On 10/14/2011 12:01 PM, RicodJour wrote:
On Oct 14, 12:45 pm, wrote:

Steve Jobs was nothing, Bill Gates is nothing, Dennis Richie was a god.


Uh Jack ...

I got to spend a bit of time with Richie at a conference once. He was
a brilliant and interesting guy, but I suspect he'd reject status as
deity.

The economic value, the taxes, and the employment that Gates and
Jobs respectively are responsible for is every bit the equal of
Richie's contribution ... it's just a different kind of contribution.



Gates and Job's were marketers that ripped off the public. Gates

Gates and Jobs were marketers that understood what the public needed,
that the public would live with "good enough" technology, and the
price point that the public would tolerate. That is a kind of genius
too.


Then this bit of very sane response follows:


And Gates is leaving $50 billion to charity. Yep, he sure was a
schmuck that did nothing for nobody not ever. Sheesh.

If you're looking for saints, go dig up a few.

I am surprised that you don't know the correct spelling of the name of
the guy you idolized/worshipped. I figured that having it spelled out
for you in the URL you provided would have helped get it right.

Ritchie made a huge contribution - don't see why you feel the need to
tear other people down to point that out. But, whatever.

Why is it that the "free market" has decided that Apple's and MS'
pricing is acceptable, but you have a problem with it? Talk about
arguing out both sides of your mouth...

R

+1000

And Microsoft was no predatory monopoly. Their prices have either
stayed the same or gone down (in real terms) while adding more and
more features to their products. See:

http://www.cato.org//pubs/pas/pa352.pdf
http://reason.com/archives/2001/11/0...-greatest-hits
http://www.cato.org//pubs/pas/pa-405es.html

None of this will stop the Whiners (tm), of course. They complain
about businesses making "too much" profit, and then complain again
when unemployment is high, all the never connecting the dots between
those two ideas.

I'm an engineer. I am not particularly thrilled with Microsoft products.
I much prefer Unix and all that goes with it. But Microsoft responds
to a need with a "good enough" product that serves 100s of millions
of people just fine. On a smaller scale so does Apple, even though they
are one of the most closed off environments around (far worse than
Microsoft). Value is in the eye of the beholder not the pontificants
on the net ...