B. Gates cares about kids? Since when?

[^Ben]

@Ritz,
Some advice: DON'T give your credibility away for free. Some examples:

"Latly." Did you mean lately? As in, recently? Just clarifying.

"Top of the hat." Did you mean you were giving Mr. Gates a tip of the hat you are probably not wearing anyway as a sign of respect?

"Shouldn't of even...." Just because its a contraction doesn't mean you can fudge the verb. Correct usage would be "Should not have even...." Oh, and it needs an apostrophe too, otherwise it is not a contraction, it is just nonsense.

"Dence." Since when is this a word? It sounds like your mind is too dense to accept incoming intelligence.

"Abit"--Two words, 'nuff said.

"More clearer." Wow. What, were you held back in 3rd grade? In order to get people to repsect your argument a bit more, try not using a double comparison. "Clearer" is already in the comparative state, so no need for the modification.

Look at that: six quick ways you too can sound like an intelligent human being.

And by the way, if there is one place where stating your opinion should be okay, its in a free forum like this where people can open their minds to new ideas by hearing what others think. Disagree? Fine, but let's not drag this out. All these flames for discussing a marketing ploy...geez, who knew?

Uh-oh, someone lost the argument so they are going to attack spelling.

Troll alert.

 

[theGreenBunny]

VictimOfScience is correct in that Microsoft at times gives stuff away to increase/retain market share. What Bill Gates does in his free time, like donating money, has nothing to do with that. In fact, Bill Gates doesn't have anything to do with the whole event, because I don't think he personally decided to give the Japanese schools some Xboxes.

Attacking Bill Gates for Microsoft's actions makes little sense. Microsoft is huge, and Gates doesn't decide everything they do. Defending Microsoft's actions by referring to Gates' philantropy doesn't make sense either, because he is the donator, not Microsoft.

The thing that should be discussed here, instead of what colour Gates' underpants are, is whether giving away a small amount of Xboxes is part of Microsoft's aformentioned market share retaining/expanding policies or not. VictimOfScience thinks it is, as he states in the topic post.

I personally think this is not an irrational conclusion, looking at the article at Gamespot. They cite a press release (so no, it wasn't something MS tried to do quietly) as saying "We hope this will become a good model case where TV videoconferencing is used effectively in the education system.". And like it or not, they do profit from increased IT awareness in schools, because those schools are then more likely to buy Microsoft products.

In the end, it's not a big deal. Companies do this all the time. I may not like it, but I'm not going to flame Gates for it.

 

[Kyorisu]

Let Microsoft use their money any way they please. They allready pay a hefty load of cash on fines. Isn't it a good thing that they're giving some of their money away to charities?

 

[Pesmerga]

Microsoft owns the world. Seriously, if Bill Gates was asked by the United States to deny service to a particular country, if he agreed, he could put the economy of that certain nation in shambles. It's not the OS itself, it's just the software and other people who use it so much. Small businesses would die off or suffer deeply and large ones would have to find money to find an alternative way to do anything.

The above may be made up, a guestimate of my superior brain.

 

[gh0st]

Microsoft owns the world. Seriously, if Bill Gates was asked by the United States to deny service to a particular country, if he agreed, he could put the economy of that certain nation in shambles. It's not the OS itself, it's just the software and other people who use it so much. Small businesses would die off or suffer deeply and large ones would have to find money to find an alternative way to do anything.

The above may be made up, a guestimate of my superior brain.

Uh... no? They'd just use Linux. Nor would MS listen to something so stupid that the government asked them to do. They'd hurt their business for what?

 

[DrDevin]

Uh... no? They'd just use Linux. Nor would MS listen to something so stupid that the government asked them to do. They'd hurt their business for what?

He is right. Linux is good but not that good. Look at the support for devices in any linux distro, it is no where near as good as windows. If he just stopped every copy of windows then most devices and programs would cease to work and dont just say go to linux as most useful software works best or exclusively on windows and could take years to get everything over to linux. Your right about the business though.

On a side note I think he is generous. If he wanted more market share he would just give free XBOX's to a couple million people and make money off of the games, or at least make them way more likely to buy more microsoft products.

Finally I dont see how an a console can teach kids much about IT and computing practises in general. I think they should teach the kids to mod the xboxes and run pirated copies of windows on them. That would teach them some real IT skills.

 

[gh0st]

He is right. Linux is good but not that good. Look at the support for devices in any linux distro, it is no where near as good as windows. If he just stopped every copy of windows then most devices and programs would cease to work and dont just say go to linux as most useful software works best or exclusively on windows and could take years to get everything over to linux. Your right about the business though.

Not necessarily. Since Bill Gates cant 'just stop' every windows copy running (They have no legal ground for taking something away after you already purchased it.). Moreover, how would they do it? Send in their personal army of venture capitalists to take over the country? Plenty of people use pirated versions of XP, they dont get in trouble.

 

[MarcoPollo]

How do you know he is an asshole?

He's my uncle O_p!

 

[VictimOfScience]

@Ben:
"Uh-oh, someone lost the argument so they are going to attack spelling."
No, I will contest that there is no real argument here, just one opinion stated in my first post. Others followed and stated their opinions, with some differing from mine. That's par for the course on a forum, just as are flamers and trolls. By attacking Ritz's grammar, I WAS attacking the argument and not the person. I don't care how right you think you are, if your grammar and diction are poor in quality, then the world will have a harder time taking you seriously. This goes for internet forums, just as it goes for the job you work so hard at from 7-3 or whatever your hours might be. If you want your argument to be strong, then the foundation that it is built upon must be strong as well.

@Ritz and Ghost:
You both have been nothing but insulting, rude and ignorant throughout this whole discussion, so good luck with the inevitable encounters you will have in real life with people whose opinions you will undoubtedly want to mock and belittle.

I would, however, like to thank many of you for posting intelligent comments, even if they expressed ideas and opinions different from my own.

 

[Burn]

@Ben:
"Uh-oh, someone lost the argument so they are going to attack spelling."
No, I will contest that there is no real argument here, just one opinion stated in my first post. Others followed and stated their opinions, with some differing from mine. That's par for the course on a forum, just as are flamers and trolls. By attacking Ritz's grammar, I WAS attacking the argument and not the person. I don't care how right you think you are, if your grammar and diction are poor in quality, then the world will have a harder time taking you seriously. This goes for internet forums, just as it goes for the job you work so hard at from 7-3 or whatever your hours might be. If you want your argument to be strong, then the foundation that it is built upon must be strong as well.

@Ritz and Ghost:
You both have been nothing but insulting, rude and ignorant throughout this whole discussion, so good luck with the inevitable encounters you will have in real life with people whose opinions you will undoubtedly want to mock and belittle.

I would, however, like to thank many of you for posting intelligent comments, even if they expressed ideas and opinions different from my own.

Lets just say what he wants to hear?

Your right, Im sorry to have ever doubted you.

Now lets all go home.

 

[destrukt]

. . . since you stopped following trends.