Why Bill Gates is better than Steve Jobs

By the title of this blog post, you might think I am crazy. How could Bill Gates can be in any way better than Steve Jobs? Bill Gates is geeky, dresses weird, is a bad presenter, and off-course represents Microsoft, one of the most disregarded software company. On the other hand Steve Jobs is cool, is a very good presenter, and he represents Apple, on of the most fashionable technology company. It is like comparing Microsoft with Apple, Windows with OSX, Zune with iPod. So definitely the title must be wrong.

But I still believe that in one important aspect Bill Gates is better than Steve Jobs. After he retired from Microsoft, Bill Gates dedicated most of his time and money to philanthropy. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation directs most of its attention to global health, education and agriculture in the third world and has committed more than $21 billion since it was established in 1994. On top of that, recently the foundation announced plans to invest $10 billion in the fight against a number of illnesses including AIDS and said the record donation could save nearly nine million lives. I would argue that these are the best 'invested' money as they could be.

So, from one point of view, you could say that the money won from that 'crappy' operating system are used for greater purposes. I agree that most of the money went to the share-holders, and only a small part went to Bill's account; but as I said is just a point of view. Bill Gates was ruthless in business and his company was very aggressive with the competitors, but in the end all the money he won in those times are now spent for noble purposes.

From this point of view I am more that happy to contribute to the success of his products. From this point of view I would rather buy an Microsoft products than a trendy Apple product.

Disclaimer: I have nothing personal against Steve Jobs or Apple. I even admire him and some of his work at Apple. He is presented here only as an icon representing the fashionable trend in technology today.