[asfgionio]

>Being rich had nothing to do with him selling an OS to IBM.

Yes, a stolen OS he had no part in developing.

I don't doubt that he's a competent programmer (or was at one point). I see no evidence that he's a great one. There are programmers with ten times his ability who will never see 0.01% of his money.

[bluedevil2k]

What's your point? What makes you the judge of a "great programmer"?

Who cares if there's programmers with 10x his ability, you're talking like programming skills should equal wealth. Sorry, no matter Bill Gates' programming skills, he was a genius at running and growing a business. Two totally different skill sets.

[asfgionio]

>What makes you the judge of a "great programmer"?

What makes the market the judge? It's picked some really terrible technology.

>Sorry, no matter Bill Gates' programming skills, he was a genius at running and growing a business.

Why is "running and growing a business" a good thing? I would say Microsoft is pretty good evidence that it's often harmful.

Do you think Elizabeth Holmes, Al Capone, and Bernie Madoff deserve to be rich? They were all pretty good at what they did.

[bluedevil2k]

You're comparing criminals to Bill Gates? Really? Some people can't be argued with when they make wild baseless claims.

[rak00n]

You're almost trolling. We're on the edge of defining what's good and bad.