[Fsfe-uk] Times columnist slams Bill Gates knighthood

[James Heald]

Nice to get some common sense on the Times's main comment page.


It's absurd to give Bill Gates a gong for services to enterprise
-- John Naughton (Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at 
the Open University).

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,482-978836,00.html]


" Tom Lehrer said that “satire died the day Henry Kissinger was awarded 
the Nobel Peace Prize”. The news that Microsoft boss Bill Gates is to be 
awarded an honorary knighthood for his “outstanding contribution to 
enterprise in the UK” will raise similar hollow laughs from those 
familiar with Microsoft’s baleful effect on the software industry 
worldwide... "


" “His company”, in the opinion of Jack Straw, “has had a profound 
effect on the British economy”...  Most people who buy PCs have no idea 
of the size of the Microsoft tax they are paying, but the numbers are 
very instructive. For example, when buying some PCs recently for a small 
organisation with which I am involved, I requested a detailed 
itemisation of the cost per machine, which was £739 plus VAT. The 
breakdown revealed that the cost of the hardware was £299. The remaining 
£440 was made up of licence fees for Windows XP-Pro and Microsoft 
Office... Multiply these numbers by the millions of PCs bought annually 
by British companies and organisations and you will get the measure of 
Mr Gates’s “contribution to enterprise in the UK”... "


"The word from Brussels is that Microsoft’s lawyers are worried that the 
judgment may go against them.  If that does happen, Tony’s 
newly-cemented friendship with Bill may come in useful. In the meantime, 
Sir Bill could show his commitment to the UK economy by returning some 
of the billions he has looted from it. "