Bill Gates recent announcement that he is stepping down as CEO of Microsoft (but not Chairman) to focus more time on his charitable foundations gives cause to admire the man – not so much for his charitable endeavours (although there is little doubt that his charities will be better focused, less corrupt and more productive than most, given his own acumen in delivering results for his business), but for his contribution to the world. His own personal wealth, it is not fortune (which comes from the word “fortunate” implying luck), is a tiny fraction of the contribution that his company and the products he has promoted and produced, have done to global productivity.

There is much criticism of Microsoft. Some of the products I am required to use, due to my employers, I am not keen on. Some of Microsoft’s wealth has been to take the ideas of others and innovate them more, or offer them cheaper. The products have not always been the best, but it has – through marketing, pricing and innovation come to dominate the core infrastructure of all large and medium, and most small businesses in the modern world. Microsoft did not invent the Graphical User Interface we know as Windows, it was a Xerox innovation, developed further by Apple and made more ubiquitous and cheaper by Microsoft. It didn’t invent word processing, it didn’t invent internet browsing – but it did do these things cheaper and eventually better than anyone else.

Microsoft has been subject to all sorts of envy related antitrust cases because of its dominance in the marketplace. A dominance that is constantly challenged. The internet was one challenge it has met, but the IT sector is full of creative, driven innovators. Google, Ipods, Playstation have all come, and Microsoft have been only partially successful in responding. Nevertheless, we are all far better off having Microsoft in the world. For all the naysayers, if you didn’t want to use Microsoft you didn’t have to. There have always been competing operating systems, office software packages, internet browsers and media players. If you choose not to use them, it is because Microsoft’s product meets your needs better, all in all.

Compared to all of the charities in the world today, Microsoft has done far more for the world. It has lifted global GDP, it has made businesses more efficient, and enabled business to market and sell more effectively. It has enabled people to communicate more efficiently and cheaply, and from business comes jobs, incomes, families – from communication comes socializing, even those who despise Microsoft use its products to wage war against it.

Bill Gates is a billionaire without the vapid ego to match. Unlike the banal brainless celebrities who plaster themselves across the media at every opportunity, he doesn’t need attention for self esteem. He demonstrably has it through his own effort, intelligence, cunning and skill. Whilst celebrities like the Beckhams, comprising a talented footballer and a talentless nobody host charity fundraising events – spending a fortune to host them – and other attention seeking wankers, who more often than not are esteem lacking actors, “singers” and “personalities” who the masses worship for their image, more than their talent – Gates doesn’t need to. He probably knows that behind the glamour, the bling, the arrogance, the paparazzi and the displays of wealth, that these people have nothing he could ever truly want. The spectacle of the rich and famous paying over the odds for luxury items, so that the excess over price could go to charity – while all broadcast on TV – makes them feel better about themselves. So many of them back leftwing causes, vapidly supporting UN charities, trying to get photo-ops with Nelson Mandela (because he actually did something), because deep down they know, they’ve done sweet fuck all – they are largely fortunate in a world where millions aspire to do what they have done. They are also largely not very bright. Like the empty headed fool, Cameron Diaz, they buy Toyota Prius hybrid cars so they can be “environmentally friendly”, while scooting around the world on private jets and spending enormous amounts luxury items they would easily throw away.

Bill Gates has luxury items to be sure, and is far from uncomfortable – but he set up his own charitable foundation, one that wont be about gifting money to the needy, but about finding cures for HIV, for investing in infrastructure that will make a huge difference to poor communities. What he had done for the world with his business is immense, what he is about to do with his charities will be small in comparison, but will probably be one of the most worthwhile charitable efforts this century.