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Comment by subarctic

8 hours ago

I saw an interview with Bill Gates once where he said that one thing he would've done differently is more quickly come around to the idea of sending people to Washington. Apparently he didn't like the idea of lobbying and that cost them when the regulators started coming for them

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subarctic

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someonebaggy  8 hours ago

Wow, then there we go: don't hate the player, hate the game. You're telling me even Bill Gates wasn't evil until the system forced him to either become evil or get shut down.

  • bayindirh  8 hours ago

    No, he just say he's inexperienced.

    Bill Gates published that infamous open letter about copying software, and both Bill Gates and Brad Smith said that Microsoft's core pillar is IP: "Microsoft is built upon the idea of having IP and protecting and using it" (paraphrased by me).

    The quotes I can find by digging the net:

    > Microsoft was founded on the premise that software is valuable intellectual property that people should pay for. --Bill Gates

    > Microsoft was founded on intellectual property. Intellectual property is the foundation of our business. --Brad Smith (This is the quote I remember in the first place)

    So, Microsoft never wanted to be an open company. They were the epitome of the closed source, behemoth software company, where you get the goods, get to use it, and pay them for the privilege.

    • someonebaggy  8 hours ago

      Closed source software is a reality, not an explicit evil. It is the same reason I don't have schematics for my bedframe. I've worked at software companies - have you? - it takes extra effort to release source code, causes a lot of risk, and provides absolutely no benefit whatsoever so it is simply irrational to do it.

      11 replies →

  • serf  2 hours ago

    I think , probably, evil covers a wider spectrum than whether or not you're in bed with feds.