A tangle of copper wire and cables next to a brass latch on a blue-grey surface.

Original artwork, not a still

'Douglas Adams on Microsoft'

Douglas Adams

The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all his customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who by peddling second-hand, second-rate technology, led them all into it in the first place.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The rescue image is challenged by the claim that the rescuer helped create the problem. That reversal questions whether solving a difficulty deserves uncomplicated praise when responsibility for it is shared. The passage is a critical argument about Gates’s role, rather than an independent demonstration of its allegations.

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