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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Gemini24601@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds have apparently never met in person before, despite their pseudo-rivalry.

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[-] nucleative@lemmy.world 170 points 1 month ago

Both Torvalds and Gates are nerds... Gates decided to monetize it and Torvalds decided to give it away.

But without Microsoft's "PC on every desktop" vision for the '90s, we may not have seen such an increased demand for server infrastructure which is all running the Linux kernel now.

Arguably Torvalds' strategy had a greater impact than Gates because now many of us carry his kernel in our pocket. But I think both needed each other to get where we are today.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 40 points 1 month ago

I've said this before here, but techy people vastly overestimate both the ability and the patience of the typical user, and it's the reason so few people use FOSS products.

Products from big tech aimed at private individuals are designed to be as simple to use as possible, which is why they're so popular.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 42 points 1 month ago

Big tech designing their products to be overly simple is one of the driving forces behind the average user having poor patience and aptitude for tech.

[-] kerrigan778 31 points 1 month ago

No, it's not. We have other shit to do and very limited quality time.

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[-] callouscomic@lemm.ee 24 points 1 month ago

Do you hunt for all of your food and cook it from absolute scratch?

I bet you sometimes use a grocery store.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 13 points 1 month ago

What are you even talking about? You're trying to make an analogy here but it's a really poor one.

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[-] TheFonz@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

Barf. Or maybe, just maybe, we have other shit to do rather than spend hours trying to figure out how to do one thing in Gimp. It's great that YOU'RE passionate about tech. Some of us have other hobbies. Imagine that holy shit

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 24 points 1 month ago

Buddy, if I open Photoshop it's gonna take me hours to learn how to do one thing too, what a horrible example lmao. There's like so many easy slam dunks you could've said too.

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[-] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 1 month ago

Nah, I have worked in IT education and in helpdesk. Average user doesn't have a better time getting into Microsoft products, it's not easier for them than FOSS. The reason for Windows domination is Microsoft spending money and lobbying power to put it in front of every user.

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[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 16 points 1 month ago

What about the boat loads of marketing - ads - aimed at making you believe those proprietary programs are the best? Clearly you fell for it.

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[-] namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev 20 points 1 month ago

But without Microsoft’s “PC on every desktop” vision for the '90s, we may not have seen such an increased demand for server infrastructure which is all running the Linux kernel now.

Debatable, in my opinion. There were lots of other companies trying to build personal computers back in those times (IBM being the most prominent). If Microsoft had never existed (or gone about things in a different way), things would have been different, no doubt, but they would still be very important and popular devices. The business-use aspect alone had a great draw and from there, I suspect that adoption at homes, schools, etc. would still follow in a very strong way.

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[-] comador@lemmy.world 122 points 1 month ago

Bill announces a collaboration between the two, starting with an open source implementation of BOB and Clippy AI for Linux....

[-] nialv7@lemmy.world 91 points 1 month ago

Linus looks old now 😭

I guess that's how time works but still...

[-] toynbee@lemmy.world 60 points 1 month ago

I said in another thread about this, he looks like an older Tom Scott.

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[-] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 83 points 1 month ago

No major kernel decisions were made,” jokes Russinovich in a post on LinkedIn.

Man, wouldn't that be wild, though?

[-] floo@retrolemmy.com 19 points 1 month ago

Missing the opportunity for a legit decent LinkedIn post?

I dunno. Tempting…

[-] General_Effort@lemmy.world 66 points 1 month ago

So, which one of them heard boss music?

[-] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 60 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Bill Gates is a monopoly capitalist with zero scruples. He screwed over so many people, vacuumed up so much wealth from all other sectors of the world economy. He has zero qualms about doing this either: There's video of his depositions in the anti-trust case against Microsoft, and the whole fucking time he just argues semantics in response to the questions, and when pressed after five minutes of defining every fucking word in a sentence, almost always claims he doesn't know or recall. Obviously a guy that thinks being as dishonest as it is possible to get away with is perfectly good business. And he does that despite whatever the outcome of the case, he'd be richer than billions of humans collectively. What pathology is this?

There's so much more shit, like the incessant lobbying for medical patents worldwide, or how, according to Melinda, Gates loved hanging out with Epstein.

Now, why would anyone want to have their picture taken with that guy? Torvalds is such an unprincipled lib.

Edit: Listened to some of the deposition in the background. Here Gates is being extremely annoying for example: The interviewer reads back an email from Gates saying something like "browser share is a very, very important goal for this company", and then asks what other companies he's comparing browser share with. Gates goes several minutes arguing he's not talking about any other companies, since literally there are no other companies mentioned in that very sentence, obviously pretending like he doesn't understand the question. If you listen to all the shit before, they have to go over whether "browser share" means "market share" (Gates says no), whether "very, very important" and "important" have different meanings (Gates says not necessarily, could be hyperbole), and that sort of stuff for minutes on end. Like seriously listen to this, I cannot even describe how stupid it is.

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[-] mintiefresh@lemmy.ca 56 points 1 month ago

This is like seeing a picture of Gandalf and Saruman together lmao

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[-] mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world 44 points 1 month ago

Genuinely kind of surprised they only met now, one would have thought that in over 30 years they would have run into each other at some point at some conference or other.

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[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 43 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I hate to sound preachy, but this is a good example of “rivals” peacefully meeting.

So many people I meet IRL seem conditioned to think this person they hate on the internet would be someone they’d shout at like they’re an axe murderer, in the middle of a murder. It’s the example they see. Death threats are, like, normal on Facebook or TV News or whatever they’re into, apparently.

Again at risk of reaching... this feels like positive masculinity to me.

And leaders acting like adults.

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[-] dil@lemmy.zip 41 points 1 month ago

In my head this means gamepass on linux

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[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago

Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't Gates retired? And I have no idea if Torvalds is still active.

But historical photo aside, isn't this meeting a bunch of nothing?

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 120 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Torvalds is still very active on the Linux kernel. As far as I know, he's in charge of it and makes major decisions about its direction.

Bill Gates retired from Microsoft in 2008.

[-] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 1 month ago

Gates is still very active in his charity organization

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

Making money/influence. It's such a scam his "Bill and Melinda Charity" (no taxes on charities).

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[-] chrash0@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago

without checking, Gates’ wealth is probably tied up in a lot of MS stock, and he could probably walk into the office and ask the intern to get him a coffee. but yeah i think mostly retired.

Linus is still active is maintaining the Linux kernel.

and yes, this is fluff, not some kind of summit

[-] _edge@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 1 month ago

Gates could probably walk into most offices and get a free coffee and an impromptu meeting with the CEO if he wants to.

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[-] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago

Too bad Steve Wozniak wasn't there too lol

[-] maxfield@pf.z.org 22 points 1 month ago
[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago

......that Linus and Bill kiss? Will they or won't they?

[-] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 month ago

Gay (kernel) panic

[-] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago

Could they have met in a better place than in front of a Jotnar's pubes

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[-] icelimit@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago

How has Linus not won a Nobel?

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this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
774 points (100.0% liked)

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