Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28 1955) is the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft Corporation. He is also the founder of Corbis, a digital image archiving company. The Forbes international rich list has ranked him as the richest person in the world for the last twelve years straight. In 1999, Gates' wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion making him America's first centibillionaire. According to the Forbes 2004 magazine, Bill Gates's net worth was approximately $46.6 billion. When family wealth is considered, his family ranks second behind the Walton family.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. He is widely respected for his foresight and ambition.Vietnam gives Gates star welcome. BBC News. April 22, 2006Baldauf, Scott. Bill Gates, the biggest thing in India since the Beatles. Christian Science Monitor. November 14, 2002 He is also frequently criticized as having built Microsoft through unfair or unlawful business practices. Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money (about 52% of his total fortune) to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 2000. In June 2006 he announced that he would move to a part-time role with Microsoft (namely surrendering the power of managing day-to-day operations) in 2008 to begin a career in philanthropy, but will remain as chairman.

Bill Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono were collectively named by Time as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts. That same year he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2006, Gates Foundation was awarded the Premio Príncipe de Asturias en Cooperación Internacional. In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".

Early life

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and The United Way, and his maternal grandfather, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby.

According to the 1992 biography Hard Drive, Maxwell set up a million-dollar trust fund for Gates the year he was born. Gates commented on this claim in a 1994 interview with Playboy:

PLAYBOY: Did you have a million-dollar trust fund while you were at Harvard?

GATES: Not true. . . . . My parents are very successful, and I went to the nicest private school in the Seattle area. I was lucky. But I never had any trust funds of any kind, though my dad did pay my tuition at Harvard, which was quite expensive.

The 1993 biography Gates calls the trust fund claim one of the "fictions" surrounding Gates' fortune.

Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. Bill Gates went to Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive preparatory school where tuition in 1967 was $5,000 (Harvard tuition that year was $1,760). Lakeside rented time on a DEC PDP-10, which Gates was able to use to pursue an interest in computers, a rare opportunity at the time. Gates was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and attained the rank of Life Scout. While in high school, he and Paul Allen founded Traf-O-Data, a company which sold traffic flow data systems to state governments. He also helped to create a payroll system in COBOL, for a company in Portland, Oregon.

According to a press inquiry he scored 1590 on his SATs, and was able to enroll at Harvard University in the fall of 1973, pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science, where he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer. During his second year at Harvard, Gates (along with Paul Allen and Monte Davidoff) co-wrote Altair BASIC for the Altair 8800. Gates famously dropped out of Harvard during his third year to pursue a career in software development. On December 13 1977, Gates was briefly jailed in Albuquerque for racing his Porsche 911 in the New Mexico desert.

Microsoft Corporation

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others had developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the platform. This was untrue, as Gates and Allen had never used an Altair previously nor developed any code for it. Within a period of eight weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. Allen and Gates flew to MITS to unveil the new BASIC system. The demonstration was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to buy the rights to Allen and Gates's BASIC for the Altair platform. It was at this point that Gates left Harvard to found Micro-Soft, which later became Microsoft Corporation, with Allen.

Anti-piracy efforts

In February 1976, Gates published his often-quoted "Open Letter to Hobbyists". In the letter, Gates claimed that most users were using "stolen" pirated copies of Altair BASIC and that no hobbyist could afford to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment.Bill Gates, An Open Letter to Hobbyists, February 3 1976 This letter was unpopular with many amateur programmers, not just those few using copies of the software. In the ensuing years the letter gained significant support from Gates' business partners and allies. Eventually, the closed source, for-profit model Gates had envisioned would become the dominant model of software production and distribution, largely displacing the hobbyist model of open source software produced and distributed for free. Despite Microsoft's reliance on closed source, Gates has said that he collected discarded program listings at Harvard and learned programming techniques from them. Aaron Ricadela, "Gates At Berkeley: Thoughts On Research, Overseas Innovation, Computing's Challenges", Information Week'', 1 October 2004.

Microsoft and IBM

When IBM decided to build the hardware for a desktop personal computer in 1980, it needed to find an operating system. Microsoft did not have any operating system at this point. The most popular microcomputer operating system at the time was CP/M developed by Digital Research in Monterey. CP/M allowed software written for the Intel 8080/Zilog Z80 family of microprocessors to run on many different models of computer from many different manufacturers. This device-independence feature was essential for the formation of the consumer software industry, as without it software had to be re-written for each different model of computer. Bill Gates referred IBM to Gary Kildall, the founder of Digital Research, but when they did not reach immediate agreement with him they went back to Gates, who offered to fill their need himself. He licensed a CP/M-compatible OS called QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for $56,000, and IBM shipped it as PC-DOS.

Later, after Compaq licensed Phoenix Technologies' clone of the IBM BIOS, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones. Microsoft was quick to license DOS to other manufacturers, calling it MS-DOS (for Microsoft Disk Operating System). By marketing MS-DOS aggressively to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft went from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry. Microsoft continued to develop operating systems as well as software applications.

Windows

In the early 1980s Microsoft introduced its own version of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), based on ideas originally pioneered by the Xerox corporation, and later developed by Apple. Microsoft released "Windows" as an alternative to their DOS command line, and to compete with other systems on the market that employed a GUI. Early versions of Windows were less capable than other GUIs on the market at the time, lacking features such as overlapping windows, and were not received well by PC users. However, Microsoft continued to release new versions and made deals with OEMs to have Windows pre-installed on many systems. By the late 1980s Microsoft Windows had begun to make serious headway against other DOS-based GUIs like GEM and GEOS. Opinions vary about whether the evolution of the system or Microsoft's marketing was the greater factor in these gains. The release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 was a tremendous success, selling around 10 million copies in the first two years and cementing Microsoft's dominance in operating systems. (See History of Microsoft Windows for more details)

By continuing to ensure, by various means, that most computers came with their software pre-installed, Microsoft eventually went on to become the largest software company in the world, earning Gates enough money that Forbes Magazine named him the wealthiest person in the world for several years. Gates served as the CEO of the company until 2000, when Steve Ballmer took the position, and continues to serve as chairman of the board. Microsoft has thousands of patents, and Gates has nine patents to his name.

Bill Gates' role

Since Microsoft's founding and as of 2006, Gates has had primary responsibility for Microsoft's product strategy. He has aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft has achieved a dominant position he has vigorously defended it. Many decisions that have led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates' approval. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued over the definitions of words such as "compete", "concerned", "ask", and "we." CNN, Gates deposition makes judge laugh in court, November 17 1998 BusinessWeek reported, "early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail Gates both sent and received." BusinessWeek, Microsoft's Teflon Bill, 11/30/98

Gates meets regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. By all accounts he can be extremely confrontational during these meetings, particularly when he believes that managers have not thought out their business strategy or have placed the company's future at risk. He has been described shouting at length at employees before letting them continue, with such remarks as "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" and "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?" However, he often backs down when the targets of his outbursts respond frankly and directly. When he is not impressed with the technical hurdles managers claim to be facing, he sometimes quips, "Do you want me to do it over the weekend?".

Gates' role at Microsoft for most of its history has been primarily a management and executive role. However, he was an active software developer in the early years, particularly on the company's programming language products. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100 line, but he wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products.

On June 15 2006, Gates announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft effective July 31 2008, to allow him to devote more time to working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During an interview with Fortune.com published on June 26 says his recent decision to "shift priorities" his day-to-day role has changed to June 2008 instead of the original date of July 2008. After that date, Gates will continue in his role as the company's chairman and act as an advisor on key projects. His role as Chief Software Architect will be filled immediately by Ray Ozzie who joined the company last year due to Microsoft taking over his company Groove. One of his last initiatives before announcing his departure was the creation of a robotics software group at Microsoft.

Personal life

Bill Gates married Melinda French of Dallas, Texas on January 1 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). Bill Gates' house is one of the most expensive houses in the world, and is a modern 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. According to King County public records, as of 2006, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is just under $1 million. Also among Gates' private acquisitions are the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci which Gates bought for million" target="_blank" >^* at an auction in 1994, and a rare Gutenberg Bible.

In 2000, Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable organization, with his wife. The foundation's grants have provided funds for college scholarships for under-represented minorities, AIDS prevention, diseases prevalent in third world countries, and other causes. In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with $210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The Foundation has also pledged over $7 billion to its various causes, including $1 billion to the United Negro College Fund; and as of 2005, had an estimated endowment of $29.0 billion. He has spent about a third of his lifetime income on charity. However, some suggest that these donations have self-serving motives.Greg Palast, Bill Gates: Killing Africans for Profit and PR, July 14 2003

Gates has received two honorary doctorates, from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2002 and Waseda University in 2005. Gates was also given an honorary KBE (Knighthood) from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2005BBC, Knighthood for Microsoft's Gates, March 2 2005, in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.Bill Gates' Flower Fly Eristalis gatesi Thompson

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stated that Gates is probably the most "spammed" person in the world, receiving as many as 4,000,000 e-mails per day in 2004, most of which were junk. Gates has almost an entire department devoted to filtering out junk emails.BBC, Bill Gates 'most spammed person, 18 November 2004 In an article, Gates himself has said that most of this junk mail "offers to help get out of debt or get rich quick", which "would be funny (given his financial state) if it weren't so irritating".[http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ofnote/06-23wsjspam.mspx Gates, Why I Hate Spam, June 23 2003 (WSJ printing)

Influence and wealth

Gates is widely considered one of the world's most influential people. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005 and again in 2006. Gates and Oprah Winfrey are the only two people in the world to make all four lists. He was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001. Gates has been number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2006 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995-2006 with 50 billion US dollars. In 2004, he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by Warren Buffett, the second wealthiest person in the world according to Forbes and a long time friend of Gates.Ina Fried. "". CNET News.com. December 14 2004. In 1999, Gates' wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion making him America's first centibillionaire. Since 2000, Gates' wealth has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's share price and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates gave away over $29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards. These donations are usually cited as sparking a substantial change in attitudes towards philanthropy among the very rich, as philanthropy eventually became the norm for the very rich. A survey of philanthropy by The Economist 25 February 2006 noted, "The media, which used to take little notice of charitable donations, now eagerly rank the super-rich by their munificence..." The Gates received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006, in recognition of their world impact through charity giving.Bill and Melinda Gates named in Top 10 Persons of 2006, Retrieved May 9, 2006

Gates has not generally engaged in conspicuous consumption beyond his lavish home, with its gardens and art collection. Gates also rents or leases a home on Mustique, an exclusive island in the Grenadines. In contrast, his former associate Paul Allen has used his wealth in perhaps a more typical manner—owning sports teams, vintage airplanes, and multiple residences. Gates also claimed, in 2005, that he has gone to work every day since 1975, which in recent years includes both his role at Microsoft, and his leadership position at the Gates Foundation.

In May 2005, Gates said in an interview that he wished that he was not the richest man in the world, stating that he disliked the attention it brought.Joe Bolger. "I wish I wasn't the richest man in the world, says Bill Gates." Times Online. May 5, 2006.

Popular culture

Gates is often characterized as the quintessential example of a super-intelligent "nerd" with immense power and wealth. This has in turn led to pop culture stereotypes of Gates as a tyrant or evil genius, often resorting to ruthless business techniques. As such he has been the subject of numerous parodies in film, television, and video games.

Works

Gates has published several essays throughout the years based on his theories, predictions and visions of the computing industry. In these publications he often expresses his personal views on current topics, and discusses Microsoft's plans. His writings have been published by BusinessWeek, Newsweek, USA Today, The Economist and Time. Some of his publications since 1997 include:

Person of the Year, Time, December 2 2005
The New World of Work, Executive E-mail, May 19 2005
The PC Era Is Just Beginning, Business Week, March 22 2005
Building Software That Is Interoperable by Design, Executive E-Mail, February 3 2005
The Enduring Magic of Software, InformationWeek, October 18 2004
Preserving and Enhancing the Benefits of E-mail: A Progress Report, Executive E-mail, June 28 2004
Microsoft Progress Report: Security, Executive E-mail, March 31 2004
Losing Ground in the Innovation Race?, CNET News.com, February 25 2004
A Spam-Free Future, The Washington Post, November 24 2003
Why I Hate Spam, The Wall Street Journal, June 23 2003
Building Trust in Technology, Global Agenda 2003 (World Economic Forum), January 23 2003
Security in a Connected World, Executive E-Mail, January 23 2003
The Disappearing Computer, The World in 2003 (The Economist), December 2002
Slowing the Spread of AIDS in India, The New York Times, November 9 2002
Trustworthy Computing, Executive E-Mail, July 18 2002
Computing You Can Count on, April 2002
Tech in a Time of Trouble, The World in 2002 (The Economist), December 2001
Moving into the Digital Decade, October 29 2001
The PC: 20 Years Young, August 12 2001
Why We’re Building .NET Technology, June 18 2001
Shaping the Internet Age, Internet Policy Institute, December 2000
Now for an Intelligent Internet, The World in 2001 (The Economist), November 2000
Will Frankenfood Feed the World?, Time, June 19 2000
Yes, More Trade with China, Washington Post, May 23 2000
The Case for Microsoft, Time, May 7 2000
Enter "Generation i", Instructor, March 2000
Product Distribution Goes Digital, IEEE Internet Computing, January 2000
Beyond Gutenberg, The World in 2000 (The Economist), November 1999
Everyone, Anytime, Anywhere, Forbes ASAP, October 4 1999
The Second Wave, IEEE Internet Computing Magazine, August 18, 1999
Microprocessors Upgraded the Way We Live, USA Today, June 22 1999
Why the PC Will Not Die, Newsweek, May 31 1999
The Wright Brothers: The 100 Most Important People of the Century, Time, March 29 1999
Compete, Don't Delete, The Economist, June 13 1998
Who Decides What Innovations Go into Your PC?, 1997

Notes

References

Bill Gates Biography
Bill Gates, Business @ The Speed of Thought ISBN 0446675962 (1999)
Bill Gates, The Road Ahead ISBN 0140260404 (1996)
James Wallace, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire Harper Business. ISBN 0887306292 (1993)
James Wallace, Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471180416 (1997)
Janet Lowe, Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471293539 (1998)
Jennifer Edstrom and Marlin Eller, Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0805057552 (1999)
Jeanne M. Lesinski, Bill Gates, Lerner Publications Company. ISBN 082259689X (2000)
David Bank, Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft, Free Press. ISBN 0743203151 (2001)

External links

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