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54
Gates (media.scored.co)
posted 1 month ago by MLJFireDragon747 on scored.co (+0 / -0 / +54Score on mirror )
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userman631 on scored.co
1 month ago 2 points (+0 / -0 / +2Score on mirror ) 1 child
I wouldn't go as far as to call him "not a real nerd" just because even being able to pitch something like DOS requires a degree of nerdiness just to be able to make a case for something like that at the time.

Nerd is a pretty low bar and wealth especially at that time was an *enabler* of nerdiness rather than a detriment to it. It wasn't cheap to keep up with the markets at the time he was growing up and computers were seen as *the thing* to try and get your kids into to if you could afford to.
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InjunsAndCowboys on scored.co
1 month ago 5 points (+0 / -0 / +5Score on mirror ) 1 child
In the same way Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak to do the actual programming, Bill Gates had other people code DOS and Windows for him.

DOS was originally purchased as QDOS from Seattle Computer Products. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS

Microsoft have basically never created anything, only purchased stuff from others, and bill gates doesn't know what a line of code looks like.
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userman631 on scored.co
1 month ago 1 point (+0 / -0 / +1Score on mirror )
I never claimed he was a notable programmer, just that I still think "nerd" isn't an unreasonable descriptor. It still takes knowledge to identify when something is undervalued and then to be able to find a market for it unless you're suggesting that even from the beginning he wasn't even the one deciding what to buy and sell which while possible is a claim I have never heard made before.

Let's just boil this down to a simple set of questions, what portion of the general populace of 1980 would understand the potential implications of a successful disk based operating system? What portion of that grouping would you consider to be "nerds"? My estimate would be nearly 100% baring those who have had it directly explained to them in the simplest terms possible.

The core of our disagreement is really just where the line for "nerd" is drawn, you seem to define it as being capable of making innovations in the tech industry with personal involvement, where as I'm drawing my line closer to the side of
"knows what a disc and an operating system are in 1980"
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