Critiquing Bill Gates' "Creative Capitalism"

Here are some links critiquing the concept of "creative capitalism" promoted by Bill Gates:

• Gates misses the point on 'creative capitalism' (CNET)
• Creative Capitalism (The Bastiat Society Blog)
• Creative Capitalism (Pommygranate)
• Bill Gates's 'Kind' Capitalism is a Misnomer (RealClearMarkets)

Microsoft Yahoo: Microsoft vs. Google Round 2?

Microsoft recently offered $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo, which would be its largest acquisition. Approval by the U.S. and the E.U. authorities will be required.

Bill Gates Criticizes Capitalism?

The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) put out a press release today criticizing Bill Gates for statements about "creative capitalism" that he made at the World Economic Forum.

According to the ARI, Bill's speech "essentially blames Western capitalism for the Third World’s poverty". They also say that "not one word of Gates’s speech calls for poor countries to change their anti-capitalist governments" and “No matter how many billions Bill Gates gives to poor nations, until he starts advocating universal capitalism instead of attacking it, he is acting as an enemy of prosperity in the undeveloped world".

You can read the entire speech for yourself.

While the ARI may be overreacting a bit, I think their concerns about what Bill is saying are very valid. While Bill makes some interesting points, I do think his "creative capitalism" is very flawed.

I've Had It! - No More Microsoft Products

My house is now a Microsoft-free zone.

For a long time, Linux has been my primary operating system of choice. However, for most of the time, I had one machine running Windows 2000 to fall back on for those few things that didn't seem to work just right in Linux.

However, due to Microsoft's recent actions in making threats against the Linux / open source community, I've decided to act on principle, and go all the way and delete Microsoft Windows off my spare computer. Finally! I've eliminated the last tenticles of The Raptor of Redmond.

The "Raptor of Redmond", you say? I'm not sure who coined the phrase, but I was introduced to it by Peter Salus. It reflects on Microsoft's predatory tactics and also their office in Redmond, Washington. I feel it is a fitting title.

Microsoft is having a tough time competing against the free software and open source communities. You can sense the desperation when Microsoft makes the patently (no pun intended) ridiculous claim that free / open source software violates over 200 patents! I have no doubt that the community will fight and win against Microsoft in this.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft is not disclosing what these "patent violations" are. It seems like Microsoft is counting on people NOT KNOWING what they have up their sleeve for a long time. As Larry Augustin has observed, Microsoft doesn't want the public to see what they are, because they KNOW they will be refuted/repudiated thoroughly just as happened with the SCO suits. They are going to try to run with this "paper tiger" as long as they can, carrying out deception in an attempt to scare people away from Linux and other software or at least find ways to extort money out of those users. They don't need to win a single lawsuit, but they can use this to their advantage still.

This threat of action of Microsoft is very much like the suits that SCO brought forward: Threatening yet frivilous. Their primary value is as a deceptive scare tactic. They invoke lawyers as a sort of obstruction. They try to wear down their opponent.

With all due respect, I find some of Microsoft's tactics sleazy.

It looks like lawsuits will be coming if Microsoft walks their talk. You heard it right: Microsoft is threatening to sue their legitimate competitors, not because of patent violations, but because it seems to be their only way to stay afloat. But, what is even more embarassing is that Microsoft is not even threatening a company in particular!!! They are suing a movement! A community! A worldwide group of developers and users! This is true reactionary non-sense. It is truly pathetic. I hope the counter-reaction to Microsoft's threats will be the deadly blow that slays the brute and unsightly Raptor of Redmond, or at least causes it to change its ways and embrace a movement that is good and necessary (the open source movement). And if the Raptor of Redmond should rest in peace, we can hope that it does not pull a phoenix on us.

For those who wish to know more about what is going on, check out assesments by : cnn, Linux Today, CNET News, ZDNet, etc.

Vista Adoption Slow

According to this Slashdot post, most online US adults (87%) know about Windows Vista, but only 12% plan to upgrade in the next year.

I think that a lot of the negative press that Vista is causing this. Especially damning are the policies that the likes of Intel and the U.S. Department of Transporation have had in regard to their employees installing Vista. Also, the history of Microsoft operating systems has often shown that early adoption isn't always good. "Always wait a service pack or two" is pretty good advise.

In my estimation, if Vista wasn't being pre-installed on new computer systems, it would have a VERY tough time catching on. Fortunately for Microsoft, for many people the decision to use Windows Vista is not a conscious choice, it is imposed on them by their purchase of a computer.

As for me..I prefer to use an operating system whose success is not largely derived from the fact the user has had no other choice.

Wednesday Mini Codices

Here is today's installment:

• Those with a vested interest in Web Security (pretty much all of us these days) and the technical know-how, may want to grab FireKeeper, a firefox extension which provides for Intrusion Detection and Prevention within Firefox.


• The FAA is looking into ditching Microsoft software and using Google Applications on Linux hardware as an alternative to upgrading to Windows Vista. As the article suggests, Microsoft's new products such as Vista and IE 7 are taking a BIG hit in March so far. [HT: Slashdot]


• Tipsters looks like an interesting site. There doesn't seem to be much of value on the site yet, but it is a good concept.


• Apparently, Michael Jackson is a Muslim now.


• James White has a good post about why textual criticism matters
for Christians

• Visuwords is cool, try it out!

10 Reasons To NOT Upgrade to Windows Vista

1. The US Department of Transportation has banned their employees from installing it on their in-house computer systems.

2. This, and this, and this.

3. New forms of Digital rights management is built into the OS (following the demands of the movie industry), potentially violating the rights of the user, cripple functionality, increase vurnability, and decrease reliability. You should read an analysis of this problem to find the problems with this.

4. It requires a minimum of 512 MB RAM and 800 MHZ CPU and has other very high requirements which will make it unusable on older computers and cause many laptops and low-end to midrange desktops to not be able to use some of the more advanced features (such as the Aero Glass interface

5. You can't legally share it with your friends (not that you could do this with any other edition of Windows). You are paying for something that you will have no real ownership over. And pay you will, at least a couple hundred dollars!!

6. Chance, you will have headache with your hardware and other things. According to this report at BBC, the following happened for one individual: it took about 1 day to get connected to the Internet, there was mysterious "unknown device" errors, there were problems installing Intellitype keyboard software, Windows Mobile Device Center refused to hook up Outlook to a PDA device, and the soundcard/webcam/itunes were write offs--they simply would not work.

7. Its written by a company that is know for its rather questionable behavior.

So, you probably should stick with Windows XP or 2000 or whatever you have. Or better yet, install Linux and enjoy its stability, liberating yourself from an expensive Operating System with draconion licensing term written by a company that doesn't play fair. You might find that Linux is easier to use than you'd think. There are some great distributions of Linux out there including Ubuntu and SuSE.

Suprise. Suprise.

Microsoft needs to release more patches.

Firefox safer than IE?

According to this article, those who use Mozilla Firefox to browse the web are less prone to spyware and other bad things than those who use Internet Explorer.

The article begins by saying: "Internet Explorer users can be as much as 21 times more likely to end up with a spyware-infected PC than people who go online with Mozilla's Firefox browser, academic researchers from Microsoft's backyard said in a recently published paper."

The individuals, employees of Microsoft, go on to carefully qualify this statement and suggest that it doesn't necessarily mean that Firefox is more secure, but the numbers they provide do suggest that.