Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III (b. October 28, 1955), usually known as Bill Gates, is an American businessman and a microcomputer pioneer. Along with others, he wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 (an early microcomputer). With Paul Allen, he co-founded Microsoft Corporation, and is now its chairman and "Chief Software Architect." According to Forbes magazine in 2005, Gates is the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of around US$46.5 billion.

Biography

Early life

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, on October 28, 1955, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. As a child, Gates attended Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive prep school, where he was able to develop his programming skills on the school's minicomputer, allegedly writing his first computer program at the age of 13. While in high school he founded Traf-o-Data, a company which sold traffic counting systems to state governments, and helped computerize his school's payroll system.

Related Topics:
Seattle - Washington - October 28 - 1955 - William H. Gates, Sr. - Mary Maxwell Gates - Lakeside School - Prep school - Minicomputer - Traf-o-Data - Traffic - Payroll

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gates attended Harvard University, where he met his business partner Steve Ballmer. During his second year at Harvard, in 1975, Gates and Paul Allen, a friend of Gates' from Seattle, co-wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 (the first commercially successful personal computer). It was inspired by BASIC, an easy-to-learn programming language developed at Dartmouth College for teaching purposes. Gates dropped out of Harvard during his third year in order to pursue a career in software development.

Related Topics:
Harvard University - Steve Ballmer - 1975 - Paul Allen - Altair BASIC - Interpreter - Altair 8800 - Personal computer - BASIC - Programming language - Dartmouth College - Software

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Microsoft

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Science that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates called the creators of the new microcomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), to inform them that he and others had developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the platform. Allen flew to MITS to unveil the new BASIC system. Allen had never handled an Altair, since Gates had done all of the actual product development, but the demonstration was successful, and resulted in a deal with MITS to buy the rights to Allen's and Gates' BASIC for the Altair platform. At this point Gates left Harvard and founded Micro-Soft with Allen, which was latered re-named as the Microsoft Corporation.

Related Topics:
1975 - Popular Science - Altair 8800 - MITS - Programming language - BASIC - Microsoft

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In February 1976, Bill Gates wrote an open letter that expressed his frustration over his belief that the majority of people using the software were not paying for it. The letter, called the "Open Letter to Hobbyists", was controversial in some communities and may have played a part in the ensuing rise of proprietary software.

Related Topics:
1976 - Open letter - Open Letter to Hobbyists - Proprietary software

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft for a version of CP/M, an early operating system (OS), set to be used for the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). However, Microsoft had no OS at the time, so they purchased a CP/M clone called QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for $50,000, which Microsoft renamed to PC-DOS.

Related Topics:
August 12 - 1981 - Digital Research - IBM - CP/M - Operating system - IBM Personal Computer - QDOS - Tim Paterson - Seattle Computer Products - PC-DOS

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Later, after Compaq successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones. Microsoft was quick to use its position to dominate the home computer operating system market. Microsoft began licensing its OS for use on non-IBM PC clones, and called that version 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.

Related Topics:
Compaq - BIOS - PC clone - MS-DOS - Disk - Operating System

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Microsoft continued to develop operating systems as well as software applications. By the late-1980s, their graphical user interface operating system, Microsoft Windows had begun to make serious headway into the software market. 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 dominance in operating systems. (See History of Microsoft Windows for more details)

Related Topics:
Software applications - Graphical user interface - Microsoft Windows - Windows 3.0 - 1990 - History of Microsoft Windows

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Microsoft eventually went on to be the largest software company in the world, earning Gates enough money to make him the wealthiest person in the world (according to Forbes Magazine) for several years. Gates served as the CEO of the company until 1998 when Steve Ballmer took the position. Gates continues to serve as a chairman of the board at the company and also as a position he created for himself entitled "Chief Software Architect".

Related Topics:
Forbes Magazine - CEO - 1998 - Steve Ballmer

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Business practices

Gates became (in)famous in the computing industry on account of Microsoft's aggressive business practices. In 1998 this would culminate in a lawsuit, United States v. Microsoft, which alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales.

Related Topics:
Business practices - 1998 - United States v. Microsoft - Monopoly - Operating system - Web browser

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gates was called to question in regards to the case as the chairman of Microsoft. He was called "evasive and nonresponsive" by a source present at a session in which Gates was questioned on his deposition. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-214993.html He argued over the definitions of words such as "compete", "jihad", "concerned", "ask", and "we". http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9811/17/judgelaugh.ms.idg/index.html 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 have been directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of E-mail Gates both sent and received." http://www.businessweek.com/1998/48/b3606125.htm Intel Vice-President Steven McGeady, called as a witness, quoted Paul Maritz, a senior Microsoft vice president as having stated an intention to "extinguish" and "smother" rival Netscape Communications Corporation and to "cut off Netscape's air supply" by giving away a clone of Netscape's flagship product for free. The Microsoft executive denied the allegations. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/stories/1998/microsoft111398.htm

Related Topics:
Intel - Steven McGeady - Paul Maritz - Netscape Communications Corporation

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The judge of the case issued his findings of fact on November 5, 1999 that Microsoft's dominance of the personal computer operating systems market constituted a monopoly. Then on April 3, 2000, he issued a two-part ruling: his conclusions of law were that Microsoft had committed monopolization, attempted monopolization, and tying in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, and his remedy was that Microsoft must be broken into two separate units, one to produce the operating system, and one to produce other software components. Microsoft appealed the decision but later agreed to a settlement with the Department of Justice in 2002.

Related Topics:
November 5 - 1999 - April 3 - 2000 - Sherman Act - Department of Justice

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Personal Life

Gates married Melinda French on January 1, 1994, with whom he had three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (born April 26, 1996), Rory John Gates (born May 23, 1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (born September 14, 2002).

Related Topics:
Melinda French - January 1 - 1994 - April 26 - 1996 - May 23 - 1999 - September 14 - 2002

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Philanthropy

With his wife, Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable organization. The foundation's grants have provided funds for underrepresented minority college scholarships, AIDS prevention, diseases that strike mainly in the third world, and other causes.

Related Topics:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Scholarship - AIDS - Disease - Third world

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2000, the Gates foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with $210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships.

Related Topics:
2000 - University of Cambridge - Gates Cambridge Scholarships

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Honors

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 from the United Kingdom in 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3428673.stm, in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor. http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/syrphid/gates.htm

Related Topics:
Honorary doctorate - Royal Institute of Technology - Stockholm - Sweden - Waseda University - Honorary KBE - United Kingdom - Entomologists

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~