Newsgroups: alt.flame,aus.flame,alt.nuke.the.usa,aus.politics,alt.fan.bill.gates,alt.destroy.microsoft

Subject: Re: Hail Bill, the Hero!

From: Guy Dunphy

Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 13:08:40 GMT

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File: HAILBILL.TXT        Guy Dunphy       18 Oct 1995,    Rev Aug 97





              Hail Bill Gates - the quiet hero

              --------------------------------





Yes, its true.

You probably thought Bill was just a right wing, money grabbing mercenary.

An unprincipled nerd-in-the-right-place-and-time, didn't you?



Well, that may be how things _look_ on the surface. Certainly, considering

only the superficial details of what he has been responsible for, one could

be misled into such beliefs. There is a long string of such red herrings:

DOS, edlin, no file checksums, Windows, single tasking, hidden functions,

two-button mice, competitor killing code, look and feel lawsuits and

patents, MS Network, Internet sabotage and data snooping, API chaos, Java

standards fragmentation, on and on, all of them just begging to be kicked.



But don't you get the feeling its all too easy, that taking such shameless 

cheapness, self interest and trampling of higher social causes at its face

value might possibly be causing us to miss some deeper agenda?





I suspect that Bill saw, a long time ago, that computer technology can bring 

great benefit to human society - freedom of knowledge, of communication, of 

improved democratic process, to name but a few. Of course, on applying his 

benevolent and penetrating gaze to the matter some more, he realized that 

these things are unlikely to be achieved within the selfish and restrictive 

framework of present economics.



I've heard it asked - "When is Bill Gates going to do something trully 

revolutionary with all that money?" - the unspoken assumption being that he 

never will, because he has no imagination, guts or understanding of the 

drama of history.

This is the sort of slur on a great man that you'd expect from lesser folk, 

jealous of his successes and peeved at the tangling of their lives with 

overcomplicated and obstructive software.

Such complainers never consider for a moment the great torment Bill must 

constantly suffer for them, aware of what he could do now to improve their 

world, but bravely holding back, maintaining the mask of evil so that 

people might learn for themselves.



For Bill knows that freedom and greatness cannot be _given_, they can only 

be earned. That until people come to understand their own needs, and fight 

to achieve them, they will never be able to hold them as a right, to 

proudly possess what is theirs.



It is with a feeling of awe and reverence that I contemplate that moment,

when Bill first saw what he must do to ensure a brighter future for all

humanity. When he knew, and accepted in his true heart, that he must

become a martyr of the crusade for software greatness.

That it would be his task to sow upon us wares of such awfulness that

we would be _forced_ to unite, and raise an army of free programmers,

sworn to produce the one true OS, a Global Operating System and Hardware,

or die trying. Only when we were filled to overflowing with horror and

remorse for our sinful ways would we see that light, the shining need

for this grail, this GOSH. Then we would find in ourselves the strength

of will and purpose to fight for it, to cast all our foolish baggage of

licences and corporate visions aside; to seek one thing, beyond lawyers,

beyond governments, beyond possession; the universal, free operating system.



Bill saw, that without His sacrifice we would likely all dwell for

eternity in a Hell of competing, incompatible, patent crippled and

spiritless operating systems, a fiery Pit of licences and upgrade fees,

a parching mirage of endless GUIs, learing icons, sourceless code and

untrusted net drivers.



He knew, that this could not be. That his would be the force and pain

to secure our redemption; that for us, he would become as a monster in

our eyes. A mirror to our own worst, to save us from ourselves.



                     -----------------------



I hope you can see now that Bill is a deeply spiritual man, occupied

only with the highest regard for public good, and incidentally unconcerned

with such mundane details of existance as dress, grooming and personal

hygiene. Raised in a family of prominent and wealthy laywers, he early on

acquired their human honesty and yearning for the simple truths of existance,

which soon blossomed in him into an existential wisdom far beyond that of

common men. His own education in the legal profession furthered this deep

appreciation of truth and moral justice, setting his path to saintliness.

He has even risen so far above matters of the flesh as to little care what

he eats, satisfied merely to fuel his mortal form with anything convenient

and quick. This is a characteristic of the true ascetic, often found among

advanced followers of religious and computer disciplines. In Bill we see

the best of both planes combined: the spirituality of a saint, and the

penetrating mind of a great systems architect. 



All Praise to Bill!







|  Guy Dunphy            Sydney, Australia. |-----------------------,

|                                           |  Occam never shaved  <

|  Do not mistake demeaning for de message. |-----------------------`