Thommo,
Sorry but your pressumtions speak volumes in this regard, comments follow;
Bill Gates hires so-so programmers (OK, I accept they were good when they left college) but the best lawyers in the world. His product has taken 15yrs to be passible quality but only if you ignore security issues which seem to overwhelm Windows.
Bill Gates, I’m sure you are referring to Microsoft, hires some of the best and brightest on the planet as far as programmers go. Ok, there may be other programmers out there who may be brighter or ‘better’ in their respective fields. However be aware, in a world where Microsoft dominates the desktop these others, numbers wise, are the minority, believe me I’m one of them.
Security issues are something else again, Microsoft has any number of flaws, and they are exploited simply due to the popularity and widespread exposure of the OS. Are other desktop OS less vulnerable or are they simply less popular and thus represent a minority, which as itself represents no more or less security, how many people realistically run Linux? And in all honestly it is only a matter of time, Run an Apple, well ok maybe you want to do some graphics stuff and today that edge is already losing ground.
There is only one OS that has thru the years been able to demonstrate a consistently high security rating and you ain’t going to find it on your average desktop, well you might, but that’s my domain and it ain’t for the masses and you could do stuff all with it anyway, unless you were in my game which is unlikely and it isn’t going to give you any typical desktops apps that you would find useful.
I agree that a Corp the size of Micro$oft can afford to hire good legal bodies, so do IBM, Sun, HP, etc etc. I don’t understand the point you were making with that comment.
Dick Smith, on the other hand, has an innate ability to turn "projects" to "profits" and returns a large proportion of his wealth to the community, and chastigates his contempories for being tight.
Dick Smith, on the other hand can hardly be compared to a Corp like Microsoft, or any of the others I mentioned. Although he maybe well intentioned, his ventures of late have been rather less than successful, sorry but true, I agree his heart may be in the right place, however that does not necessarily equate to a successful business.
Speaking of corporate largese, would you be surprised that one single company accounts for 8% corporate charitable donations in Aus? The staff involve themselves directly in community projects and the "foundation" matches their dollars. This is not a top 50 company and it is possible one or two these do better but the maths say it can't be more than that.
I have no idea what you are talking about in the last paragraph, the rest of the above sounds like assasination by magazine article, and ill informed articles at that.
astro