Bill Gates joins Twitter

Summary: Bill Gates is many things: software giant, philanthropist, and now Twitter user.

Bill Gates is many things: software giant, philanthropist, and now Twitter user.

As of a few hours ago, the Microsoft chairman is one of the millions offering brief takes on their world to anyone who wants to follow them. I doubt that he'll be sharing what he had for breakfast or bemoaning the fact that his cell phone just dropped a call, but Gates is now on Twitter. Gates has already topped 50,000 followers within just a few hours. He's following only 40 people so far.

The first post by the real Bill Gates was a note that he plans to release the second of his annual foundation letters on Monday, charting the progress and challenges in his philanthropic efforts.

"'Hello World," Gates wrote. "Hard at work on my foundation letter--publishing on 1/25."

For more on this story, read "Bill Gates joins Twitter" on CNET News.

Topics: Social Enterprise, CXO, IT Employment

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17 comments
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  • when is Gate$ going to apologise

    for its past dirty deeds?
    Linux Geek
    • he has to have done dirty deeds

      to be able to apologize for them! :)
      John Zern
    • When is Linux gonna include a spell checker?

      Or is the problem just you? There's no 's' in
      'apologize,' Bill Gates is not an 'it,' and you
      didn't specify anything Bill Gates has done.
      Basically, just like on every forum, you're a
      troll. You don't have an actual idea, and just
      spout BS. Go back to playing World of Warcraft,
      assuming you get it to run on your POS Linux
      machine.
      evilkillerwhale@...
      • Hypocrite

        Do you not find it a bit hypocritical complaining about someones correct (British) spelling of apologise whilst using a word like "gonna"?
        j.d.bryant@...
        • Not in the least.

          Correct spellings are dependent on where you're
          native dialect, firstly. Secondly, I purposely
          spelled the word "gonna" as such. What are the
          odds that he spelled "apologise" on purpose? Yeah,
          didn't think so.
          evilkillerwhale@...
          • The odds are pretty good...

            If he is indeed British, because I would most certainly spell it correctly (with an 's').

            Maybe you should learn to construct a sentence properly before you criticise others (yes I didn't use a 'z' as I am British).

            Let me help you out a little:

            Correct spellings are dependant on your native dialect.

            No "where" or no apostrophe in your as the apostrophe 're' replaces the word 'are'. So in effect what you wrote was:

            "Correct spellings are dependent on where you are native dialect. Neither in English or American English does that make sense.

            Your reliance on Microsoft's spelling and grammar correction also have their flaws.
            Parassassin
    • uh ...

      For what? For being a marketing genius? For being in the right place at the right time when the personal computer revolution hit the GO! button? For taking advantage of opportunities others scoffed at or sneered at? For building a company from scratch to a 78BU$ entity employing nearly 100,000 people around the world (not to mention all the peripheral businesses created to support, or compete with, M$ products)?

      Folks who know me know I'm no M$ fanboy but one has to give credit where credit is due ... and frankly, creating a personal wealth in the billions -- like who cares after the first billion anyhow, eh -- deserves a modicum of respect.

      My advice to Linux Geek would be to go back to your room and work out a usable version of the Linux OS and applications. I would love to try out the big old penguin but don't have time to spend hours typing in cryptic phrases and creating complicated directory structures by hand.

      When Firefox for Windows wants to update, it downloads the files, installs them and lets me know next time it restarts. Windows itself just updates automatically in the background without bothering me at all.

      I've never had to do a sh root to see what happened; nor would I want to since I already have too many other things on my plate to be worrying about whether the OS has the right drivers or not for that USB stick marketing just sent over.

      In other words, stop whining about successful people and get busy being successful yourself. Then maybe you'll make global news when you Twit.
      ttocsmij
  • Bill gates is many things...

    ..now he's old, retired, and bored. I'm not surprised he joined Twitter.
    Li1t
  • Bill Gates

    I thought that the subject was BG joins Twitter?!?!.. and please tell me Linux Geek what Dirty Deeds did he do?? Do you mean giving away a Billion Dollars to charity???? Building a muli-million dollar house and agreeing to pay the real estate taxes for his neighbors because their taxes would increase??? Mighty dirty of him...
    puppadave
  • Twitter + Gates = Yawn

    1) it's Bill Gates
    2) it's Twitter
    3) who cares?

    If you really want to know what Bill Gates thinks during the few seconds he takes to compose a 140 charactor message to "just anybody" he doesn't know or care about, by all means subscribe.

    I think it would be more entertaining to install Linux.
    cwallen19803@...
    • Really?

      If you wouldn't care
      Why are you bothered to waste my screen space
      writing stupid Linux centered comments on a story
      not related to Linux.
      shchhipa
      • Linux centered?

        I used the "Linux" once. I also used the "Bill Gates" twice. You used "Linux" twice.

        I'd say my comment was "Bill Gates" centered and yours was "Linux" centered.

        And I really meant that I'd find installing software I'd never use more entertaining than reading a Bill Gates tweet.

        Really, that's the central point.
        cwallen19803@...
  • RE: Bill Gates joins Twitter

    Its good for twitter...free marketing without the hassle of Ads
    mbhat123
  • Bing not good but Google terrible

    The original Google was wonderful at searches -- gather website info by bot and then return search results from that database...maybe with some weighting by amount of related content and popularity.

    Today's Google searches are almost completely like searches on junk mail at times. Taking too darn much $$$ to bubble up corporate "ads" on the most basic of searches. To the point of getting nothing much more than "junk search" results.

    But its not all directly Google's commercial money making. Some of it is Google STUPIDITY about commercial sites SPAMMING META-TAGs on their websites. Celebrity sex meta-tags make that point most obvious and humorously. So many webpages endless list these celebrity sex meta-tags to draw you in to that page. But Google is too stupid to verify meta-tags versus content and apparently counts repetition of a meta-tag with X times the weight in search results rankings.

    Still for now, despite lacking the breadth of the original Google, Bing is a little better due to LESS commercial paid results boosting. But I really do not think it will last very long if all the other Search Engines are doing it. We need more non-profit or Government run search engines it appears --- or the search technology will drown itself in its own advertising revenue schemes.

    Or maybe Google can start charging for ad-free searches?
    wellduh
  • "Hello World!"

    Heh, good choice of first words on twitter for a
    geek :D
    Hello world!
    Garrett Williams
  • Bill Gates? Lol

    Bill Gates says we don't need walls and fences. Why, then, do we
    need Windows and Gates?

    Epic Quote, all in faith of Jobs. ^_^
    Ktroje
  • RE: Bill Gates joins Twitter

    nice thankyou with nice biscuits.
    i have added this . what to do for web administration vp type. sens me like albert einstein, newton, cvraman. pks, aks.kumar saurav ,dharamvir kumar.
    kumar_saurav_2006@yahoo.com in orkut. bye bye see you
    your obey
    little hearts
    hide and sleek
    kumar saurav dharamvirk