Knights in the UK were very rarely worthy of that title, most matters involving the chivalric code were money matters "who owed who what" etc no rescuing damsels in distress. If anything the standard of Knights has increased this century (but we have all watched Sword in the Stone and Excalibur and expect Knights of old to all be like Arthur and his boys).

It is however just an award as mentioned by someone else thats just still considered quite exclusive. At least Gates has given a hell of a lot of money to the needy (yes the amount is relative but most people don't give a penny, if it is "blood money" or to help him sleep at night do you think the starving kids in Africa care? ITS EASY TO COMPLAIN WHEN YOU HAVE A HOME AND A FULL STOMACH), set up foundations to do the same and pestered governments to do the same with some success as opposed to Paul McCartney who received it for getting famous with music and lining his pockets with it. Quick question here if people had not bought an MS product would their money have gone to charity? If not then Bill would would not have gotten that money and given less to the needy. IF he was given the Knighthood based on the OS and/or IE then that would still be justified, like it or not MS Windows has been the OS that brought the world together with email,im etc (they didnt develop all of it maybe they even stole some of it, but MS either gave it to us ot the means to use it). Has it got problems HELL YES some serious ones IMHO, but these concernes were there before Linux, they came about because people thought (I think rightly) that MS hadn't delivered on promises/improvements (using MS itself as the benchmark).

Is he a criminal? Well if the courts say so yes (of course you have to take a leap of faith in trusting the Judges involved were completely impartial). But here is the TRUTH if Gates goes to prison (lmao) and loses MS someone WILL take his place and they MAY be better or they MAY be worse will it make OUR lives actually any better? Of course if half the effort people put into vilifying and hating Gates was put into having perverts and murderers punished properly we WOULD get to live in a better world. So just let him have his half kindofknighthood and lets worry about real issues that affect us outside our own front door).

Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Roger Moore, Sir Sean Connery... the fact is that the monarchy has been passing these things out with little discrimination all in order to prop up their image to that of being absolutely irrelevant to just mostly irrelevant.

Does that mean that he needs an activation code for his Knighthood?

LMFAO

Did you know that he funds the worlds largest health institute? How about the fact that he routinely donates millions of dollars to charity and health research? Give the guy a break; at least he's doing a lot of good with his wads of cash.

For crying out load, why is the royalty licking Bills ass?

What a bunch of BS!

"For crying out load, why is the royalty licking Bills ass?"

Another Microsoft-hater !

Bill Gates has done far more for the world than the Beatles (who were also knighted).

Gates could invent the cure for cancer, and the Microsoft-haters would ...well... still hate him !

The Computer Rodent

Oh, let's face it: You little Microsoft-haters wouldn't give Gates credit if he abolished world hunger, war, and rid the planet of Linux !

The Computer Rodent

He could also help cure poverty in the countries where his company Microsoft turn over annually more $$$$$ than their whole economy!

More presented facts "WRONG"
The Beatles were not knighted! They received MBEs from Harold Wilson's government and later returned them in protest!
Paul McCartney was given a knighthood in the 90s for his services to music.
You claim Bill Gates has done more for the world - did you not mean to say that Bill Gates has done more for Bill Gates AND far less for honesty and integrity!

...but for now I just want to mention how interesting some of these useless arguments have become. First of all, Bill was Knighted...so why the heck do you mention "The Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)" in your post, fewt? We're talking about UK, and you're talking US and France. Why, oh why can we not get the Dr. DOS debate behind us? That was over 12 years ago and has little to do with Bill being Knighted by the Queen of England.
"Sure you may get to the top, and maybe even last a while there but you'll not sleep well at night, well unless you are a deeply twisted individual"

Well, deeply twisted...or a businessman. Really...where do you work (rhetorical)? Businesses have always been like this, and yes I'm sure there are exceptions, but why aren't you this upset with Intel for their exclusivity contracts with Dell and IBM? Why can Intel pay them to NOT use AMD and it be legal? Because few people know, or nobody is mad at Intel. More later...

Because he is an officer of the company, and that makes him a felon. Apparently the Queen is in the habit of knighting felons.

There are plenty of companies out there that put ethics above all else, most of the companies on the fortune scale are among them. *MOST*

For everyone outside the U.K. please understand that the honours system stinks!
These are generally given to the rich and famous for doing nothing. They are also given for favours - such as contributing towards a political party - being a top ranking civil servant ( government employee ) and forgetting the truth about the underhanded things that go on - being a friend of Tony Blair etc etc.
I am surprised that on this occasion it has been given to Bill Gates whose company robs millions of pounds from the U.K. economy every year and puts very little back in! It comes as no surprise that phony Tony Blair recently wined and dined Bill Gates when he visited this country. He was treated by good old Tony more like a visiting Head Of State than a business shark! Wonder if he has given money to New Labour's coffers for the forthcoming U.K. Election?
Imagine previously giving an honour to the likes of George Bush senior, former Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani, and Hollywood director Steven Spielberg. Anyone like to bet that the current clown in the White House (George W Bush) gets one in the future? Perhaps it will be for recognition for his contribution to pot smoking!
"Beam Me Up Scotty, I'm drowning in the bullsh*t down here"

Doesn't put any money back?, he paid for a whole research center at Cambridge University, those things don't actually come cheap mate!

Does this mean he is also trying to buy himself an honorary degree?

I'm confused as to what's going on here, and how it's related and or motives for each side.

Keep it up guys, as always you all are giving me one hell of a laugh watching how much you hate microsoft and anything/anyone having to do with microsoft having anything good happen to them. ENCORE ENCORE

After reading all of these posts, I am reminded that I have a life and really dont give a flying crap about any of this. Nor do I lose sleep at night because Bill has a monopoly status. Nor am I bitterly angry at Microsoft. As a matter of fact, I realized that I would much rather watch water boil that read about all these losers who whine and b**** all day about nothing.

Do you need a little wine with that Cheese?
It is really funny funny the things ppl post!!!

"After all, a knighthood is something money can't buy,"

in the olden days, the title of knight was bestowed by the monarcy on those who showed courage, valor, integrity and morality in their service of Queen and country

Seems these days the title of knight is just another thing that can be bought (and sold therotically since Gates basically bought his title, it is his to sell as he sees fit).

the more advanced society gets the more it degrades morally until it crumbles into the ground.

President: Martha Stewart
Vice Pres. Bill Gates
Chief of Staff: Arnold

Today anything is possable, a felon as Pres. and V.P and an Alien as COS. ;-)))))

It’s sad, everyone is going on about poor ethics, and morals, and there is nothing actually ethically or morally wrong with what he is doing. Perhaps that could be said about some of the early things that he has done, stealing the mouse/UI from Apple who stole it from Xerox for one, but that’s common practice in any industry. Right now, and over the past number of years, there has not been a problem with his ethics or morals.

Unlike the mighty Apple, he admits there are problems, flaws in his OS that could create security risks. So there’s nothing morally or ethically wrong with selling windows as it is right now. He may say he has the better OS, there’s nothing wrong with that, just a little pride. It is like you saying you have a bigger d***, nothing wrong with that, just a little pride.

As for him taking over smaller businesses that stand in the company’s way…Well that’s just common practice, if you have a problem with another company, you will either, work with them, take them over, or destroy them. If you don’t, you will have every little d*** and their brother eating up your share of the market.

edit: If you are going to b**** about people trying to take over an entire market by buying out other businesses, go take a look at EA, they are doing the very same thing.

Oh come on, there's nothing wrong with it?

Aside from being convicted of being a monopoly of course.

"Section 2. Monopolizing trade a felony; penalty

Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $10,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any other person, $350,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding three years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court." - The Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Then there was SOFTWARE THEFT

"Microsoft was found guilty of software piracy last year by a French court, according to facts unearthed today by the geek community.

But the Redmond giant's conviction and three million franc (£285,000) fine somehow managed to escape the headlines. In fact, until today the only place the story has appeared is in French newspaper Le Monde Informatique." - http://www.vnunet.com/news/1131606

Not to mention that The EC concluded that Microsoft is abusing a monopoly position for unfair competition.

They bought their way out of this one..

"Caldera, a small vendor of PC operating systems, will accuse Microsoft of breaking antitrust law by illegally tying MS-DOS and Windows and refusing to give a beta to a competitor." - http://www.wired.com/new...cs/0,1283,20447,00.html

I'm sorry, are you living under a rock?

Just because something is common practice doesn't make it right! That's called the bandwagon fallacy. Read about it: http://www.fallacyfiles.org/bandwagn.html

...because I know the differerence between possessive and plural, i.e. the appropraite use of apostrophes. Shame on you all!

How *appropriate* !

Name one thing he has done to deserve it, besides share some of his blood money.

Ahahahahahahahah

Queen Elizabeth Must not use Microsoft Windows or office.

Man, you guy's should show some respect... just because you're angry at Microsoft’s products (which I’m sure you couldn’t do any better) doesn’t mean you should show disrespect to people that donate that kind of money... when was the last time you donated one million dollars? Never ... so show some respect. I admit there are some holes in Microsoft, but yet there are holes in all software, if everyone was aiming to make virus for Linux, instead of Windows, I’m sure that windows would be more secure... so please keep you're whining to you're self.

Thank you.

Yes he got rich off software you may not like, but he could have just kept all that money but instead he's using some of it to do some good in the world.

"After all, a knighthood is something money can't buy"

correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't he being knighted because he donated a bunch of money? indirectly, it appears that being knighted IS something money can buy.

He donated all that money so he can sleep at night.

There's no other reason really, he's not a very ethically sound person as shown by the way his company has been managed since it's creation.

Break the law, and don't stop until someone notices is not the way to run a company. Sure you may get to the top, and maybe even last a while there but you'll not sleep well at night, well unless you are a deeply twisted individual. Many companies pride themselves on ethics and morals, but his isn't one of them.

Come on now, as it was mentioned before, even if you don't like his products, at least admire the guy's generosity. Neither I nor any of you have the ability to see into Bill Gates' head, but I'm sure he donated that money to help out the world. He has a few billion dollars, and he's donated quite a bit. Don't judge him by his software, because I'll bet that you still use Windows because Linux is too hard to master. I, for one, am glad Gates' is being knighted.

excuse me? How did Bills ethics turn into my computer preference. I use Linux, Unix, and Windows thanks and have a much more in depth knowledge of all of them than you probably do, though it's really a pathetic attack and you won't get much more out of me on it unless you try real hard.

He donates so he can rest easy knowing all of the bad things that he's done and that's the bottom line. I'm sorry, you will have to form a stronger argument to convince me otherwise because I have been around for a long long time and seen his dirty tricks.

You may be able to convince me that it's one heck of a tax deduction as well but I'll probably lean towards the sleeping thing.

Anyone remember the Windows Beta that refused to run on DR-DOS? I do.

I'm glad he donates tons of money to charities, but he doesn't deserve to be knighted. Jailed, maybe but not knighted.

The money hes donated is from the rediculous prices he can ask for his software being a monopoly. like every manufactured pc having windows.

Interesting! I had no idea that making bad software, stealing other's work, and maintaining a monopoly qualified one for knighthood in the U.K.! See there, you learn something new every day!

Fewt...

You complain about ethics, morals, and being able to sleep at night, but I am a bit confused as to how after talking of such grand things that you can turn around and start bad mouthing left and right. Sure, here is where you are going to start saying that you are only reporting what is fact. Though I must ask, is it ethically and morally sound to say a person's donations are made only with their "blood money" or talking about how "deeply twisted" they are? There are ways to get your point across without resorting to name calling. Do you personally know Bill Gates? Have you ever personally spent any time at all with him? If not, then who are you (or anyone else for that matter) to judge him?

the dude is like the most generous rich person ever. he's making a difference, are you, or do you just like to whine?

That would be Carnegie, he gave it all.

That wasn't actually meant as flame of MS products, i use them every day and don't really have much against Microsoft or Gates. It's just funny what's appreciated today: a wealthy geek becomes a knight. Too bad he didn't get "sir." :-)

Could someone explain to me why its seen as such a bad thing to be rich? Why does he have to give it ALL away? What is he Satan unless hes broke? Come on.. you guys are buying in this whole notion of the "screw the rich" just a bit too much. Open your mind and drop the class warfare bit.. Bill Gates is spending his own money and resources to fight AIDS and do all kinds of good things in this world.

I don't see how labeling money spent by a person that earned it illegally is unethical.

There's nothing wrong with being rich, it's how you get rich that could be a problem.

Business is survival of the fitest and the smartest... he made smart decisions. If you think you can sucessful while worrying about what everyone else thinks, or by being "fair", then you are kidding yourself. There will always be someone who is going to critisize. You get to a point where you dont give a rats a** what anyone says and do what you can.

Business is the survival of the smartest and the fitest within a set of boundries. I'm sorry, business does not mean anarchy.

You guys never learn do you... some one smart enough to run a business and make billions of dollars off it, then he also donates millions of dollars to people with aids and other diseases. And all you can do is complain. What makes you so much of a better person then bill gates, do you donate millions of dollars... NO! All you do is whine about something that someone else did to help people out... in fact you never know some of his money may help you one day. So I would keep you’re whining to you’re self.. Complaining about people you don't like isn't going to get you any ware, nor is it going to get anyone else any ware now is it?

you guys write like those dumb guys think and talk from the Jerry Springer show.

you were probably writing all those nasties about Microsoft from IE.....so what if queenie knighted uncle Bill, doesnt matter, he wont be called Sir Bill anyway

This post was for the Oprah Win board.........

If you honestly believe that most rich people in the world became so ethically then you my friend, are naive. Rich people don't get rich and stay rich by being nice and sweet. Businesspeople get rich and successful by being cutthroat.

Backdoor deals and shady meetings in dark rooms happen all the time. Look at Oracle and PeopleSoft. Do you really think Ellison gives two craps about the 8,000 PeopleSoft employees he let go when his company decided to buy their way into the ERP market? Everyone targets MS because they are an easy target. Get real. For Gods sakes...

Btw, I do love these articles about MS and Bill Gates because you can always count on 50 posts about how Gates is evil and MS eats babies to maintain its monopoly.

When is the last time you created a foundation that donates billions world wide and was the most endowed chartiy on the planet? When was the last time you dedicated resources at your company to research HIV mutations?

How exactly did that have anything to do with my post?

And this fewt is why you are in a middle management job in Largo Florida.. if your still even there.

Largo, FL? Noooooo I used to live close to Largo though.

Sorry, the company that I work for as well as my position in that company is unimportant to the conversation.

I've read all the posts here and I've heard thing from both sides, some credible, while others being just ignorant. I personally think it is pretty bogus that Bill Gates is being knighted, because it has nothing to do with anything, but then again, pretty much anyone is knighted these days by someone who is just a figure head to begin with. There are posts here that talk about ALL the millions Bill Gates has donated to charities and how he is one of the most giving organizations and debates on how much millions anyone else on here has donated. Well, I have an analogy for you. Now if I donate $200 a month to a charity and Jimmy here donates $10 a month, because he doesn't make as much money as I do, does that make me more charitable? Just because Bill Gates has donated millions to charities (which is chump change to him and he gets quite a bit of it back on taxes anyways), does that make him a more giving and charitable contributor compared others?

Now do I think Bill Gates is a good business man, definitely, he is one of the greatest business men to come a long, do I think he is a good person, well, that is debatable and it really doesn’t matter what I think. From my stand point, one that monopolizes an industry and prevents any healthy competition isn’t really doing that much to help the world or economy anyways, but that is just my opinion. Paying $90 for beta software, and that just being the upgrade, seems a little excessive to me. But, then again, you always have a choice and you don’t have to buy MS products, because OS’s like Linux are coming a long way and will soon surpass MS Windows in every aspect and Bill Gates knows this anyways, which is why he is all ruffled up over open source. You can take what I say or leave it, but it is the truth, but that is my rant about something that really doesn’t have much to do with this subject anyways, oh well, just wanted my say.

I've read all the posts here and I've heard thing from both sides, some credible, while others being just ignorant. I personally think it is pretty bogus that Bill Gates is being knighted, because it has nothing to do with anything, but then again, pretty much anyone is knighted these days by someone who is just a figure head to begin with. There are posts here that talk about ALL the millions Bill Gates has donated to charities and how he is one of the most giving organizations and debates on how much millions anyone else on here has donated. Well, I have an analogy for you. Now if I donate $200 a month to a charity and Jimmy here donates $10 a month, because he doesn't make as much money as I do, does that make me more charitable? Just because Bill Gates has donated millions to charities (which is chump change to him and he gets quite a bit of it back on taxes anyways), does that make him a more giving and charitable contributor compared others?

Now do I think Bill Gates is a good business man, definitely, he is one of the greatest business men to come a long, do I think he is a good person, well, that is debatable and it really doesn’t matter what I think. From my stand point, one that monopolizes an industry and prevents any healthy competition isn’t really doing that much to help the world or economy anyways, but that is just my opinion. Paying $90 for beta software, and that just being the upgrade, seems a little excessive to me. But, then again, you always have a choice and you don’t have to buy MS products, because OS’s like Linux are coming a long way and will soon surpass MS Windows in every aspect and Bill Gates knows this anyways, which is why he is all ruffled up over open source. You can take what I say or leave it, but it is the truth, but that is my rant about something that really doesn’t have much to do with this subject anyways, oh well, just wanted my say.

oops, posted the same message twice

I didn't say nice and sweet. I said honest, and ethically correct. You don't have to break the law to be a good business person. I'm sorry some of you don't understand that, unfortunately for us it means less freedom for everyone so less of you can get away with it.

What does IE have to do with this conversation? Man, I'd love to play poker with some of you. :-P

Whadd'ya'got Zain?

Zain - "umm I have the instructions card, I win."

uhh nooooo

ummm I think the key to this is whether or not you believe that "the end justifies the means".

In other words doesn't matter if you do bad things as long as what you score as a result you give some away to make yourself look good.

I don't believe that.

If it's earned unethically, then donations from it are tarred with the same brush. If you run a charity, I don't believe you should accept any donations from someone whose unrepentant activities are offered as a donation.

Regarding whether folk use MS Windows (please note, it isn't "Windows" because that is a generic term) or Linux, Linux comes in degrees of hardness or difficulty.

I use both on my home LAN because there are some applications which aren't ported to Linux, or won't work within WINE (probably because APIs haven't being published by MS, contrary to the instructions they received from the judge... something else illegal).

I choose to use several easily used Linux distros because an old duffer of 70 hasn't the time nor inclination to work under the hood.

SuSE and Linspire are my favourites. I like Ubuntu as well.

But Fewt your the king of pointing out irrelevant BS...

you dont win anything. You've proven that your a pompous a******.

You didn't read my comment correctly.

I edited it to made it easier for you to understand the flow.

I'm sorry, attacking me doesn't make you less wrong.