Mike Webb on the World Wide Webb...

This page is about: Bill Gates of Microsoft (exposing the lies, humor, satire, etc.)

I've been watching the machinations of Bill Gates and Microsoft for many years now. I give him credit as a man of intelligence and a man who knows how to market a product (both ethically and unethically). His company has even put out some good software and has kept software alive (such as FoxBase, now Visual FoxPro) which otherwise would have died an ignominious death many years ago. He and his wife have done some good things through their foundation. I'll give him credit for the positive where credit is due.

I also recognize him as a company that will spare no effort to dominate the PC market. Look back 10-12 years and see how many kinds of major use software were led in their field by different companies. WordPerfect was the word processor of choice. Lotus 1-2-3 led spreadsheets. dBase was the dominant database software, with FoxBase nipping at its heels. Borland was the "big boy" of programming or at least was a worthy competitor to Microsoft, and had a few other strong products like Paradox and Quattro Pro. Even in operating systems, Microsoft had to keep on their toes to keep ahead of Digital Research's new challenger, DR-DOS. GEM and GEOS offered a substantial challenge to the laughable bloated GUI Microsoft produced called "Windows". The NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) was developing something called a "browser" which would lead the initial charge into the arena previously dominated by the military and universities called the "Internet".

Now all that's changed. What's the #1 word processor? Microsoft Word. What's the spreadsheet? Microsoft Excel. What are the databases? Microsoft Access, Visual Foxpro and SQL Server. Programming languages? Microsoft; Borland's now more of an also-ran except for Delphi. Operating systems? For the desktop, it's some version of Microsoft Windows. Linux, the free competitor that will eventually give Windows a run for its money, is still in its adolescence. Want to browse the 'Net? How many people even know that there are browsers other than the Microsoft Internet Explorer which came with their system, much less have downloaded and used them?

If it had simply been a matter of honestly producing superior software or even honestly out-marketing the competition, that would have been one thing. The documentation is clear (whether the U.S. courts open their eyes to see it or not) that Microsoft got where they are today by cheating and that's their continued practice to stay that way. As this page develops, I intend to point out the many ways over the years in which Bill Gates and Microsoft gained their dominant position in the PC market (which was ruled to be a monopoly by a U.S. District Court and which ruling was subsequently upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals). Most people are not aware of the chicanery (both behind closed doors and out in the open) that was practiced to put them in their present position.

In addition to demonstrating the fraud that has been perpetrated on the PC-using world, I would like for this to be a home for the most potent weapons that are available to the individual; humor and satire. I'll be collecting (clean) jokes and graphics that poke fun at America's 21st Century Robber Baron, preferably those which bring out the truth and promote alternatives to the Microsoft monopoly. If you have a good graphic of "Tux", the Linux penguin, stomping all over the Microsoft campus saying, "Good evening, Mr. Gates. I'll be your server today!", let me know. Likewise, good images of Gates' humiliation in Belgium at the hands of "The PieMan" a few years ago are things I'll be looking for.

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The World Wide Webb of Mike Webb

Bill Gates Page

Version 1.0: created 2002-03-03, last updated 2005-09-25