I fear all of you...
How do you feel about Bill Gates? He is one of the most polarizing personalities in America right now. Most people would tell you he is a cross between the devil and big brother. Being the richest man in the world and head of the company that make the most used product in the history of the world, he is what you call a good target. A type of cult of personality surrounds him.
Most techies have opinions about things he helped create. Most will revel in every mistake or short sighted decision at the same time loathing his dominance of the computer industry. I have even seen people attribute the way Office works as Bill Gates personally trying to ruin their lives. Now that would be ambition, to personally set a goal of ruining as many lives as people who us MS products.
Now as scary as his dictators are, his supporter are scarier. They range from people who just respect a successful person to people who believe that disagreeing will affect your career. I not talking about a walking up and telling him he is an idiot in a board meeting, they think if you say “MS could make it easier to use IE,” this statement should get you fired from the gas station in Indiana you work at.
This week the Queen of England is knighting Bill Gates. This fact, lead to the knighting of the devil debate in my office. One person actually suggested that the fact he supported the addition of Microsoft specific classes to Java should make his years of philanthropy in world health causes irrelevant. I just kept thinking… congratulation Bill for getting up every morning and trying.