I don't really think all that much about somebody who is fantastically rich giving away money that they won't miss. Although it's still somewhat cool because other fantastically rich people wouldn't do this and seem more concerned with increasing their own wealth to an obscene amount.
Dude, it doesn't matter how rich he is. He gave away his own money to the people who are making him rich as a gesture of thanks and goodwill. WTF would you find anything to belittle that?
Let's put it like this: it deserves some praise, but not as much praise as someone donating a kidney, wouldn't you agree? Yet this is newsworthy and earns praise from all over the world, while people who actually do donate a kidney barely make it into local news, if at all.
Exactly. He didn't say, "Well, I guess I don't need this. Here, I'll just let my employees deal with it." He made a conscious decision to not increase his wealth for the benefit of others.
Mark Shuttleworth (Canonical/Ubuntu) is quite good on this idea. Shuttleworth sold Thawte to Verisign for quite a lot of money. He is on record as suggesting that there is only so much you can actually buy. Money should be used to make things happen.
Whatever you think of Ubuntu, he has certainly done that.
