The devil n Bill Gates

>> Local Dadaist DJ Waletzky cyberslags the world's richest man

by ZACH DUBINSKY

DJ Waletzky doesn't really think Bill Gates is the devil. He even used to think Microsoft was cool. But you wouldn't know it judging by his Web site (www.bxscience. edu/~waletzky/billgates.htm). Waletzky, a McGill undergraduate, is the proud author of the Internet's only "Bill Gates Is Satan" page. And as a cyber-berater of "Billzebub," he's not alone.

Ranging from the "Support Group for People Used by Microsoft" to "Why Bill Gates Is Richer Than You," hundreds of anti-Microsoft and anti-Bill sites spot the virtual landscape. They decry everything from bugs in Microsoft's software to Gates' vast personal wealth--estimated at $78 billion.

But Waletzky's page leads the pack. Over 50 of the most acrimonious sites have links to his. Since he created the page four years ago, it's been featured on TV, in the San Franciso Chronicle and the French newspaper Libération. His site was even visited and praised by a group of Satanists.

So what made the Montreal resident, Grammy-nominee, editor of McGill humour mag Red Herring and genius (he boasts an IQ of 160) revile the world's richest man?

A mediocre monopoly

"I used to be very pro-Microsoft, when I was 14 and just getting into computers," Waletzky recalls. But that changed when his parents bought a new computer in 1996, which arrived with the Windows operating system. Waletzky was more than disappointed.

"It sucked," he says, adding that Windows crashed often and was hard to install. "And to get tech support, it was an insane amount--something like $75."

Surprised at how a company that controls 90 per cent of the market for operating systems could successfully sell such a mediocre product, Waletzky decided to dig a little deeper.

"I did research about all the behind-the-scenes dealing, the ripping off of products, the coercive practices--which everyone now knows about," he says, referring to the recent verdict by U.S. District Judge Jackson that Microsoft illegally used its monopoly to stifle competition in the software industry.

At the same time that he was researching, Waletzky's high school-- an elite science-oriented public school in the Bronx--started giving free Web space to students. For Waletzky, the road ahead was clear. He taught himself how to program for the World Wide Web and created his now-famous site.

"I just got really angry with how Microsoft can put out such a crappy product, so I created a home page," he tells. "I got a book and sat down and wrote all the code."

Data Dada

But his site isn't about the company. It's about its co-founder, chairman, and largest shareholder, William Henry Gates III. Waletzky says the decision to focus on the man--and not the corporation--was inspired by Dadaism, the early 20th-century artistic movement. Dadaists were known for their vitriolic personal attacks on the people identified with a movement, idea or company they opposed. In the computer world, Bill Gates was the obvious choice.

The site itself is a mix of levelheaded analysis and far-fetched fantasy. At its most rational, it points out that Gates didn't actually create any of the software he's renowned for; Microsoft's Windows, PowerPoint and Internet Explorer programs were originally bought or licensed from other companies. At the extreme, the site claims Gates "owns your soul and the soul of anyone else who has used a computer," and shows how the letters of his name might add up to 666.

As a self-described anarcho-syndicalist (and son and grandson of union men), Waletzky believes widely-used software should be free for all. And he sees Gates and Microsoft as greedy capitalists who foisted propriety on innocent software developers in the late 1970s.

According to Waletzky, Gates initiated the notion of proprietary software in a memorandum called the "Open Letter to Hobbyists," which stated that the free sharing of software "prevents good software from being written." Waletzky identifies with a movement led by Richard Stallman, a professor at MIT who advocates an end to software copyright.

Now Waletzky can take comfort that Microsoft is on the ropes for its antitrust violations, and he's waiting expectantly for Judge Jackson's sentence, expected next month. Asked how he thinks the Evil Crown Prince of Capitalism and his company should be punished, Waletzky pauses.

"I'm not even certain what the best way to do it is," he confesses. "Otherwise, I'm for the harshest punishment possible." :

more news...