On the other hand, Microsoft has to be commended for the effectiveness of their business strategies, combining steadfast support for developers and corporate customers with a great application suite (MS Word) and underhanded but clever tactics to force computer manufacturers to push their products on the public.

No. Microsoft did not make the PC possible; Microsoft won a format war. There were many players in the early PC market, but Microsoft slowly forced them all, save Apple, out of the business. If Microsoft had not existed, someone else would have emerged as the last man standing.

Your position is roughly equivalent to claiming that GM is responsible for the automotive revolution.

I lot of us feel that the collapse was due to MS continuing to squash/steal every single competitive/innovative idea produced by others. The people who COULD innovate gave up and MS couldn’t innovate on its own. To underscore that point, here’s a question: name a single software innovation that MS invented and commercialized all on its own.

…the gold standard was set by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard — two men whose careers Gates has always quietly emulated.

Er…no. Read Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company and reevaluate. MS is nothing like the HP of old. And the poorly-socialized Gates can’t hold a candle to H and P in his relations with his employees.

Bill Gates new role as philanthropist raises some serious questions. Has he simply become a guilt tripped capitalist who will now do far more harm than good? I am not sure that he done much good with his recent financial contributions. Gates may now be just another funder of leftist organizations. I strongly suspect that he is a self-hating capitalist. Am I overly cynical?

It’s simply natural for people like gates. Even if they/he don’t/doesn’t retire, they still have control with their time. Moreover, as a person who loves his work, it is but an enjoyment to be back into the Silicon Valley circulation.