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Who is Bill Gates?

R. Kayne
R. Kayne

William Henry Gates III, better known as Bill Gates, was born on 28 October 1955 in Seattle, Washington. He is best known as co-founder of software giant Microsoft Corporation, a company he and Paul Allen bootstrapped in 1979. The enormous success of Microsoft has amassed the entrepreneur an astounding fortune, earning him the title of “richest man in the world” from 1995 to 2007, according to Forbes Magazine. As of 2013, Gates’ net worth is estimated at $67 billion US Dollars (USD).

Bill Gates was born to a well-to-do family, his father a successful lawyer, and his mother a board member for First Interstate Bank. He has two siblings, Kristianne and Libby. Throughout grammar school, he excelled in math and science, and enrolled in Lakeside, an exclusive preparatory school.

Windows® OS it the most used operating system on computers.
Windows® OS it the most used operating system on computers.

At Lakeside, the young man was exposed to his first computers in the form of Teletype terminals networked to a remote server. Use of the Teletype required purchasing time blocks from the server. Gates and his Lakeside friends were banned from one system after administrators learned the kids were exploiting flaws in the system to acquire free time.

Bill Gates co-founded the Microsoft Corporation.
Bill Gates co-founded the Microsoft Corporation.

Gates quickly developed a passionate interest in computer operating systems, source code, and computer languages, including BASIC, FORTRAN, LISP, and COBOL. He and Allen were soon getting work searching for vulnerabilities in existing systems and writing proprietary programs. By age 14, Gates founded a short-lived venture with Allen that earned him $20,000 USD in the first year.

Bill Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard in 1975.
Bill Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard in 1975.

Interested in law, Gates enrolled in Harvard College in 1973, but the world would have different plans for the future software mogul. Just two years into Harvard, he took a leave of absence to work with Allen writing an operating system (OS) for what is now considered to be the precursor to personal computers, the Altair 8800. The two young men formed a partnership they initially called “Micro-soft,” later changing it to “Microsoft” to be trademarked in November 1976.

Perhaps foreshadowing things to come, the Altair operating system that Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote was widely copied and shared among computer enthusiasts, prompting Gates to write an open letter in February 1976. In his letter, he conveyed his distress at having people use the OS without making payment, stressing the time and work that goes into programming and the inability to provide quality software without fair compensation.

Four years later, in 1980, IBM approached Gates to provide an operating system for an upcoming personal computer line. He suggested 86-DOS, an operating system written by Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP). Gates subsequently negotiated with SCP to make Microsoft the sole licensing agent of 86-DOS and eventually full owner, never mentioning the potential mega-contract with IBM. Microsoft adapted the OS, renamed it “PC-DOS” and asked IBM for a one-time fee, retaining copyright. When IBM clones hit the market, as Gates predicted they would, every computer required a copy of Microsoft’s operating system, licensed directly from the company.

If MS-DOS® opened the door to Gates’ legendary status in the computer world, the Windows® operating system kicked it wide open. While MS-DOS® was a text-based command-line OS, Windows® revolutionized the personal computer world, providing an easy, graphical, point-and-click interface that made computers accessible to everyone. The market exploded from a relatively small community of computer geeks to the general public, and businesses large and small.

The Windows® OS created a de facto monopoly for Gates in the IBM PC market. Microsoft frequently bought out small up-and-coming companies that were developing popular software packages, absorbing the products into the Microsoft line. In many cases, Gates was criticized for his aggressiveness in forcing out competition. This came to a head in the mid-1990s, when Microsoft packaged Internet Explorer® with Windows 95®, essentially “pushing” its browser upon new computer users, usurping the market share or rival browser Netscape®. In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice brought charges against Microsoft in an antitrust case, eventually ending with a ruling against the software giant.

In 1994, Bill Gates married Microsoft employee Melinda Ann French. They had three children: Jennifer (b. 1996), Rory (b. 1999), and Phoebe (b. 2002). Gates has received honorary doctorates from universities in the Netherlands, Sweden, Tokyo, and from Harvard. In 2000, he and Melinda founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, donating billions to improve global healthcare, fight AIDS, improve educational opportunities and provide scholarships. He also received an honorary Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 and was named one of the most influential people of the 20th Century by Time magazine.

Discussion Comments

anon250193

I think this website is fantastic. I'm doing a school project on Bill Gates and when i looked him up on Google, I clicked on the first website that came up. The website was this one. It has all the information i needed plus more. I will definitely be coming back.

anon51796

Bill Gate has actually done well. However, the youths of developing need to be empowered. Do something.

anon44620

what is Bill's Gates thinking/purpose behind giving away most of the foundation's funds?

anon14131

Vista has problems, and was released too early.

anon13394

Anybody who has ill thoughts about this guy, either has way too much time on their hands, had too much coffee and cigarettes, or is just plain mighty jealous of how he dominated the OS market (in the preceding article right?).

I'll pick the third choice...or maybe not...its just a matter of perspective anyway;)

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    • Windows® OS it the most used operating system on computers.
      By: Senza rivali
      Windows® OS it the most used operating system on computers.
    • Bill Gates co-founded the Microsoft Corporation.
      By: Maik Meid
      Bill Gates co-founded the Microsoft Corporation.
    • Bill Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard in 1975.
      By: Bastos
      Bill Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard in 1975.