Bill Gates: Digital Revolution

IXDS5503 - Media History and Theory Professor: Jason Occhipinti

Bill Gates

Digital Revolution Anthony Moore March 6, 2015

Image Source: http://archive.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2008/06/gates_bio?currentPage=all

Early Life Born in Seattle, Washington, Bill Gates was the second of three children and only son of Bill Gates, Sr., an attorney, and Mary Gates, a University of Washington regent. As a baby, Gates often rocked himself, a trait for which he became well known as an adult. Brilliant and intellectually curious, Trey, as his family called him, reportedly read the lion’s share of his family’s encyclopedia at age seven or eight.

In the seventh grade, Gates transferred to Lakeside School, an elite private institution. It was at Lakeside that he first used a computer, which was actually a teletype machine connected by telephone to a mainframe computer in a local office of General Electric. He spent endless hours in the computer room, writing his first software program, a game of tic-tactoe, at age thirteen. He formed a close friendship with Paul Allen, a like-minded student two years his senior. Gates, Allen, and several others formed the Lakeside Programmers, a club that earned money by writing payroll and traffic data programs. (Salem, 2009, pp. 337-338)1

preference over his regular course work; he also participated in all-night high-stakes poker games) and Allen dropped out of the University of Washington to work for Honeywell Computer and to be near Bill in Massachusetts. In the fall of 1975, with more than a modicum of bravado, Gates and Allen undertook to provide a software program for the newly announced Altair

Gates and Allen Image Source: http://www.wired.com/2011/04/0404bill-gates-paul-allen-form-microsoft/

8800, marketed by a small New Mexico company [MITS] as the first affordable kit home computer, even though the two did not have access to the machine. (Cross, 2013 p 541)2 The problem with the Altair computer was that few individuals could use it; Gates saw that the machine needed a language that would make it accessible to the general public. Gates and Allen stepped in and wrote a version of the BASIC computer programming language that would work on the Altair.

By the time Gates was a senior and Allen was in college, they had devised a registration system for the school, developed a traffic monitoring system, done some programming for a computer maker, and worked on a major power project for a contractor for the U.S. government (they had also run into trouble For the purpose of working with MITS, making unauthorized use of the school’s Gates and Allen formed a business timeshare). Gates went off to Harvard partnership named Micro-Soft in July, and continued his computer work (in 1975; the company later modified the form

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of the name, becoming Microsoft. Gates on computer language programs and and Allen’s goal was to develop languages did not have an operating system. Gates for the Altair and other microcomputers, put the IBM people in touch with Digital and Microsoft was the first company Research whose operating system CP/M established to produce software for was among the few on the market. When microcomputers. In the contract with IBM failed to make a deal with Digital, MITS, Microsoft retained they returned to Microsoft, "My parents weren't ownership of the language and Gates and company... it developed for MITS. all that excited about signed on to develop a Gates promoted versions of system for them. (Cross, their son announcing BASIC to other companies, 2013, p 542)4 he was dropping out and orders came in from General Electric, NCR, and of a fine university In addition, IBM executive Citibank. Gates and Allen Jack Sams asked Microsoft to start a business in hired employees, and in to provide additional something almost December, 1975, Gates languages for IBM’s new nobody had heard dropped out of Harvard to PC: FORTRAN, Pascal, devote himself exclusively of called 'microcom- and COBOL. Currently to Microsoft. (Gorman, the company was using puters.'

Gates (Bar3 2008, p 1868) the CP/M system for its tholomew 1996) operating system; however, Digital was not eager to Gates and Microsoft, become involved with IBM. Gates and The Beginning Allen found an alternative named QDOS (for Quick and Dirty Operating System), The company was not an overnight built by Seattle Computer Products. success by any means, but it did modestly well for a company run by two twentysomethings and a ragtag band of followers living out of cheap apartments and subsisting on a diet of fast food and CocaCola. And they began to develop a high profile in the world of computer specialists, which brought them to the attention of executives at IBM who in the summer of 1980 were engaged in a top-secret project of getting into the personal computer Image Source: http://www.cultofmac.com/298698/bill-gates-loves-applebusiness. Despite its vaunted reputation pay/ for dominance in the mainframe business, Microsoft bought the software, paying less “Big Blue” had to go outside the company than $100,000 for the right to sell QDOS, to find a suitable operating system for renamed it MS-DOS, and relicensed it to its projected PC. The only problem was IBM, which called it PCDOS. (Gorman, that Microsoft had been focusing largely 200,8 pp. 1868-1869)5

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computer commands; this graphical user With MS-DOS Gates provided a solution interface [(GUI)] was widely successful. to the need of an operating system for IBM To aid PC users, so they would not have personal computers. Gate’s contribution to work directly with DOS, which was revolutionized the technological industry too complicated for the average user, as computers were no longer for Gates envisioned placing a layer between government and businesses but for the MS-DOS and the user. This “interface individuals in their own homes. “Over manager” would impose a graphical the next 24 years, after some big breaks, interface on top of the operating system inspired engineering, brilliant marketing and bring uniformity to all software and sharp-toothed competition, Microsoft applications that ran under it. (Gorman, became the dominant force in the industry. 2008, p 1869)6 And Gates became the richest man in the world at $90 billion.” (Brandel, 1999) First announced in 1983, Microsoft Windows 1.0 wouldn’t make it to the consumer market for another two years.

Microsoft under Gates Peaks Windows 1.0's big selling point was its GUI, intended to replace MS-DOS-style As Microsoft began to grow it soon command prompts. It also came with met challenges from Steve Jobs and software intended to show off its new Apple. Gates was also was concerned graphical computing environment with with making personal computers more what we’d now call “apps” like “Calendar,” “user-friendly.” Apple Computer, used an “Clock,” and yes, of course, “Paint.” operating system that featured pictures (Fitzpatrick, 2014)7 However, most critics rather than letters. PC users had to type of Windows 1.0 did not receive the new MS operating system well.

Early reviews panned the product for running far too slowly. The New York Times wrote that “running Windows on a PC with 512K of memory is akin to pouring molasses in the Arctic.” Many reviews said the speed slowdown only got worse when users ran more than one application at a time; an ability that had been intended as a primary draw. Despite the early Image Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bill-gates-danny-boyle-hunder-476316 hiccups, Microsoft [and Gates] didn’t specific letters, numbers, and punctuation just give up and close Windows. But not marks to tell the computer what to do; even Windows 2.0, released in 1987, set users of Apple’s Macintosh computer, Windows on its path to world dominance. in contrast, used a mouse or keyboard That spark didn’t come until Windows 3.0. strokes to click on pictures to give the (Fitzpatrick, 2014)8

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In 1990, Gates launched the operating system Windows 3.0, which was a huge success because it allowed several different applications to run at the same time and was more user-friendly with its point-and click mouse. “Within four months…, Windows 3.0 had sold a million copies.” (Wallace; Erickson, 1993 p 362)9 Gates continued to release new versions of Windows, with each version an improvement over the last. (Salem, 2009, pp 339-340)10 “Needless to say, the impact of Windows on the operating system [landscape] has been dramatic.

Windows now powers the vast majority of desktop computers [and] a sizable chunk of servers.” (Donston, 2005)

name into the history of technology. The accomplishments of Gates at Microsoft landed him at the number two spot of the Twenty-five Greatest Entrepreneurs and Businesspeople in American History just behind Henry Ford. (McCormick, 2003, p 711)12 “His products made it easier for the average person to use a computer and for businesses to communicate with one another. These factors, in turn, made it easier to access information on a previously unimaginable scale.” (Salem, 2009 p 340) Gates announced his retirement from Microsoft in 2006. He and his wife Melinda continued their foundation that

Even with the success of Windows 3.0, It was the release of Windows 95 that made Microsoft a corporate giant, selling over a million copies in the first four days after its release.

It was largely built on a 32-bit platform, rather than the 16-bit MSDOS platform, allowing for better, faster, and more secure file and disk management. “Win95” also introduced the Start button and taskbar, which became fixtures in all subsequent Windows releases, including the NT and CE lines. The Windows 95 Plus! Pack, released a Windows 95 Desktop and Popular Start Button few months later, integrated the Internet bears his name and continues to impact Explorer browser into Windows. (Gorman, lives in the same manner that so many 2008 p 1870)11 were changed by his insightfulness into technology that sought to make computers Gate’s ability to envision the widespread more accessible and easier to use by use of the internet, desktop computer his innovative ideas that help shape the systems and essential software, such world of technology. In Gate’s own words as the suite of programs packaged with “Throughout my careers in software and Microsoft Office, has forever etched his philanthropy - and in each of my annual

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letters - a recurring theme has been that innovation is the key to improving the world. When innovators work on urgent problems and deliver solutions to people in need, the results can be magical.”

(Gates, 2011)

References:

Footnotes:

Benson, A. K. (2009). Great Lives From History. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press.

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Salem, P. (2009). American Heroes. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press. 337-338

Brandel, M. (1999). Microsoft is Born.

Computerworld, 33(27), 71.

Cross, M. (2013). 100 People Who Changed 20th-century America. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. 541

Dalglish, B. (1992). Genius at work. (cover story). Maclean’s, 105(19), 34.

2

Gorman, R. F. (2008). Great Events From History. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press.

1868 3

4

Cross, 542

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Gorman, 1868-1869

6

Gorman, 1869

Fitzpatrick, A. (2014). It Took Microsoft 3 Tries Before Windows Was Successful.

Time.com, N.PAG. 7

8

Fitzpatrick

Wallace, J; Erickson, J (1993) Hard Drive Bill Gates And The Making Of The Microsoft Empire. New York: HarperBusiness 9

10

Salem 339-340

11

Gorman, 1870

Allman, W. F. (1990). Evolutionary revolutionary. U.S. News & World Report, 109(25), 49.

Bartholomew, D. (1996). Bill Gates envisions the enterprise. Industry Week/ IW, 245(23), 8.

Donston, D. (2005). 20 YEARS OF WINDOWS. eWeek, 22(45), 43.

Elmer-DeWitt, P. (1995). Bill Gates. Time, 146/147(26/1), 100.

Fitzpatrick, A. (2014). It Took Microsoft 3 Tries Before Windows Was Successful.

Time.com, N.PAG. Gorman, R. F. (2008). Great Events From History. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press.

Gates, B. (2011). BILL & MELINDA GATES foundation: 2012. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition & Development, 11(7), 1-25.

McCormick, B., & Burton, W. F., Jr. (2003).

A Survey of Business Historians on America’s Greatest Entrepreneurs. The Business History Review, 77(4), 703-716. doi: 10.2307/30041235 Salem, P. (2009). American Heroes.

Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press.

12

Wilson, A. B., & Skovgard, R. O. (2011).

Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates. American Spectator, 44(10), 50.

10.2307/30041235

Wallace, J; Erickson, J (1993) Hard Drive Bill Gates And The Making Of The Microsoft Empire. New York: HarperBusiness

McCormick, B., & Burton, W. F., Jr. (2003).

A Survey of Business Historians on America’s Greatest Entrepreneurs. The Business History Review, 77(4), 703-716.doi:

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