Microsoft has now launched its new operating system - Windows Vista. Within a year, 100 million computers will be running it. The code underneath the hood of the operating system is a tightly kept secret. There's no way to fix it if it's broken, other than to wait for Microsoft to come out with a patch. Indeed, most users won't have a choice about whether they want it - it'll come standard with new computers. Unlike free, open source software, Vista will depends for its adoption on market domination, heavy advertising, and unforgiving software license contracts that force businesses to upgrade to it.

It's a business model that keeps the cash flowing into Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, and thence into the pockets of Bill Gates, whose net worth is now a shade over $50 billion. Which begs the question: how do you spend that kind of money?

To some extent, the decision was made for him. In the 1990s, when he faced a series of potentially serious lawsuits, Gates announced that he was going to give away large slabs of his money. As the jury deliberated, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was launched. Today, it sits on an endowment of over $30 billion, a pile that includes some of Warren Buffet's loose change. Together, Buffet and the Gates' aim to fight hunger and poverty. Africa is in their sights. And they've promised to bring the same no-nonsense business approach to spending their money as they brought to earning it.

This is why their New Philanthropy is certain to do more harm than good.

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Raj's blog | 13 comments

Posted on 30 January, 2007 - 21:48