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Comment by kschua | Hacker News Reader

I agree that Gates and not Jobs will be remembered in 50 years, but for a different reason.

Gates vision of "a computer in every home" made computers a common item in most household in developed countries. People are using computers in their home and offices, where would we be without them.

In the same way people remember the Wright Brothers for planes, Edison for the light bulb (yes, he wasn't the first to invent it, but that's beside the point). Gates will probably be remembered for the personal computer.

If he succeeds with the malaria vaccine, it be just another feather in his cap

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I don't really associate Bill Gates with "a computer in every home" and in fact it was Steve Jobs and Apple's vision well before Microsoft. And in 50 years I think we are going to be much more aware of "a computer in every pocket" and probably computers everywhere. The whole desktop thing will be quite quaint.

Do you have links which says that "a computer in every home" is Jobs' vision? Google search throws up Bill Gates. There is even a plaque for it http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2184937614/

Though I believe that there are others who should also be remembered, but I am of the opinion that rightly or wrongly history will remember and associate Gates with computers much like Edison is to lightbulbs, Wright is to planes and Bell is to telephones (this is what kids are still being taught)

We will see. Apple made the first widely used home computer and its "computer on every desk" predates Microsoft's "computer on every desk and in every home" (no surprise that Microsoft co-opted Apple's vision here).

I have a hard time believing that someone will be remembered for "computers" when he didn't even make them (same for Gates' involvement for whatever eventually happens with malaria since the one thing for certain is that Gates will not have been the one to eradicate it).

I think it's foolish to say who will be remembered in the future, as it's mostly up to advertising and what random factlets make it into our defunct schoolbooks.

I only hope that more important characters from computer history than Jobs or Gates make it into the history books though.

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