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When Bill Gates, or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, donates to humanitarian causes, there are a great number of people who rush to pat Bill/Microsoft on the back.

You see the same old statements, "How can Bill Gates be evil?", "Microsoft can't be all that bad", "Bill Gates is a saint", etc.

Even though the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is supposedly nothing to do with Microsoft, everybody associates Bill with Microsoft, and Microsoft with Bill. When the foundation does a good deed it's a credit to Microsoft.

It's quite odd really: everybody seems to forget the misery Bill has caused via his company, and they focus only on the latest 'good deed'. Perhaps this is exactly what Bill wants?

It's like a serial killer donating his victims body parts to hospitals.

What about the poor schools in the U.S. that Microsoft audited, an action that cost the schools thousands? Did Bill care that the schools were poor? Where was this care and compassion then? It was purely business then, and it still is now.

Why can't people see that these donations go hand-in-glove with Microsoft's business objectives?

First it was Open Source in India, and Microsoft claiming that India was of "strategic importance", and attempting to push Microsoft solutions at the Government. At the same time, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated millions to fighting AIDS in India. Bribery?

Now it's Open Source in Africa, and Microsoft is pushing its solutions there, even offering free tuition to combat the 'threat' of Open Source. At the same time, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated millions to fighting Malaria in Africa. Bribery?

Both of the aforementioned countries showed high interest in Open Source, and both got donations toward fighting diseases specific to these countries.

Microsoft loves to get governments locked into its solutions, and is certainly just as anti-competitive as ever. Surely it's not that hard to see a pattern?

I had a scour through my news archive, and I found a few items from 2001 - 2002...

So much for Linux not being a threat; and for those who believe Linux winning converts from Unix is not hurting Microsoft, leaked memos reveal the opposite:

"Linux is the long-term threat against our core business. Never forget that!"
"I need you to make sure that as many of these customers as possible continue to migrate off of UNIX, but on to Windows 2000 on Intel," - Brian Valentine (Microsoft) here

Just for fun:

It may seem ironic, but privacy functionality in IE6 makes it possible to launch several attacks against the browser, and against Outlook and Outlook Express, security researcher Thor Larholm has discovered. - here

Microsoft rigs results, just like it still does with analyst studies:

This shining jewel in the world's economy, this commercial Titan with software on virtually every desktop on Earth, this Microsoft, has stooped to rigging reader surveys to rescue the crumbling myth of its popularity. - here

If anybody were to pass by my garden, they would notice a small-scale, ancient-looking henge, remeniscent of some pagan astrology chart for lawn gnomes. Of course, this isn't really what it is.

It is actually my latest method for preventing cats using my garden as their latrine. It's a primitive squat prevention technique that makes your garden look mystic and intriguing. And, so far, it seems to be keeping the beasts at bay.

If I see any cats walking around in a strange manner -- suggesting a sore bottom -- I'll know that they've attempted to evacuate their bowels on my property, and have been summarily introduced to my henge.

Huzzah!

I've seen so many documents stating: "the command 'su' stands for 'super-user'".

NO IT DOESN'T! 'su' stands for 'substitute user'. If you don't believe me, enter 'man su' at the command line.

The 'su' command should be followed by the name of the user you wish to become. When you call 'su' without specifying a user you are requesting to become the root user.

The 'root' user is referred to as the super-user, and rightly so, as root has full access to the Operating System and everything running on it.

So, you can enter 'su' and become super-user, but 'su' doesn't stand for 'super-user'.

Just lately I've seen some articles written by people who seem to feel sorry for Microsoft, and who believe that it is wrong to dislike the company: "after all", they say, "look at what Microsoft has done for us all!".

Actually, we should do just that. We should look at what Microsoft has done, and is still doing.

Many people say that if it wasn't for Microsoft's input home users probably wouldn't have computers. OK. But, while Microsoft did a good job of getting everybody using computers, since then it has stifled innovation. It has been doing its best to make sure that all computer users run its software, and only its software. Once everybody is using its software Microsoft sits back, rubs its belly, and does absolutely nothing - take Internet Explorer for example. Only when a threat re-appears does Microsoft start to get to work again.

Competitive markets encourage innovation and progress. Microsoft has been against competition since the very beginning.

Today I've seen two articles depicting the struggle that is Everybody Vs Microsoft. This is why nobody likes Microsoft:

1) - Microsoft uses closed standards to prevent competition:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25215

"THE OPENGL Foundation claims that the software giant, Microsoft is trying to shaft its free specification with the introduction of its super soar-away version of its Windows operating system Vista.

The foundation has issued a call to arms here, over [Microsoft's] plan to layer OpenGL over Direct3D in Vista.

Users need to have a composited desktop to obtain what Vole spinsters dub the 'Aeroglass experience'. However, the foundation fears that if an OpenGL Installable Client Driver is run under Vista, the desktop compositor will switch off and the performance will be pants."

2) - Those trying to compete with Microsoft use open standards:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/technology/08open.html

"VMware, the leader in the fast-growing market for virtual machine software, plans to announce today that it will share its code with partners like I.B.M., Intel and Hewlett-Packard in an effort to make the VMware technology an industry standard.

VMware's partners regard the technology-sharing program as a welcome step. "This is a move toward open standards, and that is the path toward accelerating market growth and innovation," said Susan Whitney, a general manager in I.B.M.'s server business."