Michael Gibbons
9 HN mentions · mentioned in 8 months, 2017–2023
1:07 · 814K views · Jan 14, 2015
A one-minute clip from The Simpsons in which Homer is bought out by Bill Gates. It is a short cartoon scene that parodies Gates and Microsoft.
HN mostly uses it as a joke or a reference point when discussing buyouts, Gates's competitiveness, or Microsoft's public image in the 1990s.
9 comments from Hacker News
> In 2001, Microsoft "constituted unlawful monopolization" under Antitrust Act for bundling a web browser with their operating system. You're forgetting how that ended. Remember, the DOJ threw the book at Microsoft. It was an intensely publicized trial, with pretty much all the country hating Microsoft and Bill Gates. Waffling over the word "ask", the infamous "knife the baby" email, the Halloween documents and Embrace-Extend-Extinguish. That all came out as part of the DOJ antitrust suit. It's hard to remember how visceral the hate for this was. During the height of that, The Simpsons decided to portray Bill Gates on the show, not positively [0]. A game developer released a title called "Microshaft Winblows 98" to positive reviews and very good sales [1]. The judge makes their final verdict. Microsoft clearly stepped over the line, there were no easy answers. They were too big a company, the only possible remedy is to break them up. Into at least two companies, but probably more; at the very least, the apps and OS needed to be split up into the "Baby Bills", they were going to be called. Then George W. Bush comes in, guts the DOJ to a fifth of their size, and basically all but tells them "never do that again, please". The case quickly and silently went to appeal, where it was reduced from "Microsoft needs to be broken up" into a small fine [2]. And after other tragedies in the early 2000s, the nation quickly forgot. So, no, despite the fanfare, despite the judgement and ruli
> We already went through this with Microsoft in the past but suddenly it's different? What happened was that the DOJ did everything they could to get Microsoft broken up. They got pretty much the entire country on their side, and during the trials they extracted some hilarious quotes from Microsoft and Bill Gates, like arguing about the definition of the word "ask", the infamous "knife the baby" email. Details emerged about their "Embrace-Extend-Extinguish" policy and their plans to try and bulldoze the free software movement. Popular perception of Bill Gates and Microsoft at that time sunk to an all-time low [0], picturing Gates as a greedy global capitalist, and Microsoft as a cartoonishly evil company. There was no small fix, the only option left was to to shatter Microsoft into multiple pieces, the way Bell Labs had gone. That's what the final ruling said. Then George W. Bush comes in, clears out basically the entirety of the DOJ, guts them to a fifth of their size, and tells them "never do that again". The case then went to appeal, where it was reduced from a mandatory break-up to a small fine. The DOJ never went after big tech again. Bill Gates resigned as CEO, and decided to go into philanthropy to clear their image, like many capitalists do. [0] this video
Perhaps before your time, MS was a monopoly and you literally couldn't buy a computer without paying them, whether it ran windows or not. They sold crap at premium prices. They forced computer companies to pay a DOS/Windows license for each machine MADE, not if it ran their OS. The used dirty tricks to sink their competitors, stole ideas, products, etc. They were the original bastards of the tech industry. I have hated them since I was a kid...in the 80s. This Simpsons scene summarizes things nicely: this video [LINK]
Not quite. Homer actually accepted the deal to be bought out by Bill, and then yes, Bill's goons smashed all of Homer's stuff. When Homer queries what's going on, Bill says "Well, I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks," and laughs. Source: this video
I don’t agree - it was well known at the time. The Simpsons even had an episode about his competitiveness this video