BILL GATES
William H. (Bill) Gates – Chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. Born
October 28, 1955 shortly after 9 PM. He is reported to be the richest private individual in the
World topping the Forbes list of richest people for both 1996 and 1997
INVENTIONS
Gates and his pal Paul Allen produced two programs in the 8th grade: one played
tic-tac-toe. Before long, they were moonlighting as adolescent computer consultants for a local
corporation. In high school, Gates and his friends devised a program that analyzed traffic data
for his hometown.
Windows takes over
Soon after Gates unveiled his Windows 3.0 program in 1990, the applications software
industry was crying uncle. Over 60 million copies of the Windows progam were sold, which
established Microsoft_s operating system as the PC software standard and left companies like
Lotus and WordPerfect scrambling because they had been creating applications for IBM_s
system, the OS/2. Six years after the Windows launch, Microsoft dominates the word processing
and spreadsheet mark.
Corporation as Cult
The suburban Microsoft „campus,“ a cluster of 35 low-rise buildings, is set among lawns,
groves of white pines and shady courtyards that make the place resemble a college. But in
contrast to the sedate intellectualism of the average college, Microsoft rewards the brusque
„math camp“ mentality: a lot of cocky geeks willing to wave their fingers and yell with the cute
conviction that all problems have a right answer. Among Gates favorite phrases is „That_s the
stupidest thing I_ve ever heard,“ and victims wear it as a badge of honor, bragging about it the
way they do about getting a late-night E-mail from him.
POSSESSIONS
Built into a bluff fronting Lake Washington, the home Gates has been working on for