I know that the Tux Brigade and open source diehards like to paint Microsoft as some great big bad monopolistic company that is out to destroy everything Linux and turn open source into a bad word; and for the most in the past this might have truly been the case.

Not so much any more though as Microsoft has been making some interesting moves when it comes to open source and Linux, and it doesn’t involve any nuclear options but instead the company has been embracing many of the fantastic products that have come out of the open source movement.

The most recent example of course is the company’s support of Node.js with their Azure cloud initiative as well as supporting Hadoop at the expense of their own large data project, Dryad.

Much of this change of heart is laid out in a new post from Wired and places all of the credit for the move to embrace open source at the feet of the last man you would probably expect – Bill Gates

From the Wired article:

At the invitation of the company’s chief legal minds — Smith and Gutierrez — Ramji sat down with Gates, chief software architect Ray Ozzie, and a few others to discuss whether Microsoft could actually start using open source software. Ramji and Ozzie were on one side of the argument, insisting that Microsoft embrace open source, and Gutierrez offered a legal framework that could make that possible. But other top executives strongly challenged the idea.

Then Bill Gates stood up.

He walked to the whiteboard and drew a diagram of how the system could work, from copyrights to code contribution to patents, and he said — in no uncertain terms — that the company had to make the move.

For Ramji — who would spend more than three and a half years as the company’s chief open source strategist — the moment Bill Gates stood up was the moment Microsoft turned the corner on its approach to free software. “He was given little to no credit by the open source community — or anyone in the tech industry — for really understanding open source and why it can be important, how it can be a competitive advantage, and why when your competitors start to use it, you have to too. He really got it, and in that moment, he taught us all.”

Microsoft may have done a lot of things wrong but there is no denying the fact that when the company decides to change course it doesn’t mess around and woe be to anyone who stands in their way or tries to stop them.

via GigaOM

Have you been wondering about Microsoft change of heart on open source? Thank Bill Gates for that. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bill Gates on Thursday announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $750 million to the Global Fund which is currently fighting the worldwide spread of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The announcement arrived at the World Economic Forum and comes in the form of a promissory note which ”gives the Global Fund the flexibility and authority to distribute funds efficiently based on immediate needs.”

In his statement Gates noted:

“By supporting the Global Fund, we can help to change the fortunes of the poorest countries in the world. I can’t think of more important work.”

By providing a promissory note with the funds Bill Gates says money can be made available immediately to

“Saves lives, whether it is bed nets (to protect against mosquitoes carrying malaria) or TB (tuberculosis) treatment, those are two diseases that don’t get perhaps the visibility of the work done in HIV but they are every bit as important.”

The money is a big donation to the fund and the second for Bill & Melinda Gates, through their foundation the Global Fund received $650 million 10 years ago.

The three-quarter of a billion dollar donation comes at a time when the funds executive director Dr. Michel Kazatchkine has announced he will step down after a controversy erupted regarding misuse of funds.  Gates for his part downplayed the controversy by revealing that while it’s “pretty disappointing” he also acknowledges that ”If you are going to do health programs in Africa, you are going to have some percentage that is misused.”

“The interest is saving lives,” Gates said, adding there were “all sorts of things that are going on that far overwhelm any amount of misdirection or whatever it was.”

Funds are available now to the Global Fund on an as needed basis.

Bill Gates Gives Away $750 Million To Help Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a post from: The Inquisitr

Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates has some news for Washington D.C., he feel that he is not paying enough in taxes.

In an interview Gates told the BBC. ,

“The United States has a huge budget deficit, so taxes are going to have to go up. And I certainly agree that they should go up more on the rich than everyone else. That’s just justice.”

This comes on the back of Warren Buffet’s call for the President to raise taxes on the rich also.

Republicans, who resist any form of tax hikes that is possible, said that people like Buffet and Gates spread the politics of “Envy and Division”.

Gates countered that in a time where huge budget deficits are the norm, it is up to all Americans to contribute more to the system in a form of shared sacrifice.

The reason that these types of things are do divisive are actually quite simple.  Neither the Democrats or Republicans have any clue what to do about taxes heading into an election year.

It is obvious that the rich could pay more.  Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is worth more than $200 million dollars, seemed to take offense when someone asked him if it was fair that he only paid a tax rate of 13.9%. He thinks the system is fine and went on a rant about how leaving more money in the hands of the rich makes more jobs because they invest in more jobs.

Unfortunately, Mitt Romney is a perfect example of how that is not true.  Mitt Romney is not in business any more.  He is not creating jobs. By taxing him at a low rate all we as a nation are doing is giving him more money to put in the bank.

Taxing the rich is not the answer to the country’s problems anyway as if we confiscated 100% of the wealth from all the billionaires in the country it would still be less than 6 months of our national deficit.

The real answer is to put the country on a path to work together to solve these problems.  Never once when President Obama talks about taxing the rich does he talk about paying down the deficit, he talks about using the money to implement more social programs.

Do you think Bill Gates hit the nail on the head about shared responsibility?

Bill Gates: Rich People Should Pay More Taxes [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

As the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates works on the following principles:

Guiding Principle #1: This is a family foundation driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family.
Guiding Principle #2: Philanthropy plays an important but limited role.
Guiding Principle #3: Science and technology have great potential to improve lives around the world.
Guiding Principle #4: We are funders and shapers—we rely on others to act and implement.
Guiding Principle #5: Our focus is clear—and limited—and prioritizes some of the most neglected issues.
Guiding Principle #6: We identify a specific point of intervention and apply our efforts against a theory of change.
Guiding Principle #7: We take risks, make big bets, and move with urgency. We are in it for the long haul.
Guiding Principle #8: We advocate—vigorously but responsibly—in our areas of focus.
Guiding Principle #9: We must be humble and mindful in our actions and words. We seek and heed the counsel of outside voices.
Guiding Principle #10: We treat our grantees as valued partners, and we treat the ultimate beneficiaries of our work with respect.
Guiding Principle #11: Delivering results with the resources we have been given is of the utmost importance—and we seek and share information about those results.
Guiding Principle #12: We demand ethical behavior of ourselves.
Guiding Principle #13: We treat each other as valued colleagues.
Guiding Principle #14: Meeting our mission—to increase opportunity and equity for those most in need—requires great stewardship of the money we have available.
Guiding Principle #15: We leave room for growth and change.

Bill Gates himself has given to charity vast sums from his wealth – read about it right here. With the economic situation as it is, Bill Gates has set a high example for others to follow.

Source: CRI English

Bill Gates Celebrates Philanthropy In China is a post from: The Inquisitr

Computer prodigy Arfa Karim Randhawa, who was the World’s youngest Microsoft certified professional, died at the age of 16 in a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. Randhawa was brought to the hospital a few weeks ago after she suffered epileptic seizures.

Senior neurosurgeon Zafar Iqbal said:

“Arfa was hospitalised in a critical condition with meagre chances of survival because of a severe attack of idiopathic epilepsy fits. There were almost no signs of life as neither her heart was functioning nor blood was circulating to the brain.”

The Times of India reports that Bill Gates invited Randhawa to visit the company in 2004. Gates offered to bear the expense of her treatment in America but because of the teen’s fragile condition she could not travel abroad.

Randhawa became the youngest Microsoft certified professional at the age of 9. The Tribune reports that Arfa Randhawa was also the youngest recipient of the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance. Randhawa was also awarded the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in Science and Technology.

Randhawa lived a short but important life that was made possible by a simple philosophy she developed at the age of 10. Randhawa told the Digital Life:

“If you want to do something big in your life, you must remember that shyness is only the mind. If you think shy, you act shy. If you think confident you act confident. Therefore never let shyness conquer your mind.”

Arfa Karim Randhawa, Computer Programming Prodigy, Dies at 16 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Say what you will about Bill Gates but there is no denying that he has had an impressive impact on our society during his leadership at Microsoft and continues to be a force of change through his foundation along with his wife Melinda.

According to the figures in the infographic Bill Gates has given $28 Billion to various charities since 2007, which apparently accounts for almost 48% of his net-worth.

One of his biggest charitable efforts has been towards the eradication of malaria and an end to polio. He was also instrumental in the creation of The Living Pledge which is an effort to get the richest people in the world to publicly commit to giving away half their net-worth in their lifetime.

The multi-billionaire Warren Buffet is probably the most well known name to take the pledge.

via Frugal Dad

Since 2007 Bill Gates has given away 48 percent of his net-worth for charity [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $258 million to help prevent AIDS in India and now a recent study has shown that nearly 100,000 people in the region have avoiding the virus because of the organizations educational efforts.

The study concluded that prevention programs targeting high-risk populations were effective in helping reduce HIV and AIDS.

Dubbed the Avahan initiative the program has focused on prevention techniques such as needle-exchange programs, safe-sex counseling and condom distribution, standard practices in many parts of the world that had been overlooked in India.

The current study examined date from 2003 trhough 2008 and found that higher spending from the Avahan initiative correlated to lower AIDS cases in the country.

Critics say sthe methodology used in the study is flawed because it included pregnant women from antenatal clinics and because the study was funded directly through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

One critic says the findings are positive but “hard to quantify.”

Do you believe prevention programs created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are making a 100,000 person difference in India?

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Reduced India Aids Cases By 100,000 [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Who’s the richest man in America? For the last 18 years, the answer to that question has been Bill Gates. Gates took the number one spot again this year on Forbes 400 list, beating out fellow billionaires Warren Buffet and Larry Ellison.

Here are the 10 richest people in America.

1. Bill Gates – Microsoft ($59 Billion)
2. Warren Buffet – Investor ($39 Billion)
3. Larry Ellison – Oracle ($33 Billion)
4. Charles Koch – Koch Industries ($25 Billion)
5. David Koch – Koch Industries ($25 Billion)
6. Christy Walton – Wal-Mart ($24.5 Billion)
7. George Soros – Hedge Funds ($22 Billion)
8. Sheldon Andelson – Casinos ($21.5 Billion)
9. Jim Walton – Wal-Mart ($21.2 Billion)
10. Alice Walton – Wal-Mart ($20.9 Billion)

MSNBC reports that the cumulative wealth of the Forbes 400 rose 13 percent to $1.53 trillion. The average income for the Forbes 400 is $3.8 billion.

Forbes explained the methodology behind the Forbes 400 list, saying:

“Our estimates are a snapshot of each list member’s wealth on Aug. 26, when we locked in net worth numbers and rankings. Some of The Forbes 400 will become richer or poorer within weeks—even days—of publication.”

Technology entrepreneurs continued to make headway on the list this year. Mark Zuckerberg moved up from 35th on the list in 2010 to 14th on the list this year. The 27-year-old Facebook founder gained more than $10 billion this year and currently has a net worth of $17.5 billion. Zuckerberg also moved ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The Google duo are tied in 15th on the Forbes 400 list.

Sean Parker, Jim Breyer, and Dustin Moskovitz also made their way onto the Forbes 400 list with the help of Facebook.

Everyone on the Forbes 400 list had a net worth of at least $1.05 billion. Does the Forbes 400 list make you depressed? Amazed? Should 400 people have more than $1 trillion?

Bill Gates is the Richest Man in America For the 18th Consecutive Year is a post from: The Inquisitr

That was in 2004.

Fast forward to today and the Khan Academy,  Khan’s free educational website, has over 2,300 videos aimed at helping students all over the world with various problems ranging from simple addition to college calculus and everything in between. Math, however, isn’t the only subject that Khan covers in his lessons, which usually last anywhere from 10-18 minutes.

Just check out his website and you will see that he is constantly adding videos on accounting, the French Revolution, and the SAT and GMAT, among other things. Sal first masters the subjects himself and then teaches them via his videos. By of the end of April 2011 the Khan Academy had served up more than 54 million individual lessons and that number continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Just to put things in perspective as to how big his education site is becoming chew on this. MIT’s OpenCourseWare site has been around since 2001 and averages 1 million hits a month. Last month alone, Sal’s website, which posted it’s first video in November of 2006, had over 2 million visits.

Teachers aren’t the only ones, however, getting excited about Kahn’s project. Microsoft mastermind Bill Gates, a online learning devotee, is one of Sal’s biggest fans.

“What Sal Khan has done is amazing,” Gates says in a video on his personal website. “He’s taken all this material and broken it down into little 12-minute lectures. I use it myself to remind myself of things.  I see Sal Khan as a pioneer in an overall movement to use technology to let more and more people learn things,” says Gates. “It’s the start of a revolution.”

Check out the video below to hear Gates talk about the Khan Academy and how it can change the world of learning as we know it.

Khan Academy Changing the Way We Learn is a post from: The Inquisitr

Steve Ballmer’s job is safe, at least for the short term. This week hedge fund manager David Einhorn asked the company to find a new leader to help rejuvenate the company’s focus however a source close to the board says all members support Ballmer and his vision for the company.

Among those people supporting Ballmer is Bill Gates who believes his vision for the company will continue to strengthen Microsoft’s offerings in the future. If you believe it’s all buddy buddy between the men an unnamed hedge fund manager called Gates a “ruthless capitalist” who would personally kick Ballmer to the door to raise the company’s bottom line.

For his part Einhorn has called Ballmer the “biggest overhang” holding back Microsoft from a stronger stock evaluation, specifically when dealing with the companies online division which has lost $7 billion in four years of head-to-head Google competition. [Electronista]

Microsoft Board Supports Steve Ballmer Despite Calls Of Resignation is a post from: The Inquisitr

The one big thing that I don’t like about a lot of the so-called online learning is that for the most part it is nothing more than a money machine bilking the government out of millions of dollars which was reported on in a recent documentary on PBS. However Bill Gates is one of the people who thinks that done right technology could go a long way to reducing the ever increasing cost of going to college and university.

At the recent Technonomy conference held in San Francisco Bill Gates suggested that technology could reduce that cost of a post-secondary school education down to $2,000

“College, except for the parties, needs to be less place-based,” he said.

Moving more learning activities online can bring down the soaring cost of a college degree.

“Only technology can bring [college tuition] down, not just to $20,000, but to $2,000,” he said, citing price tags as high as $50,000 for a year of college.

Gates predicted that technology could soon make place-based learning five times less important for college and university students.

Source: Hillicon Valley

As nice as that sounds we are a very, very long way from that vision as you can see when you watch College Inc from PBS.

According to Bill Gates college should cost $2,000 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wow .. Old Billy Boy sure seems to be getting this social media thing down pat. He’s on Twitter as a verified account (@billgates) with some 238,000+ followers (he is only following 40 people) and he’s apparently restarted his Facebook page.

Then to really top it off it seems that he has launched a blog called Gates Notes. This is were he is supposedly going to share his thoughts and travels around the world with us peons.

Don’t get me wrong I think this is a great idea and I’ve followed him on Twitter; even knowing the chances of him following back are nil. However when I went to add his blog to my feedreader I was stymied.

His blog doesn’t have an RSS feed.

I realize this isn’t earth shattering but after obviously putting out the effort to make himself accessible it is really strange that one of the cornerstones of social media isn’t available on his blog.

Hey Bill – how about turning on the RSS stream?

Is a blog a blog if it doesn’t have an RSS feed – even if you’re Bill Gates? is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $100,000 to a group that’s fighting Malaria. The procedure used, providing gum and chocolate to patients may seem a little strange, but it’s also a simple and cheap means to fighting the disease.

Under the program children are given gum to painlessly determine if they carry the deadly disease, while chocolate is used to destroy a patients disease-feeding fat cells.

The program has shown a good deal of promise and the $100,000 donation should help increase testing. [Telegraph]

Bill Gates Gives $100,000 To Fight Malaria With Gum And Chocolate is a post from: The Inquisitr

I guess it was inevitable – *sigh*

Bill Gates caught having an affair is a post from: The Inquisitr

…they hatin’.

[Via PunditKitchen]

They see me rollin’… is a post from: The Inquisitr

Scientists in Seattle are developing a laser based attack system that will shoot down mosquitoes.

If that’s not overkill enough, it gets better: the system is based on the Strategic Defense Initiative proposal (Star Wars), the satellite based laser system championed by Ronald Reagan in the 80s, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

But wait, there’s another two twists.

The first one is that astrophysicist who is designing the system is the same astrophysicist who developed the original Star Wars idea. Second: the request to build the laser system came from former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

The system is all about combating Malaria. “We like to think back then we made some contribution to the ending of the Cold War. Now we’re just trying to make a dent in a war that’s actually gone on a lot longer and claimed a lot more lives,” said one of the scientists.

OK, I lied, there’s one last twist: the parts used in the mockup of the system were purchased from eBay.

So here’s the short version: Retired defense department scientists working to impress Bill Gates have used cold war technology acquired on eBay to build a laser based offensive system against Mosquitos. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Overkill: scientists building laser system to kill mosquitoes. But wait, there’s more! is a post from: The Inquisitr

Love him or hate him there is no denying that Bill Gates has brought about many changes in our world through his time at Microsoft. As he moves into the future with the Bill & Melina Gates Foundation he looks to bring a whole set of different changes to the world. In this long interview with Charlie Rose Bill looks back over his time at Microsoft and to the future with his thoughts on world health and development.

[hat tip to O’Reilly Radar]

A fireside chat with Bill Gates is a post from: The Inquisitr

The recalculation took into consideration the effect of the economic woes that we are all in. While my pathetic investment is down by 60% and will surely become dust soon, Buffett on the other hand added $8 billion to his net worth from August 29 to October 1 for a total of $58 billion.

How about Bill Gates? He is poorer now by $1.5 billion to $55 billion over the same period as Buffett. He relinquishes the top spot after 15 years.

The magazine is due to come out October 27. Don’t look for my name.

Buffett now richest American; Gates poorer is a post from: The Inquisitr

Video viewing trend tracker Visible Measures says the Seinfeld/Gates ads have experienced 4.3 million more views than the “I’m a PC” ones. Both, the firm says, had the same number of placements. And even though the Seinfeld/Gates spots launched two weeks earlier than the current campaign, the figures are clear:

• The Seinfeld/Gates ads grabbed 3.2 million views in their first 10 days; “I’m a PC” pulled in half of that
• Two weeks in, the Seinfeld/Gates ads were still seeing 300,000+ daily hits; “I’m a PC” dropped to 50,000 daily views by the same relative point

Of course, what really counts is how it all adds up when it comes to actual sales. Any predictions?

Microsoft’s Seinfeld Spots Smash “I’m a PC” For Viral Viewing is a post from: The Inquisitr

You can see our full coverage on the campaign so far as follows: Microsoft says Seinfield, Gates ad a winner, Bill Gates Jerry Seinfield Microsoft Ad 2, Bill Gates Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad and So Windows is like cheap shoes? [Microsoft WTF].

The official Microsoft spin on the move is that they are moving to phase two of the campaign, and that they had always planned to drop Seinfield, although no word yet as to whether Bill Gates will make another appearance.

It’s a sensible move, but a costly mistake. $300 million is budgeted on this campaign, and Seinfiled’s fees alone are probably in the millions. I’ll reserve judgement on phase two until we see it, but they couldn’t possibly be any worse.

Microsoft dumps Seinfield from ad campaign is a post from: The Inquisitr