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posted by janrinok on Monday February 02 2015, @06:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the promoting-the-competition dept.

Silviu Stahie at Softpedia reports

The Internet is abuzz today after Bill Gates published an image on his Facebook page and a link towards his website with the text "15 years from now, most people in poor countries will be able to take classes online." It's a sound goal and it's perfectly doable, but in the image posted on Facebook the operating system is Ubuntu.

As a former Microsoft CEO and the founder of what we call today Windows, you might think that he would pay a little more attention towards his message, but this particular detail has slipped past the radar of the ones posting on Facebook, unless he did that himself, which would be even funnier.

 
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  • (Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @07:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @07:16PM (#140372)

    > I live in a former 1st world country rapidly returning to our 3rd world roots,

    Oh puhlease.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday February 02 2015, @07:35PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 02 2015, @07:35PM (#140380)

    Oh puhlease.

    Fair enough AC, I admit you are correct that I added something that did little but distract from my core message, that the dude's pushing yesterday's accomplishments as a hopeful possibility for tomorrow.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @07:48PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @07:48PM (#140383)

      Not just added "something" you completely misrepresented reality as if your first world experience was even remotely equivalent to life in the actual 3rd world.

      As for your central thesis, you really don't know what you are talking about. In 3rd world that exists outside of your imagination the best available to the overwhelming majority of the population is a low-bandwidth feature phone or an expensive hourly seat an internet cafe. Neither are sufficient for the goals Gates is talking about today, much less decades ago.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Monday February 02 2015, @10:02PM

        by frojack (1554) on Monday February 02 2015, @10:02PM (#140437) Journal

        This AC hits nail on the head if you ask me.

        What we take for granted in the EU and US, and even Russia is simply not generally available to many 2nd and 3rd world countries. They don't have either the funds or the infrastructure for everyone to get on the net.

        EVEN when they do, getting over the learning curve to take an on line class can be daunting. We take for granted our knowledge of how the web works, how to quickly look up a new word or phrase in a second tab/window. We EACH have our own computers, with our own accounts, book marks, cookies, etc that remember where we are in a course, rather than some horrible mess in a library or cafe where you inherit exactly what the prior user left on the machine.

        I simply can't remember the last time there was a shared computer in my life. It was pre-windows 3.1 days, I guess.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @04:22AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @04:22AM (#140554)

          Russia was 2nd world, and ireland is 3rd world. Sigh.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @10:57PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @10:57PM (#140460)

        It must be nice to live in your gated community, within an hour's commute of DC.
        Most Americans, however, (the ones who live outside the beltway) have a different view of the state of the USA.
        55 Percent Of Americans Are Within 4 Months Of Financial Disaster [commondreams.org]

        In stark contrast to the fraudulent official numbers, [netdna-cdn.com]
        the truth is that nearly 1 in 4 Americans can't find a job. [shadowstats.com]
        This is very close to the numbers of 1929 (the start of the Great Depression).

        The folks who do have jobs (note that many have more than 1 so they can simply survive) are not sharing in the wealth of the richest country on the world. [thinkprogress.org]

        The vast middle which existed from FDR's New Deal up to Reaganomics is disappearing as the Working Class gets poorer every day.

        Is that your definition of "First World"?

        -- gewg_

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @11:05PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @11:05PM (#140463)

          > Is that your definition of "First World"?

          (1) Is there some other country of significant population size that is better off?

          (2) One of the main reasons that we don't have depression era problems as a result of that unemployment is because the government provides a safety net that simply does not exist in the actual 3rd world. 14 million people receive federal disability checks, that covers a significant number of the "shadow unemployed" ain't no such thing as disability in the 3rd world.

          > It must be nice to live in your gated community, within an hour's commute of DC.

          Don't pass out from the oxygen deprivation way up there on your high horse.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @01:14AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @01:14AM (#140514)

            some other country of significant population size that is better off?

            **Not quite as awful as some others** is setting a really low bar.
            ...especially when compared to the prosperity gained by the Working Class of the USA (aka the vast middle) during the Cold War years.

            USA's current jobless rates and home foreclosure rates and homeless rates and incarceration rates are not what *I* consider to be consistent with First World status.

            the government provides a safety net

            Republicans started whittling away at that as soon as FDR was dead.
            Blue Dog Democrats and other Neoliberals have been assisting in that erosion for some time as well.

            With a Reactionary majority Congress, I don't expect that that cushion between an existence that doesn't completely suck and abject poverty will exist in a very few years.
            What's needed is MANUFACTURING JOBS.
            Republicans|NewDems|Neoliberals are all about exporting those.

            your high horse

            I may not have gotten your exact location|circumstances correct, but the White Privilege you wreak and your willingness to swallow/regurgitate elite propaganda is obvious.

            -- gewg_

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @12:48AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @12:48AM (#140506)

          Is that your definition of "First World"?

          My definition of "first world" is the set of countries that were formerly considered to be allied against the second world "Soviet Bloc" countries. Now, I'd be more likely to use "developed nations" most of the countries that were formerly called "first world". By the definition of developed nations as those having highly developed economies and technological infrastructure, the United States still qualifies as a "developed nation".

          I've kept a job these last 7 years, my wife has had a job whenever she wanted one within 2 weeks of starting to look. Some people I know haven't been able to find the jobs that they want, but I don't know anyone willing and able to work that's just sitting at home. That includes my mentally ill, high school dropout brother in law.