For the first time in a really long time. I actually like TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year. Bill Gates gets a lot of bad things said about him. As if overpriced buggy software makes him worse than Satan. I’m no Microsoft fanboy. I like a lot of MS products, and I dislike my fair share too, but I firmly believe that the world is a better place because of Bill Gates. Would I want a world without Windows? Actually no. For good or bad Microsoft has made a large contribution to the accesiblity and ubiquity of software. A lot of people say that Windows is only finally getting better because of Linux forcing it to become better. But I believe the correllary to be true. BSD was around for years before Windows 95. Yet UNIX didn’t become the dominant desktop OS for a reason. I believe MS forced free software to become better in a similar way. It’s a good ecosystem, and I wouldn’t want to live in a world without both free and proprietary software.
Software aside, when it comes to tackling world’s problems, the Gates get it. They understand in a way that prior NGO’s and GO’s never really creatively tackled global issues. Largely that is due to the fact that Gates is a career innovator. It’s always been his job to seek new markets and solutions rather than languish in old thinking. I especially like his prize for anyone who can come up with room temperature vaccines. It’s a simple idea with the potential to save millions, yet no one works toward it because there’s no market pressure for it. I also like that Bono and the Gates get what the real global issues are - primarily crushing poverty and lack of education. Solving these two issues are the catalysts necessary for improvement in almost every other problem. It’s a breath of fresh air from the idiot celebrities who work for PETA because it’s hip.
I also would like to applaude TIME’s editorial staff for not giving away the person of the year award to yet another political leader. I don’t think a US President has done anything truly remarkably worthwhile in a long long time.