Bill Gates

BILL GATES Businessman, Entrepreneur, Programmer, Philanthropist

David Maish . 07.21.16 Essay 01. Digital Revolution Professor David Meyers IXDS5403 Media History and Theory MA Interaction Design Lindsey Wilson College

William Henry “Bill� Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, investor and programmer.

In 1975 Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft, which became the worlds largest software company.

EARLY LIFE Bill Gate’s was raised in a very structured, competitive family. He was knicknamed “Trey” deriving from his full name William Henry Gates III. At age 13, Gates enrolled at Lakeside Prep School, Seattle’s best private prep school, accepting only the brightest and best.

His life was transformed by the arrival of a computer terminal in a downstairs room of the math and science building at Lakeside. Although it was not actually a true computer, but a Teletype Terminal that was connected via phone line to a GE Mark II time-sharing computer system, Gates would find himself spending every free moment he had in the computer room.

COMPUTER DRIVEN

Bill and classmate Paul Allen became friends by writing software code together.

In 1970, when Gates was only 15 years old, he and Paul Allen went into business together.

They made $20,000.00 developing a computer program called Traf-O-Data, a software program that measured traffic flow in the Seattle area.

Gates began his college career at Harvard in the fall of 1973. Bill originally set his sights on becoming a mathematician, but that changed when friend and former business partner, Paul Allen brought news of a small company that made the worlds first mini computer kit, the Altair 8800.

THE COOLEST CODE I EVER WROTE Gates and Allen knew that the Altair 8800 was the beginning of the personal computer revolution. They persuaded the owner of the company to let them write software for the Altair 8800.

Working day and night for two months at the Harvard computer center they developed BASIC 1.0. Gates calling it, “the coolest code I ever wrote.” It would prove to have a very significant impact on the computer industry.

At age 19 Gates dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen in 1975.

IBM wanted Microsoft to

develop an operating system for their new line of personal computers.

Gates purchased an existing operating system for $50,000 and adapted it to run on IBM’s hardware. He renamed it MS-DOS, IBM attempted to buy the source code, but Microsoft refused. Being a savvy businessman, Gates asked IBM to pay a licensing fee for every copy of DOS installed in IBM Personal Computers. This allowed Microsoft to license their operating system to any PC manufacturer, and the revenue model is still used today. By 1983 Microsoft software was on 30% of computers world wide.

WINDOWS In 1986, Gates and Microsoft Introduced its first operating system with a graphical user interface (GUI). It was called Microsoft Windows, but it bared a strong resemblance to Apple’s Macintosh.

Gates had advised Apple to get a copyright, however Apple was more interested in selling computers, this prompted Gates to take \advantage of an open opportunity. At the age of 31, Gates became a billionaire owning 45% of his stock.

IBM chose to separated from MS-DOS by creating their own operating system called OS2.

Their operating system eventually failed. Largely because Gates decided to invest the entire future of Microsoft to advancing the

Windows operating system, even if it meant losing IBM as a client. Microsoft launched Windows 3.0 which turned out be a best seller.

LATER LIFE Bill Gates help change the way the world operates and functions. He made it easier to get tasks done by creating several multitasking software programs. Microsoft allowed the technology field to expand and become competitive, setting the bar higher and presenting endless surprises.

In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was identified by the Funds for NGOs company in 2013, as the world’s wealthiest charitable foundation, with assets reportedly valued at more than $34.6 billion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/bill-gates-how-ageek-changed-the-world/ Life Story of Bill Gates - Documentary: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=fO2u-uxVBIc http://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/29/25-bill-gates.html http://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/leadership/21779/ bill-gates-biography-salary-and-career-history-of-microsofts-co-founder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates