Who is Your Hero, Gates or Jobs?

feranick writes "Wired and Ars Technica are both running articles comparing Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, not for their business/technological achievements but for their humanitarian involvement. I am curious to see what you are thinking about the issue. What is more important, be a showmen technologist like Jobs or an humanitarian missionaire like Gates? And even more important: Is it important that donations from rich billionaires be public or should they remain private?"

If I have a choice..

[doubtless]

then may I choose Superman?

Who Else but....

[saden1]

My father is my hero! Gates wouldn't even lend me money to buy my first car.

Why compare Steve Jobs and Melinda Gates?

[aralin]

I have no idea who decided to compare Steve Jobs and Melinda Gates and why, but it just seems silly. The only things these two have in common is that they are wealthy. AFAIK Bill wouldn't give a cent to charity if Melinda wouldn't make him. Why don't we just scrap the humanitarian efforts alltogether and just compare Bill Gates and Steve Jobs based on the work they do, not the work their money do in some charities.

I'd say my hero is Bill Gates, because he showed the world, there is no reason to be afraid to be openly evil. I love him for paving the way for all of us villains to be. He shows us it is good to be evil :)

The edge of the market

[Marxist Hacker 42]

More people= more people to pay microsoft licenses. The third world is the edge of the market for Microsoft, they've saturated the United States, the First world, and the Second world. The only way left to expand is to make sure more people survive.

Re:uh... neither?

[vertinox]

neither of these men have risked their lives for belief in something that violent people around them did not believe.

Maybe they should be guest speakers at this years LinuxWorld Expo then?

Re:Does Ballmer donate anything?

[WormholeFiend]

Does Ballmer donate anything?

funny internet videos for our entertainment

Re:The edge of the market

[amliebsch]

The only way left to expand is to make sure more people survive.

Well, then, stick it to Microsoft. Kill yourself now.

rich billionaires

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it important that donations from rich billionaires be public or should they remain private?

showoffs, think of all the poor billionaires!

Three words...

[frank_adrian314159]

"Monkey Boy" Balmer!

After all, he already declared his undying love to us developers, developers, developers!

Bill Gates....

[Cryptnotic]

Because $640K should be enough for everyone.

no contest

[steveoc]

Angelina Jolie does a pretty good job with charity stuff too, huh ?

My hero though - that would have to be the chick I met last night, my god, I cant believe she did THAT .. what a hero !! Didnt even get her name, sorry.

Obviously, I prefer jobs. Gates just get in my way

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, how easy was that?

Re:Obvious Third Option: The Woz

[mrraven]

When someone says they are proud to drve an SUV I imagine them in a klein bottle shaped [wolfram.com] SUV driving it up their own ass. YMMV but if your are driving an SUV it will be low.