Bill Gates to Receive Honorary UK Knighthood
Discussion
LONDON (Reuters) - Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates (news - web sites) will be awarded an honorary knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth Wednesday for his outstanding contribution to enterprise.
Gates, the world's wealthiest man, will receive the award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
He will become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an honor that dates back to 1917, although monarchs have been creating knights for hundreds of years.
Among the pomp and grandeur of the formal state rooms at the palace, Gates will kneel in front of the sovereign, who will gently tap him on the shoulder with a sword.
Britons and citizens of the Commonwealth are entitled to add the title "Sir" in front of their names, but that honor does not extend to other nationalities.
When it was announced last year that Gates was to be knighted, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to him.
"(Gates) is one of the most important business leaders of his age," he said. "Microsoft technology has transformed business practices and his company has had a profound impact on the British economy."
Gates, the world's wealthiest man, will receive the award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
He will become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an honor that dates back to 1917, although monarchs have been creating knights for hundreds of years.
Among the pomp and grandeur of the formal state rooms at the palace, Gates will kneel in front of the sovereign, who will gently tap him on the shoulder with a sword.
Britons and citizens of the Commonwealth are entitled to add the title "Sir" in front of their names, but that honor does not extend to other nationalities.
When it was announced last year that Gates was to be knighted, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to him.
"(Gates) is one of the most important business leaders of his age," he said. "Microsoft technology has transformed business practices and his company has had a profound impact on the British economy."
A lot of people seem to hate Microsoft for its dominant position in the market and Gates' personal fortune from it.
As a Software Developer I like the fact that I can target one OS family with one API and be sure that I'm going to be able to service a majority of my clients.
Without Microsoft and Windows I'd probably be having to taget about 30 different flavours of Unix by now plus several other weird and wonderful OSes. People's CVs would be 10 pages long, just stating that which OSes and which shells / front-ends on each of them that they have experience with.
No, sorry, I think Microsoft have done a lot for the Computer Industry.
Flame on.
As a Software Developer I like the fact that I can target one OS family with one API and be sure that I'm going to be able to service a majority of my clients.
Without Microsoft and Windows I'd probably be having to taget about 30 different flavours of Unix by now plus several other weird and wonderful OSes. People's CVs would be 10 pages long, just stating that which OSes and which shells / front-ends on each of them that they have experience with.
No, sorry, I think Microsoft have done a lot for the Computer Industry.
Flame on.
b17nns said:
LONDON (Reuters) - Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates (news - web sites) will be awarded an honorary knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth Wednesday for his outstanding contribution to enterprise.
Gates, the world's wealthiest man, will receive the award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
He will become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an honor that dates back to 1917, although monarchs have been creating knights for hundreds of years.
Among the pomp and grandeur of the formal state rooms at the palace, Gates will kneel in front of the sovereign, who will gently tap him on the shoulder with a sword.
Britons and citizens of the Commonwealth are entitled to add the title "Sir" in front of their names, but that honor does not extend to other nationalities.
When it was announced last year that Gates was to be knighted, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to him.
"(Gates) is one of the most important business leaders of his age," he said. "Microsoft technology has transformed business practices and his company has had a profound impact on the British economy."
if people like jeffrey archer and neil kinnock can enter the house of lords - well, bill g deserves at least an honorary knighthood.
his contributions to the world in both commercial and philanthropic terms are somewhat more significant than most of the native-brit parasites we accord them to - eg, how about mark thatcher taking on his demised daddy's knighthood?
I agree about the benefits of MS software.
Isn't this is because he hasn't demanded that the UK govenment pay the full price for the software that Civil Servants use.
We all know that there are lots of them. The government threatened to go for Linux, everyone knew it was a sticky wicket, but he accepted anyhow.
Presumably that gets him a knighthood. I don't know what they'll do next year? Maybe they'll make him Prime Minister. Could be worse.
>> Edited by dilbert on Tuesday 1st March 18:11
Isn't this is because he hasn't demanded that the UK govenment pay the full price for the software that Civil Servants use.
We all know that there are lots of them. The government threatened to go for Linux, everyone knew it was a sticky wicket, but he accepted anyhow.
Presumably that gets him a knighthood. I don't know what they'll do next year? Maybe they'll make him Prime Minister. Could be worse.
>> Edited by dilbert on Tuesday 1st March 18:11
I agree with Jon. Good for old Bill.
A thoroughly nasty piece of work could have become the world's richest man.
Instead - its Bill. A nice enough fella, if a bit geeky, you'd be glad to have a beer with him - and he's giving away huge chunks of his wealth. AND CHOOSING WHAT TO SPEND IT ON MORE WISELY THAN MOST GOVERNMENTS!
You can't fault him for that.
A thoroughly nasty piece of work could have become the world's richest man.
Instead - its Bill. A nice enough fella, if a bit geeky, you'd be glad to have a beer with him - and he's giving away huge chunks of his wealth. AND CHOOSING WHAT TO SPEND IT ON MORE WISELY THAN MOST GOVERNMENTS!
You can't fault him for that.
William is great. I keep telling him to ignore the criticism. Google have adopted the old physician creed of do no harm. I think that M$ are pretty close to this. Bill will go down as one of the most influential people in history. He and Melissa are doing what governments have sadly failed to do. It is his stated aim to only pass on to his children a sufficiency, everything else goes to the greater good of the world. Personally, above everything else in the world, I would love to work for them and their foundation. For no pay if necessary. It is a great force for good in our world.
Duncan23 said:
Not only is it true that "Microsoft technology has transformed business practices", but also that Microsoft has transformed business practices. The first company to spawn an acronym to describe it lying about competitors.
They are not the evil empire in the way that say EA are.
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