web standards, apparently a strategy for promoting Microsoft software at the expense of competing programs.

Microshaft

Microsoft has acquired a reputation for flawed software, which is also proprietary to a degree many people find offensive. In other words, Microsoft software is often designed to work only with Windows, or to selectively not work with certain competitors.

Microsoft programs are famous for their security holes that virus writers can exploit. Indeed, the term virus magnet is often applied to Windows, Internet Explorer or Microsoft software programs in general because they have been attacked by many thousands of computer viruses. In contrast, less than one hundred viruses that prey on Apple’s operating system (Mac OS X) have been identified. (Some sources say there are just four known Mac viruses.)

Various government agencies in the U.S. and other nations have issued warnings regarding Windows and Internet Explorer.

Microsoft is also known for snubbing web standards. Many web designers complain about the “hacks” they have to employ in order to make their web sites display properly in Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer.

Microsoft has popularized the term backgrade - to return to an earlier (and presumably superior) technology. In particular, many computer users have backgraded from Windows Vista to Windows XP and from Internet Explorer 7.0 to Internet Explorer 6.0.

Public Relations

For Billysoft, public relations has become a nightmare. The animosity towards Microsoft can be seen in a growing variety of insulting nicknames, such as M$, Microshaft, Microsuck, Microsloth, Microslug, Mickeysoft, Windoze, Vistaster and Internet Exploder. Bill Gates himself is sometimes referred to as Darth Gates, a reference to the Star Wars villain Darth Vader. Gates is also often depicted as a Borg (sometimes used as a synonym for Microsoft) who is attempting to assimilate the world.

Another popular picture depicts Bill Gates as a Nazi, leading an army of brownshirts into battle.

Many Microsoft hate sites have sprung up on the Internet. One of the most extreme is www.killbill.com. It might be thought of as a computer game that allows users to kill an animated Bill Gates by chopping him to pieces.

See the poster

[Can any readers tell me who created this image?]

The movie Kill Bill (which has nothing to do with Bill Gates) has been parodied by Bill Gates critics. A popular poster replaces an actress with the Linux penguin (right).

Various players in the IT industry have also shown a new viciousness in their advertising campaigns, as if they’ve decided to get tough with Microsoft, which is often referred to as an 800-pound gorilla.

The browser Firefox owes its popularity now only to its amazing innovation but to an energized fan club that often takes pot shots at Billysoft. Even more damaging is a series of Get a Mac ads starring two actors who resemble Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs. Like Gates, the “PC guy” is a nerd in the series, which revels in bashing Microsoft.

It’s well known that Bill Gates hates the Get a Mac ads, which have been a runaway success. But Microsoft’s attempts to repair its public image often backfire.

About the time Bill Gates officially retired from Microsoft, the company spent a whopping $300 million on a campaign to promote Vista. The first sign of the new venture was an image of a 15th-century sailing ship on Microsoft’s main web page, accompanied by the headline, “At one point, everyone thought the Earth was flat.” The only other text was a link to a Vista advertisement.

The ship disappeared within a day, after sparking ridicule across the Internet.

In a provocative March 2008 article, Charles Cooper suggested that Microsoft’s real open-source nightmare might be global anti-U.S. “blowback,” noting that “Microsoft is vulnerable to being viewed as a surrogate for American hegemony abroad.”

Bill Gates’ public relations team has apparently focused on Gates’ alleged philanthropy as a strategy for burnishing his image. Amazingly successful in the U.S., this strategy may have played a major role in pacifying would be critics in other nations as well.

However, that strategy could boomerang if more people begin taking a closer look at the Gates Foundation. In fact, a growing number of web sites are already asking questions about the Gates Foundation and promoting various conspiracy theories. In particular, Gates is seen by some as exploiting Africa.

Competition

After ruling the IT industry for a generation, Microsoft is facing ever stiffer competition. Once reduced to about 3% market share, Apple’s Mac computers soared to 8.5% by mid-2008, driven largely by frustration with Microsoft’s latest Windows upgrade, Vista. Microsoft ranks third in online advertising, after Google and Yahoo. A failed (and highly publicized) attempt to acquire Yahoo further hurt Microsoft’s image and drove the value of its stocks down.

Open source software remains another powerful competitor.

Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer, continues to lose market share to several popular browsers, at least three of which (Firefox, Opera and Safari) are commonly ranked superior in quality and security. Microsoft’s Office faces a number of competitors, from commercial programs to Google applications to OpenOffice, an open source project.

Amazingly, Microsoft often appears little affected by this new surge in competition. Its raw power and inertia appear to keep it afloat, perhaps aided by legal and political maneuvering.

However, it has been reported that Microsoft’s failed attempt to acquire Yahoo caused its share value to drop, knocking Bill Gates down to the status of second or third richest person in the world.

Bill Gates vs IT

Bill Gates is commonly hailed as the prime mover in the IT industry. Yet observers believe Gates retarded the IT industry. Some see Microsoft’s growing problems as signs of the looming end of the “Dark Ages” that Bill Gates plunged us into.

In particular, Gates is criticized for using cutthroat (and perhaps illegal) tactics to stifle competition while producing deeply flawed software. A celebrated example is Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer (IE), which the company seemingly abandoned after it vanquished Netscape in the first round of the “Browser Wars.”

Today, there are several increasingly popular browsers that are popularly rated superior to IE, notably Firefox, Opera and Safari. The latest version of Windows, Vista, has become an even bigger embarrassment and is widely credited with helping fuel a boom in sales of Apple Mac computers.

Microsoft’s mounting pile of well-publicized woes suggests that Bill Gates built a house of cards, based more on questionable business practices than innovation. Whether or not Microsoft can be fixed is a question many people are asking.

Microsoft vs Innovation

Bill Gates and Microsoft are widely accused of stealing ideas at the expense of innovation, a word more commonly applied to Apple and Google.

Microsoft is now attempting to catch up. It has promised a new version of Internet Explorer (8.0) that will be more standards compliant. It is also challenging Adobe’s popular Flash technology with Microsoft Silverlight.

However, there are signs that Microsoft is still emphasizing shady business practices over innovation.

Bill Gates vs the Media

In the United States especially, the media are popularly believed to be corrupt, as evidenced by the terms corporate media and media whores. It’s difficult to gauge the extent to which Bill Gates controls or influences the media. However, it’s presumably very significant, given the extraordinary sums Billysoft spends on public relations.

A powerful clue is offered by the fact that Bill Gates’ wife and favorite business partner (Warren Buffett) both sit on the Washington Post’s Board of Directors. Microsoft sold Slate, its online magazine, to the Washington Post in 2004.

MSNBC, a 24-hour cable news channel based in the United States and available in Canada, was founded in 1996. Its name is a combination of Microsoft and NBC. In 2005, Microsoft quit its MSNBC TV partnership, though Microsoft and NBC retain a web partnership.

NBC has exclusive rights to the 2008 Olympics video, both on TV and online. (See www.nbcolympics.com) All Olympics video in the U.S. is played with Microsoft Silverlight, a rival to Adobe’s more popular Flash technology. The situation resurrected Microsoft’s reputation for anti-trust violations.

Washington State

In Washington State, Microsoft is represented on the Washington News Council, established by John Hamer (picture) and his wife, Mariana Parks. Hamer was on the Seattle Times’ editorial board and co-authored a media “Watchdogs” column in the Seattle Weekly. He was also a senior fellow at Seattle’s Discovery Institute, headquarters for intelligent design. When the author of this knol first ran for office in 1999, he received an e-mail virus from John Hamer (or someone posing as Hamer), who claimed he was relaying season’s greetings from Bill Gates Senior.

The Seattle Weekly, which promotes itself as an alternative newspaper, occasionally publishes articles critical of Microsoft. Yet it promotes Billysoft at the same time. An example is the article Can the Rich Be Good?, which focuses on Bill Gates and his father. The cover illustration is a photo of William H. Gates (Bill Gates’ father) dressed in a medieval Italian costume. In Wonks and Nerds, Seattle Weekly columnist Knute Berger pronounced Bill Gates “a selfless nerd.”

KCMU was a public radio station based at Seattle’s University of Washington until 2001, when it went into “partnership” with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project and was renamed KEXP.

Online Operatives

Amazingly little has been written about corporate operatives who manipulate online forums and newsgroups. However, it’s common knowledge that they exist, with forum members often labeling various posters as infiltrators, operatives, trolls, etc. Many forums are policed by people who can be described as Microsofties, though it’s generally hard to determine if they’re actually on Microsoft’s payroll.

In 2004, the author of this knol (David Blomstrom, posting as codebear on this forum) complemented an individual who posted a piece critical of Microsoft on the technical forum Codewalkers.com. Several Codewalkers members then began attacking Blomstrom after he shared some insights into Microsoft’s shenanigans in Seattle. Blomstrom was finally banned, a fact advertised in a thread titled One last time....

One Microsoft fan who reguarly snipes at the author of this knol (and other Microsoft critics) on ZDNet blogs calls himself Sleeper Service. Here’s an example.

A more spectacular example is the individual who posted the comment titled “Bias” at the bottom of the page. He has been sniping at the author on a technical forum for some time.

Some online forums appear highly biased regarding Microsoft, enforcing their rules against Microsoft critics but giving a free reign to people who bash, say, Apple or open source software.

Bill Gates vs the Law

Groklaw maintains an extensive list of Microsoft Litigation. Few, if any, lawsuits have been filed against Bill Gates himself. However, various legal actions taken against Microsoft have affected Bill Gates’ image.

By far the most famous lawsuit associated with Billysoft is United States v. Microsoft. The lawsuit almost resulted in breaking Microsoft up, but the legal winds blew in a different direction after George W. Bush was elected President. However, several states continue to press charges against Microsoft.

Other nations have been more vigorous in standing up to Microsoft. Microsoft offices have been raided in a number of nations, including Japan and Ecuador.

The European Union has been particularly forceful in insisting that Microsoft curb its anti-competitive practices. In December 2007, the Norwegian company Opera (manufacturer of the browser of the same name) filed an antitrust complaint with the European Union to force Microsoft to support open Web standards in Internet Explorer and to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop.

Microsoft squashed the word processing program WordPerfect in the 1990’s, but the war isn’t over. Novell sued Microsoft in 2004, accusing it of anti-competitive practices in the office software market. (Microsoft is accused of withholding technical information necessary to get WordPerfect and Quattro Pro up and running under Windows 95.) On March 17, 2008, a judged ruled that the case can proceed to trial.

Many people worry that Billysoft has become too powerful to be held accountable. Bill Gates’ clout motivates judges to be lenient on Microsoft when it loses in the courtroom, according to some observers. For example, punishments have included offering consumers coupons that can be used to purchase Microsoft software.

Politics

Just two days after Billysoft was convicted of monopolism in 1999, Bill Gates attended a White House economic summit where he sat next to President Bill Clinton, who praised Gates for his charitable activities. Some observers saw the incident as indicative of Bill Gates’ arrogance and political clout.

Bill Gates has been widely criticized for his political connections. King County, in which Bill Gates and Microsoft both reside, is very liberal and is firmly controlled by Democrats. The King County Democrats are notoriously corrupt and have proved eager to do Gates’ bidding.

For example, Mayor Greg Nickels allowed Bill Gates to bilk taxpayers out of $50 million in relocating the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s headquarters to the Seattle Center, even promising to build a parking garage in the process. A more humorous (or bizarre) example involves Seattle City Council member Nick Licata, who presided over a Seattle Poet Populist contest in Microsoft Auditorium, located in the downtown Seattle Public Library.

Yet Gates is widely seen as more supportive of the Republican Party. When President George W. Bush flies into Seattle on fund-raising trips, he generally winds up in Medina, where Gates lives.

Gates has also been linked to Ralph Reed (the first executive director of the right-wing Christian Coalition) and Seattle’s Discovery Institute, headquarters of the Intelligent Design movement. Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was employed by Bill Gates’ father’s law firm, Preston Gates & Ellis. (Ralph Reed has been implicated in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.^W)

Gates received widespread criticism for lobbying Congress to ease or abolish H1B visa restrictions for foreign IT workers. Many unemployed IT graduates denied Gates’ allegations that there aren’t enough qualified employees in the U.S.

Political Criticism

Billysoft has received very little criticism in the political arena. Indeed, countless public officials in the U.S. have praised Billysoft for its alleged philanthropy. One notable exception is former presidential candidate Bob Dole, who supported the Department of Justice’s investigation of Microsoft.

Probably the only candidate for public office who has vigorously attacked Bill Gates personally as part of his campaign is Seattle activist David Blomstrom.

Blomstrom criticized Microsoft in his Voters Pamphlet statements during campaigns for the Seattle School Board (2003) and Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction (2004). He attacked Bill Gates personally in subsequent campaigns in 2007 and 2008^G. Blomstrom also launched the web site. Billysoft^G and asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “add Bill Gates to his hit list.”

Several nations, particularly in Latin America (including Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador), have officially sanctioned open source software. The Firefox browser is even more popular in Europe and Latin America than in the U.S.

It has been reported that several national militaries have snubbed Microsoft because they fear its software is or can be manipulated by the CIA.

However, even outside the U.S., criticism of Bill Gates is remarkably muted, with world leaders and political organizations generally focusing on Microsoft.

Bill Gates vs Society

Bill Gates has had an enormous influence on society, perhaps more than any other living person. But what is the precise nature of that influence? More important, is his influence good, bad or somethere in between?

In 2008, Bill Gates gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he told the world he championed a kinder, gentler brand of “creative capitalism.” His speech was reportedly greeted with “tepid applause.”

In fact, many people around the world have become suspicious of Bill Gates. Even if he was truly interested in philanthropy, helping schools and other acts of charity, there are remarkably few success stories he can point to. It’s also striking that nearly every charitable act Gates performs involves an exchange of money. It almost inevitably begins with Gates donating money, and it almost always ends with Microsoft selling more software or, at the very least, getting some good public relations and tax writeoffs.

Let’s take a closer look at Bill Gates as a global Big Brother, educator and philanthropist before focusing on his birth place, Seattle.

Big Brother

To many people, Bill Gates is the ultimate Big Brother, all powerful and lurking in millions of homes and businesses around the world. That alone is disturbing; no one else in history has had that kind of power.

People worry about Gates collaborating with the CIA or Homeland Security. In an era when it’s widely believed that corporations control the government, Gates is viewed by some as more powerful than the President. There is abundant evidence that he has contributed to government corruption.

The scary thing is that it’s hard to know the truth, or discover the details. Few people have the time or prerequisite knowledge to investigate all the rumors and conspiracy theories swirling around Bill Gates.

Education

Over the years, Bill Gates has shown an extraordinary interest in education. More than donate countless millions of dollars to schools around the world, Gates has boldly criticized education policies, made suggestions and engaged in a variety of experiments. So what kind of grade does Gates merit as an education reformer?

Amazingly, there appear to be no significant success stories in Gates’ portfolio. On the contrary, many people believe that schools in the United States have continued to decline under Bill Gates’ leadership. In fact, Gates has been accused of ruining some schools, like Colorado’s Manual High School.

Similar failures can be found even in Seattle. In Lessons from Cleveland High, Nina Shapiro writes, “There’s probably a book that could be written about what went wrong with the Gates-funded effort to transform Cleveland High School into four small ‘academies.’”

Bill Gates has also been criticized for supporting charter schools. In Lesson Learned - The Gates Foundation in Seattle High Schools, Kirsten Kendrick writes,

“The Gates Foundation has helped build 800 new schools across the country - many of them charter schools. Washington is one of nine states that doesn’t have a charter school law. That could be a barrier to our state receiving Gates funding in the future.”

In 2000, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen supported an initiative that sought to establish charter schools in Washington.

Moreover, Microsoft has even been accused of blackmailing schools - though most relevant references have apparently vanished from the Internet.

In 2002, Microsoft apparently enlisted the American ambassador in Lima to help try to convince the Peruvians to kill legislation that would have decreed the use of open-source software in all government systems. While some Peruvians objected to the U.S. government and Microsoft meddling in internal affairs, Gates sweetened the deal by donating a reported $550,000 to the national school system. He even flew to Peru to hand over the money himself.

In fact, the financial motive for giving money to schools just about anywhere is obvious: Schools use computers, and it’s to Bill Gates’ advantage that the computers they use are running on Windows (Microsoft’s operating system).

Bill Gates is widely praised for giving money to schools, but virtually no one asks any of five important questions:

1. Who was the money given to - a corrupt school board?
2. How was the money used?
3. How did the schools or students actually benefit from the donation?
4. Was Microsoft software mentioned anywhere in the paperwork related to the dontation?
5. Were the details of the donation even made available to the public?

Bill Gates frequently complains about the state of education, yet he offers very few solutions other than accepting more money from Bill Gates. One almost never hears Bill Gates discuss serious issues like the No Child Left Behind Act or standardized tests.

In summary, proving that Bill Gates is exploiting schools may be difficult, but it’s even harder to prove that he’s made any significant contributions.

Philanthropy

Bill Gates’ latest reincarnation is as a philanthropist. At least, that’s how the media portray him. In 2008, Gates officially gave up his full-time position at Microsoft to pursue philanthropy through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is renowned as the world’s largest philanthropic institution.

However, Bill Gates’ philanthropy is questionable at best. For starters, the Gates Foundation is actually an investment firm, as disclosed by a sensational exposé in the Los Angeles Times in 2007 (Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation). Moreover, it was revealed that the Gates Foundation invests money in corporations that hurt the very people Bill Gates claims to be helping.

Since then, more revelations have painted an increasingly darker picture of the Gates Foundation. Some health researchers claim the Foundation is actually impeding their research. Other critics claim that, rather than seeking cures for diseases, the Gates Foundation is funding medical research with an eye on profits. Environmentalists worry about the “Green Revolution” Gates is nurturing in Africa, which has been described as a Trojan horse for genetically modified food research.

Amazingly, Seattle taxpayers were bilked out of $50 million when the Gates Foundation’s headquarters was moved to the Seattle Center.

One Laptop Per Child

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2005, Nicholas Negroponte unveiled a solar-powered laptop computer. Millions of these laptops - designed to cost just $100 apiece - would be given to childen in developing nations.

Negroponte’s partners included Google, AMD, Red Hat, Brightstar and News Corporation - but not the world’s chief philanthropist Bill Gates.

In fact, Gates bitterly criticized the project, presumably because the computers were to run on Linux, not Microsoft Windows. Gates is reported to have said of this collaborative effort, "If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type."

By 2008, the cost of the XO computer had risen to $190 - and each computer now has either Linux or Windows installed on it.

However, the OLPC project helped launch a diversity of ultraportable computers (variously known as sub-laptops, sub-notebooks, netbooks or even cloudbooks), prompting the author of this knol to speculate on a Linux Laptop Revolution.

Some netbooks come with Windows installed, others Linux, while still others offer a choice. However, as of August, 2008, all Windows Netbooks were equipped with Windows XP, not Vista, further evidence of Bill Gates’ desperation to control this emerging market.

Given the extraordinary sums of money Bill Gates has donated to a wide variety of groups and causes, one can only assume that at least some of his donations can be described as philanthropic. But, on balance, one must wonder if the good outweighs the bad. Bill Gates’ fortune remains above $50 billion, while the world has little to show for the billions of dollars he has spent in the name of philanthropy.

Seattle

One yardstick of Bill Gates’ benevolence is his birthplace, Seattle. Seattle’s public schools have been steadily declining in spite of millions of dollars donated by Billysoft. Indeed, people who have read Naomi Klein’s best seller, The Shock Doctrine, might ask whether Bill Gates is deliberately ruining Seattle’s schools in an example of “disaster capitalism.”

Gates recruited some of public education’s most notorious derelicts (e.g. Rudy Crew) to staff the K-12 Leadership Institute, an organization he established at the University of Washington. After much hoopla, it apparently withered and died, like so many of Gates’ education initiatives.

Microsoft is represented on the Alliance of Education board of directors, which consists primarily of corporate executives and public officials, many of whom are commonly regarded as corrupt.

In 2000, the Seattle Times asked, “What’s Happened To Seattle’s Soul”? A flood of responses focused largely on Seattle’s lopsided wealth, with many people pointing a finger directly at Microsoft.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen built a controversial (popularly regarded as ugly) music museum near the Space Needle, arguably Seattle’s most revered icon. Later, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s headquarters was moved to the Seattle Center, which surrounds the Space Needle, bilking taxpayers out of as much as $50 million in the process - not including a parking garage the City of Seattle is building for Gates.

The Seattle Weekly’s classic exposé Who REALLY Runs Seattle? lists Seattle’s most powerful movers and shakers, a group that has come to be known as the Seattle Mafia.^G Bill Gates and his father are among the people listed on the Who You Already Know section, along with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Preston Gates & Ellis co-founder Jim Ellis.

However, you can no longer read the detailed information about these people on the Seattle Weekly’s web site. Strangely, the form at the end of each article that should link to each person’s account doesn’t function correctly. The author - Mark Worth - was working on an article about Seattle lawfirms (presumably including Preston Gates & Ellis) when he suddenly left Seattle.

Other Societal Complaints

Supporters maintain that Microsoft is a boon to the economy, noting that it employs thousands of people and generates billions of dollars in revenue. Indeed, several thousand Microsoft millionaires live in the Seattle area.

However, Microsoft’s aren’t evenly distributed. On the contrary, Bill Gates’ personal fortune alone dwarfs the economies of some nations. Moreover, if Microsoft didn’t exist, other companies would surely fill the vacuum, hiring thousands of people and generating billions of dollars in revenue.

Blowback

Although millions of people around the world fear or hate Microsoft, there’s remarkably little organized resistance. Various businesses and organizations file lawsuits against Microsoft, and a number of national governments have officially sanctioned open source software.

Yet Bill Gates and Microsoft just steams along, seemingly unfazed by all these threats. Microsoft has paid out over one billion dollars to settle lawsuits, but it still remains the world’s biggest, most powerful software company.

In 2008, Charles Cooper wrote in an intriguing article (Microsoft’s real open-source nightmare), “Perhaps more closely associated with U.S. technological prowess than any company in techdom, Microsoft is vulnerable to being viewed as a surrogate for American hegemony abroad.” Cooper suggested that Microsoft would make a prominent target if other nations decided to reward the U.S. for its crimes with some “blowback.”

During a campaign for public office, the author of this knol seized on the idea and tried to promote it on the Internet.

Conspiracy Theories

It’s difficult to merely catalog all the lawsuits and scandals swirling around Billysoft. Given the extraordinary secrecy that largely surrounds Bill Gates and Microsoft, along with their stable of attorneys and public relations people, one can only assume that there are many more scandals that we’ve never heard about - and perhaps never will.

One observer wrote in July 2008, “News publications are cautious about making accusations, and because of that, some nasty acts of Microsoft are essentially being erased from the record (Crimes Microsoft Gets Away With - So Far).” But journalistic caution isn’t the only problem. Media corruption is a massive and well known phenomenon. The fact that Bill Gates’ wife and business partner (Warren Buffett) both sit on the Washington Post’s board of directors speaks volumes.

So how does one distinguish between speculation, rumors and conspiracy theories - and is there a difference? Which ones have merit?

A CIA Connection?

It has been claimed that one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history (1982) resulted from a software bug created by the CIA. If true, did the CIA consult with Bill Gates when plotting its attack against a Siberian natural gas pipeline?

Microsoft is mentioned just once in Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11, in a context that suggested Bill Gates may be profiting from the invasion and/or occupation of Iraq. Is he? And why would someone who claims to be a global philanthropist not speak out against the carnage in Iraq?

In fact, many people have long speculated that Bill Gates is in bed with the CIA, which supposedly uses Microsoft technology and data to spy on people. This perception is only enhanced by Gates’ close relations with George W. Bush.

Microsoft vs Linux

In 2008, it was claimed that a U.S.-based Microsoft executive posed as vice president of a Malaysian IT organization so he could influence that nation’s vote on the ISO acceptance of OOXML. The author fretted about a relative lack of corroboration, but another observer wrote, “The road to OOXML has been riddled with Microsoft corruption. From start to finish. It is all well documented.”

Much better known is the SCO conspiracy. It’s an established fact that Microsoft contributed millions of dollars to the SCO Group, a corporation that shocked the Linux community with a sensational lawsuit, primarily targeting IBM. The relationship inspired conspiracy theories, generally claiming that Microsoft was using SCO as a puppet to attack Linux. However, that hasn’t been proved. As one observer noted, there’s lots of smoke but no smoking gun.

In related news, Microsoft has claimed that the Linux development community knowingly steals Microsoft technology. However, Microsoft wouldn’t specify what the technology was so that the Linux community could stop “violating” Microsoft’s rights. The situation had all the earmarks of FUD and spawned still more conspiracy theories even as it boosted conspiracy theories regarding SCO.

Yet another related conspiracy relates to Microsoft’s penchant for scooping up patents. In Microsoft offshores patent war - so goes the WTO?, Andrew Orlowski wrote, “Microsoft’s patent ‘war’ may amount to no more than a psyops exercise designed to exploit the abundant paranoia in the open source community.”

Still other conspiracy theories that involve Billysoft include Trusted Computing^W (aka “treacherous computing”) and Microsoft’s well known disdain for web standards.

Reinventing Bill Gates

A conspiracy theory that focuses more directly on Bill Gates is based on his alleged transition from Microsoft’s CEO to a philanthropist. The transition began on January 13, 2000, when Gates designated himself chairman and chief software architect, allowing Steve Ballmer to take over as Microsoft’s president and CEO. It ended in July 2008 when Gates officially left Microsoft to devote his time to philanthropy through his position as a trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As Microsoft’s Bill Gates biography puts it, “On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

What’s not so well known is the fact that the law firm Bill Gates’ father helped establish - Preston Gates & Ellis - was effectively renamed K&L Gates in 2006. William Henry Gates, Sr. retired from the law firm in 1998, the year things began going really badly for Microsoft. He now serves as the Gates Foundation’s co-chair.

So when a father and son team who have been embroiled in countless scandals and lawsuits and apparently turned a blind eye to child prostitution in the Marianas suddenly pronounced themselves philanthropists, some people were skeptical. The fact that Seattle taxpayers were bilked out of more than $10 million when the Gates Foundation relocated its headquarters to the Seattle Center casts further doubt on the Gates’ good intentions.

One can speculate that the Gates Foundation serves two purposes other than philanthropy: public relations and raking in more money. In fact, the Gates Foundation is an investment firm, and many of its investments are questionable.

Still, repackaging Bill Gates and his father as philanthropists has been a spectacularly successful public relations stunt - especially if, as some people believe, they’re still managing Microsoft and Preston Gates & Ellis behind the scenes.

Hijacking Africa

While some praise the Gates Foundation for contributing to a “Green Revolution” in Africa, others fear Bill Gates is actually helping Corporate America hijack Africa’s food supply. Similarly, some people claim Gates’ purported efforts to fight diseases are actually an effort to create new drugs and medicines that Gates can profit from. Some medical researchers have complained that the Gates Foundation is actually compromising their efforts.

Some have dubbed Bill Gates’ philanthropy “proprietary philanthropy.”

Latin American Invasion

Frustrated with the spread of socialism in Latin America, the U.S. government announced plans to re-establish the Fourth Fleet in early 2008. Officially, the fleet was being mobilized to help fight drugs.

About the same time, Bill Gates began complaining that Latin American nations aren’t spending enough money on education.

The Fourth Fleet was officially reactivated in Latin American and Caribbean waters on July 12. Less than a month earlier, Gates officially began transitioning from his role at Microsoft to a more active position with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Gates Foundation had earlier announced a partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank to provide $4 million in aid to help disabled Latin Americans learn computer skills. Still earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez helped launch the Banco del Sur as an alternative to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank.

In addition, Gates has apparently forged a larger partnership with the Spanish telecommunications group Telefónica SA “to expand its program of Internet-based training and content materials for teachers across Latin America. The program currently operates in Spain, Mexico and Colombia and will now include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and others” (Bill Gates: Latin America must invest more in education).

Spain’s second largest corporation, Telefónica resembles Microsoft in its business practices. The following passage is taken from Wikipedia’s article about Telefónica^W:

“Telefónica has been continually targeted by most recent governments in South America because of its monopolistic business practices, due to the evidence of bribery and underhanded legal agreements when originally entering the markets in association with corrupt governments. Most of the administrations which allowed Telefónica entry into South American markets have been unmasked as corrupt and prone to bribery, a situation which, according to investigators, Telefónica took advantage of. To wit, Fujimori in Peru, Menem in Argentina, etc.”

Bill Gates obviously wants to increase Microsoft’s presence in Latin America. But is it possible that he’s working with the U.S. government? Is he helping the U.S. government gather intelligence on Latin America? If the U.S. invades Venezuela, will Bill Gates somehow benefit?

As they say, follow the money.

Maps

The map below indicates the location of various properties owned by Bill Gates and his father (red triangles), as well as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (blue triangles). Bill Gates’ home is located at 1835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, WA 98039 (1), Microsoft headquarters at 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 (2). (Linked text is linked to relevant Google Maps.)

The map below offers a closer look at Seattle. The red triangles represent, from top to bottom, 1) the Gates Foundation’s current headquarters at 1551 Eastlake Ave E 98102, 2) the Gates Foundation’s new headquarters at the Seattle Center (500 Fifth Avenue North 98109), and 3) K&L Gates’ Seattle office at 925 Fourth Avenue, Suite 2900 98104-1158. The blue triangles represent, from top to bottom, 1) Paul Allen’s South Lake Union property, 2) Allen’s Experience Music Project at 325 5th Ave N 98109, 3) Vulcan, Inc.’s headquarters at 505 5th Avenue South 98104 and 4) QWest Field (Allen’s tax-subsidized football stadium) at 800 Occidental Ave S 98134.

References

Related Links

There are literally millions of references to Bill Gates on the Internet, and choosing the best is no easy task. The list below primarily focuses on references that are more prominent, informational and/or provocative. Some are obviously biased, either in support of or against Bill Gates. Ironically, some of the biased references could also be the most accurate.

Notes

The superscripts below denote text that is linked to particular websites, as follows:

Note: These superscripts are not used in the Reference or Related Links sections.