Bill Gates was born a programmer. Against the will of his father, he became interested not in law, but in computer science, and at the age of 13 he wrote the first program. In 1975, the brilliant Harvard sophomore dropped out and became one of the founders of a world-famous corporation. Earning his first billion at 31, the Microsoft founder was named the richest man in the world 17 times. In 2016, his fortune reached $76.4 billion. He has invested more than 30 billion dollars in charitable projects. In 2015, he created a development fund clean sources energy.
per century information technologies more often the first lines Forbes rating occupied by genius programmers whose talent allowed them to create business empires.
The story of Bill Gates is an inspiring example for those who dream of getting rich. However, upon closer examination, it turns out that the undertakings of the great programmer were driven not by the thirst for money, but by the highest degree love for your work.
William Henry GatesIII now known as Bill Gates - one of the richest people on the planet, founder of the world famous corporation Microsoft, philanthropist, public figure and an ingenious code maker. At the beginning of 2017, his fortune was estimated by Forbes experts at $76.4 billion.
Interesting fact: Bill Gates became the richest man in the USA 21 times and 17 times - richest man planets. At the same time, during his life, the billionaire sent 31.5 billion of his fortune to charitable needs.
Source: Lenta.ru
In 2016, Bill Gates was at the top of the Forbes rating 17 times. Despite the fact that his name is always associated with the global corporation he created and the operating system of the same name, he retired from Microsoft in 2008 (now he owns only 3% of the company's shares).
Currently, the activities of the brilliant programmer are focused on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, investing in the real economy, developing projects to create clean energy, simplifying Everyday life people by introducing digital gadgets into it.
Gates' business is the door to a new era of PC use; his quotes are a call to action in spite of circumstances.
The founder of Microsoft, in theory, should have followed in the footsteps of his father, who works as a lawyer and recognizes the high importance of higher education. However, instead of stable law, he chose the shaky field of programming, left Harvard for the sake of implementing a daring idea that was destined to become a world-famous corporation.
How did it happen that an eccentric entrepreneur and a daring half-educated programmer managed to become a billionaire and head the largest IT corporation? Short story success of a businessman, his biography and history of achievements - a storehouse of bold advice and extraordinary decisions.
On October 28, 1955, the long-awaited son William was born in the family of a lawyer from Seattle. His father saw in him the successor of his business in the field of jurisprudence, in connection with which he even sent the boy to a private advanced Lakeside school. But life decreed otherwise.
Interesting fact: As a child, Bill received the family nickname "trey" (eng. "Three in playing cards”), as he was the third heir to the Gates family and the third child in the family. In the future, the number three often haunted the billionaire in life: he created the first company together with Evans and Allen (three of them), for the first time he became the richest man in the world with a fortune of $ 9 billion (three triples), in 2008 he created the company BGC3 ("Bill's third company"). Gates") and was left with a 3% stake in Microsoft.
Despite the appeals of his father, young Bill was not interested in history, law, philosophy, literature. All his aspirations were riveted to the case with a computer terminal, where at the age of 13 he began to actively engage in programming and mathematics.
In 1968, together with his friend Paul Allen, he created the first two programs in the BASIC language - a number converter between two mathematical bases and a tic-tac-toe game.
“I was obsessed with computers ... I sat in the computer class until night. Programmed on weekends. Every week we spent 20-30 hours there ... Then I was fifteen or sixteen years old ... ”Bill Gates
Source: RBC
The use of computers by schoolchildren was limited, but young programmers hacked into a reliable DEC program. For this, they were deprived of access to computers for a whole summer, but then they were invited to work at the Computer Center Corporation. The collaboration was as follows:
The experience gained played a role - the difficult but fascinating path of Gates to the top began:
It was time to leave the walls of the school, and Bill hastily pulled up all the subjects and passed them perfectly. In 1973 he becomes a student at Harvard.
Interesting fact: When entering Harvard, Bill Gates scored 1590 points out of 1600 possible. This did not stop him from dropping out after two years and starting to create an IT corporation.
Source: Forbes
Bill Gates and Paul Allen were connected not only by strong friendship, but also by common hobbies. Day and night they could read books on programming languages and the creation of artificial intelligence. Paul followed a friend to Boston when he entered Harvard.
In 1975, Bill came across an article in a scientific journal about the Altair 8800 personal computer. Within 10 minutes, the young programmer was talking to the manager of MITS, the corporation that created Altair. He assured him that he and a friend had developed a program for the processor that would be of interest to management.
Bill and Paul were invited to an interview, where they presented software, created within two nights of the conversation. The goal was achieved - friends were hired at MITS.
Why did Gates go to such tricks? It was the only chance to see first hand the code for the latest personal PC.
In 1975, Allen convinces his partner of the need to leave school and go into business. On April 4, their brainchild appears - the company Micro-soft (microprocessors & software).
Interesting fact: Initially, 64% of the company's shares belonged to Gates and 36% to Allen, since Bill always and in everything aspired to dominance and leadership.
Source: Lenta.ru
Five years of ups and downs, and here they are - the first and significant achievements:
Personal PCs became dependent on Microsoft products, and the corporation itself put shares on the public sale.
On the 11th anniversary of the company - his 31st anniversary, Bill Gates becomes a billionaire. This fact only activates the energy of the computer genius.
In 1994, Microsoft released its own Internet Explorer browser, which since 1998 has been built into the Windows system.
Interesting Facts from the history of the development of Microsoft Corporation are presented in an informative video
At the age of 39, Bill Gates decides to tie the knot with a Microsoft employee, Melinda French. Later, the couple created a joint charitable foundation and became the parents of three children - daughters Jennifer Katarin (1996), Phoebe Adele (2002) and son Rory John (1999).
Since 1990, a long legal battle between Microsoft Corporation and antitrust authorities has begun - the latter insist on splitting the business due to the fact that:
The proceedings ended only in 2000 with a decision to divide the business into two parts, but Gates filed an appeal, and the lawsuit lasted another two years. It resulted in the release in 2004 Windows versions without built-in player and web browser.
In the early 2000s, Google announces that it will release its products in response to new proposals from Microsoft.
"Success is a terrible teacher: it makes smart people think they can't fail"
After years of climbing Mount Olympus, Bill decides to take a break. Back in 1998 at the post CEO he is replaced by Ballmer (a Harvard classmate of the billionaire), and in 2000 Gates gives him the position of executive director. For himself, he retains only the position of technical adviser to the corporation.
Bill Gates was born October 28, 1955 in an intelligent, educated family. His parents are respected people in Seattle. Father - William Henry Gates II - corporate lawyer, philanthropist and writer, mother - Mary Maxwell Gates - businesswoman, the first woman to lead the United Way society, as well as the first woman on the national executive committee of the United Way and the board of directors of the First Interstate Bank of Washington. Bill's ancestors were also quite famous people in their field - great-grandfather served as mayor and senator, and grandfather was vice president of the National Bank. Bill grew up surrounded by two sisters - the older Christy and the younger Libby. Bill's family nickname is Trey.
The parents of the future billionaire sent the boy to the elite Lakeside School, where the guy's basic skills were formed. It is easy to guess that Bill was interested in mathematics much more than the humanities, in which, by the way, he almost always received unsatisfactory grades. Parents could not help but worry, and once they even sent their son to a psychiatrist, but over time it became clear that grammar and civics are not the best. important items in Bill's life.
Already in primary school programming becomes a real passion of a young man. At the age of 13, he wrote the Tic-Tac-Toe program in the BASIC programming language. The program itself, although it was quite simple, was the “starting point” for Gates as a programmer.
Acquaintance with Paul Anders, who would later become a partner of Gates, happened in high school and became fateful. Bill is in the eighth grade, Paul is in the tenth. They are united by a love of programming, they test computers of Digital Equipment Corporation together, having fun hacking computer programs. So far, no one is thinking about creating innovative ideas and developing a unique strategy.
One day, newly-made friends and a couple of the same "hackers" - Rick Weiland and Kent Evans - are caught in another hack and are deprived of the opportunity to work on computers throughout the summer. The guys who “served” their sentence return to their favorite business by autumn, finding regular errors in the software of the computer market leader at that time - Computer Center Corporation, on whose initiative they were punished. Young entrepreneurs put forward a proposal to the management - search for errors for the opportunity to work on the company's PC. Management readily agrees. Cooperation was short-term - the end was the bankruptcy of the company, which happened in 1970.
Everything changes when the guys in 1972 become the founders of Traf-O-Data. Young people who created unique counters, on the basis of which not only road traffic was read, but also reports for road engineers, replenished their total account by $ 794.31 over 10 years of sales of the invention.
At the end of 1972, the guys receive an invitation to work for TRW, which is expected to work on a huge project for the Bonneville Energy Department using the PDP-10.
Entering Harvard University in 1973, Bill expects to develop the skills and abilities he already has. His desire to create unique software is so great that the theoretical part of training burdens him more and more every day. After two years of study, student Bill Gates is expelled from the university. For so a short time training, Bill managed to meet a lot of interesting and important for further development his business people. One of them is Gates' future partner, Stephen Ballmer.
Before heading their own company, Paul and Bill work for large companies in the IT industry. One of them was Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, which in 1975 released a fundamentally new Altair 8800 computer.
It is possible to get a job with the company with the help of cunning and arrogance - Gates calls the director of the company and says that they are already working at full strength to create a POG for their car. And although this is far from being the case, they still manage to become MITS partners. The Microsoft company as an independent unit appears in November 1976.
Cooperation with MITS does not last long - the company does not pass the test financial crisis and declares bankruptcy. Microsoft, on the contrary, is gaining momentum, mastering all new industries in this area. One of the company's innovations, introduced almost immediately after its creation - Microsoft software licenses - becomes a real discovery. It was the licenses that made it possible to integrate new operating systems and programming languages into computers, which also significantly increased Microsoft's fortune.
The work on finding new partners continues and is going quite well: Apple Corporation, Commodore, Radio shack computer developer - they all want to get the software of an innovative manufacturer.
For the company begins new stage– planning and development of the existing structure in the long term. Gates is responsible for paperwork, developing public relations and finding new lucrative contracts, while Allen focuses on the technical side of the issue.
1977 - Microsoft Fortran operating system is presented to the world. It was a completely new operating system that competed with the "monopoly" of those times - the CP / M system.
But the company's crazy success is just ahead. In 1980, Microsoft entered into a deal with IBM Corporation, a giant in the computer business. Microsoft offers IBM an innovative solution - a system for their new computer. IBM, who have been working with Digital Research systems for a long time, having felt the cardinal difference between the products, become Microsoft partners for many years. What Gates' mother was in good relations with the leaders of IBM, it was no secret to anyone, which subsequently gave rise to a lot of judgments about how one hundred everything was decided in advance.
But be that as it may, the fact remains. MS-DOS, proposed by Microsoft, has become a completely new product on the market and in for a long time entrenched in the status of the "leader" of the operating systems for computers based on Intel at that time.
In 1985, a completely new Windows system appears. It is distinguished by graphic design, and it is with it that the era of Windows begins, and already in 1993, with the advent of Windows 3.1, a real breakthrough occurs.
Microsoft, released on stock market in 1986, makes Gates a billionaire in just a couple of months. Shares that are constantly growing in price strengthen the position of the company and already in 1988 Microsoft was officially recognized as the most a major producer software in the world.
In 1998, Gates, being in the status of the richest person, announced his departure from the corporation. Refusing his position, he plunges headlong into programming. Until 2006, he takes part in the life of his offspring - he is responsible for the production strategy, but he also refuses these obligations, choosing charity.
In 1994, the businessman organized the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (originally the William Gates Foundation), which for almost half a century has been one of the largest foundations in the world. The main direction of the organization's work is to improve the health care system and find ways to avoid hunger in poor countries. The fund's resources are used to fight many diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc. In the United States, the foundation mainly works to improve the level of education and the system itself as a whole. To this end, in 2009 alone, 12.9 million dollars were donated. In the fall of the same year, the foundation provided a $25 million grant to modernize more than a thousand public libraries.
Gates met his future wife Melinda in 1987. Interestingly, she was an employee of his own company. The couple married in 1994 and had three children - daughter Jennifer Katharine, son Rory John and daughter Phoebe Adele. The couple has been repeatedly awarded for charity, and in 2005 they were named couple of the year (Time magazine).
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The wave has begun again… Bill Gates is a genius.. Gates is a great one.. From post to post video "Think of yourself..."“He created a corporation almost from scratch… at the age of 31 he became a billionaire…”. How was it really?
“Bill Gates was born October 28, 1955. He and his two sisters grew up in Seattle. Their father, William Gates II, is a lawyer. Mr. Gates' mother, Mary Gates, was a school teacher…"
A baby was born in the family of a modest lawyer and a school teacher… He studied and worked a lot… Thanks to his genius, he became the richest man on the planet Earth, transformed the world.
Bill Gates (eng. Bill Gates) or William Henry Gates III (William Henry Gates III) - already sounds, doesn't it? - was born on October 28, 1955, not in a simple family, but in a family with rich traditions in business, politics and public service. The Gates family enjoys great weight and prestige in Seattle, and indeed throughout the state of Washington. his great grandfather was a member of the state parliament and mayor of Seattle, maternal grandfather - vice president of the US National Bank, father - William Henry Gates II (William Henry Gates II) - a famous and very rich lawyer, and mother - Mary Maxwell Gates (Mary Maxwell Gates) - the first woman - a member of the board of directors of First Interstate Bancorp, a member of the board of directors of Pacific Northwest Bell, U S West Inc. and KIRO-TV in Seattle, President of the National Council of United Way International - not bad for a simple schoolteacher?
Until about the age of eleven, Billy grew up as a mischievous tomboy. In the class of an ordinary school, he was known as a stupid wimp. Academic performance did not correspond to the hypothetical talents of the child. It never occurred to him to take an example from the exemplary older sister Christie. Even the trouble-free method of financial incentives for academic performance, proven by many generations, did not help - brother and sister could count on 25 cents for each positive grade. The current situation did not suit the Gates family, respected in Seattle, who were proud of their traditions and roots. I even had to go to a psychiatrist.
When Gates was 13 years old, his parents, deciding to introduce their son to the circle of the elite, transferred him to a private privileged school Lakeside (Lakeside School). And it was in 1968 that the administration of this Seattle Lakeside school decided to introduce its students to the new technology and language of computers. The price of a computer at that time was far beyond the school budget, so the school decided to rent the “computer time” of a computer owned by some corporation. With the help of a teletype, he could be contacted by telephone lines. In order to fulfill this plan, the headmaster turned to the parent committee with a request to get money to buy a teletypewriter and help pay for machine time. The committee's fund had to be eased by $3,000 so that every grade in the school could learn how to use a nearby General Electric PDP-10 (DEC) minicomputer.
And IBM agreed! (surprising, right?) She bought a license for MS-DOS and entered into an unusual agreement for that time under which Microsoft continues to own the system and IBM pays them every time they sell a computer with MS-DOS installed.
Thus the concept of proprietary software was born, although until that time it was common practice for software to be given away for free, since the computers themselves were very expensive and the extra expense was undesirable.
Qdos became DOS, then Windows 1.0-3.11 (this OS was developed by Microsoft, although the ideas were stolen from Apple), eventually the crooked line of Windows died at Windows Millennium. The long-term construction of Windows NT (hereinafter 2000/XP/Vista/Win7) entered the scene, in which a lot was also stolen from competitors, in particular from IBM's OS / 2.
In 1986, Microsoft shares went public for the first time, and Bill Gates became fabulously rich overnight.
So where is the genius of Bill Gates? Who would he be without the connections of his father among lawyers and his mother among business sharks? And where is the “Cinderella”, who achieved everything himself exclusively with his brains?
The name of Bill Gates is familiar to almost everyone, especially those who use Microsoft operating systems, because this person is considered their creator. But besides the fact that Bill Gates is an outstanding businessman, he also seems to be a very reasonable man who recently surprised the whole world with his approach to raising his own children.
In 2015, Forbes magazine again summed up the results of the year and compiled its annual rating. This list was headed by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation, for the 16th time.
Based on the life of Bill Gates, you can make more than one touching film. At school, he did not study well and considered all subjects, except for mathematics, unnecessary. For bad behavior, the boy was even sent for consultations to a psychiatrist.
But the guy was well versed in computers and programming. At the age of 13, Bill was already writing the simplest computer programs, and a couple of years later, together with friends, he managed to hack the program of one large Seattle corporation - Computer Center Corporation.
At the age of 17, together with Paul Allen, Gates founded his first company, which in a couple of months had 790 thousand dollars on its account. And in 1975 the first Microsoft BASIC was created.
Gates met his future wife when he was already a very rich man. He flew to New York for a press briefing and met Melinda French there, whom he married on January 1, 1994.
Melinda was born in Texas, in a large family of an ordinary engineer. Bill Gates in his interviews is often surprised at how the chosen one could force him to marry her, because before meeting this girl he had an ambiguous attitude towards family ties. However, there is nothing strange about what Melinda found with the computer genius mutual language, after all, she once received a bachelor's degree in computer science.
In the 90s, Melinda got into the Microsoft team, and already in the 94th year she became a wife. The wedding ceremony took place in Hawaii, after the marriage, Melinda became a housewife. If we talk about how many children Bill Gates had in marriage with this woman, then there will be three heirs to a multi-billion dollar fortune: two girls and one boy.
She is also widely known for her philanthropic work as the founder of the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation.
The “seemingly seen” Bill Gates has very specific children of his own. To provide for them until the end of his life and even after his death is not the goal of the owner of a multi-million dollar fortune. On the contrary, he understands that his main task is to teach his offspring to cope with all problems on their own, including financial ones.
The children of Bill Gates should have learned the following truths as they grew up. First, a person must have adequate self-esteem. It's good to have your own dignity and self-respect, but in order for everyone else to respect you, you need to do something worthwhile in your life.
Secondly, nothing happens quickly, and after graduating from school or university, you will have to work for more than one year before you have your own limousine.
Thirdly, bad work can not be. Even working at the McDonald's counter, you have a chance to make a dizzying career.
Little is known about the Gates children in general and in general, because they are quite young.
In 1996, the eldest daughter of Bill Gates was born. What is the name of the first child of a billionaire? The parents named their first child Jennifer. On the ancient name means something like "white sorceress" or "bright spirit".
Gates' eldest daughter turned 19 in 2015. But it is almost impossible to find references to the girl in the press. However, a few years ago, the Web was very actively discussing the fact that the lifestyle of Gates and his children can hardly be called modest (as the media like to cover this issue). For his daughter, who at that time was only 15 years old, Gates easily rented a luxurious house in Florida worth 600 thousand dollars a month.
It turned out that Jennifer was seriously involved in equestrian sports, and she wanted to participate in the festival, which was supposed to be held in Palm Beach. To make Jen feel comfortable during all this time, her father rented her a "royal" mansion. So Gates' strictness about raising children is most likely exaggerated.
Recently, in various in social networks they post a photo of a pretty girl, signed with a joke: they say that Gates' daughter has become the best "product" that Microsoft has ever released. However, the real appearance of the daughter of Bill Gates is far from the appearance of that pretty person, whose image is distributed on the Internet.
In fact, the photo shows Rachel Leigh Cook - the star of the movie "Texas Rangers" and "Dawson's Creek." And it is not at all clear who guessed to pass off the famous American actress as the daughter of Bill Gates. Most likely it was a joke. But many regulars on the Web still believe that the pretty blonde is the real daughter of a billionaire.
Bill Gates' daughter Phoebe youngest child in family. The girl was born in 2002 and this moment is still a teenager. As is the case with other children of a billionaire, the girl’s biography is shrouded in a halo of mystery, and even getting her photographs is not an easy task: Bill Gates’ daughters lead a calm and “closed” lifestyle to prying eyes.
Bill Gates' daughters will not be able to enjoy their father's multi-million dollar fortune. In 2015, at one of the conferences, Bill said that his children would receive practically nothing after his death.
Of course, the media inflated this news, releasing a lot of articles under screaming headlines, they say, Gates left his children with nothing, forgetting to clarify one detail: the billionaire recently made a new will, according to which the daughters of Bill Gates, as well as his only son, all they will get something, namely 10 million dollars.
Any person on Earth would be very happy with such an inheritance: 10 million dollars is not a joke, but a very good start-up capital. Also, on top of everything, Gates will provide his children with the best education, which is also important for a successful life. All other material goods, children must earn their own labor, says Bill Gates. He also noted that multimillion-dollar fortunes bequeathed to people who did not earn their own labor become only a disservice. His children should know the value of money.
Gates spied on this approach to raising children from Yes, and in general, being “hardworking” and “smart” is now fashionable again. As you can see, the “time of fools” has passed, since even millionaires want their children to be smart, independent and efficient.
The wave has begun again... Bill Gates is a genius.. Gates is a great one.. From post to post video"Think of yourself..." “He created a corporation almost from scratch… at the age of 31 he became a billionaire…”. How was it really?
“Bill Gates was born October 28, 1955. He and his two sisters grew up in Seattle. Their father, William Gates II, is a lawyer. Mr. Gates' mother, Mary Gates, was a school teacher…"
A baby was born in the family of a modest lawyer and a school teacher… He studied and worked a lot… Thanks to his genius, he became the richest man on the planet Earth, transformed the world.
Bill Gates (eng. Bill Gates) or William Henry Gates III (William Henry Gates III) - already sounds, isn't it? - was born on October 28, 1955, not in a simple family, but in a family with rich traditions in business, politics and public service. The Gates family enjoys great weight and prestige in Seattle, and indeed throughout the state of Washington. his great grandfather was a member of the state parliament and mayor of Seattle, maternal grandfather vice president of the US National Bank, father - William Henry Gates II (William Henry Gates II) - a famous and very wealthy lawyer, and mother - Mary Maxwell Gates (Mary Maxwell Gates) - the first woman - a member of the board of directors of First Interstate Bancorp, a member of the board of directors of Pacific Northwest Bell, U S West Inc. and KIRO-TV in Seattle, President of the National Council of United Way International - not bad for a simple school teacher?
Until about the age of eleven, Billy grew up as a mischievous tomboy. In the class of an ordinary school, he was known as a stupid wimp. Academic performance did not correspond to the hypothetical talents of the child. It never occurred to him to take an example from the exemplary older sister Christie. Even the trouble-free, generation-tested method of financial incentives for academic performance did not help - a brother and sister could count on 25 cents for each positive grade. The current situation did not suit the Gates family, respected in Seattle, who were proud of their traditions and roots. I even had to go to a psychiatrist.
When Gates was 13 years old, his parents, deciding to introduce their son to the circle of the elite, transferred him to a private privileged school Lakeside (Lakeside School). And it was in 1968 that the administration of this Seattle Lakeside School decided to introduce its students to new technology and computer language. The price of a computer at that time was far beyond the school budget, so the school decided to rent the “computer time” of a computer owned by some corporation. With the help of a teletype, he could be contacted by telephone lines. In order to fulfill this plan, the headmaster turned to the parent committee with a request to get money to buy a teletypewriter and help pay for machine time. The committee's fund had to be eased by $3,000 so that every grade in the school could learn how to use a nearby General Electric PDP-10 (DEC) minicomputer.
Gates' first venture was founded with Paul Allen back in 1972. The company was called Traf-O-Data and had only two employees - Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Within this office for the City of Seattle(there were no problems getting the order, we guess?) a traffic control program was written for the system based on the Intel 8008 microprocessor. Traf-O-Data earned twenty thousand dollars from this, but the business did not go further and the shop was closed.
In 1973, Gates graduated from high school, and, following family tradition, enrolled in Harvard study to be a lawyer.
In July 1975, a partnership called “Micro-Soft” (Microcomputer Software—Software for microcomputers) was formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On November 26, 1976, Microsoft was incorporated.
In late 1976, a dispute arose between Microsoft and MITS's successor Pertec over "Basic" software. Gates without hesitation turned to his father for advice on this matter. William Henry Jr. was happy to help. He himself gave some wise advice, assured Bill that his company would win the case and found a capable attorney in Albuquerque to represent Microsoft.
The process lasted six months, and eventually an arbitrator was appointed to decide the issue. This was good news and meant that the case would soon be over - the usual legal process could take several years. In December 1977 Microsoft won the case. The referee treated Pertec and Ed Roberts very harshly. He called the current situation "an extreme case of commercial piracy" and ruled that MITS has the right to use BASIC, and Microsoft the right to sell it at its discretion.
According to Steve Wood, after 1977, Microsoft never had financial problems again. And this despite the fact that the first five customers of Microsoft went bankrupt and in 1979 Bill Gates and Paul Allen returned to Seattle (that year Bill Gates was expelled from the university for absenteeism and academic failure).
And here the mother of our young genius comes into play. She was the chairman of the executive committee at United Way International, along with two very influential heads of the computer market monster IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) John Opel and John Akers (John Opel, president since 1981, then John Akers, president since 1985 .). They decided " help the boy up” (look at the obituary on the death of the mother of a genius in The New York Times), and at the same time make money yourself. An unknown company Microsoft received an offer from the IT giant IBM to develop an operating system for the first personal computer.
Of course, as with BASIC, Gates did not develop the OS. He simply bought a QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) system created by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) for $50,000, changed the name to MS-DOS, and sold the license to use IBM, asking Microsoft to keep the copyright. .
And IBM agreed! (surprising, right?) She bought a license for MS-DOS and entered into an unusual agreement for that time under which Microsoft continues to own the system and IBM pays them every time they sell a computer with MS-DOS installed.
Thus the concept of proprietary software was born, although until that time it was common practice for software to be given away for free, since the computers themselves were very expensive and the extra expense was undesirable.
Qdos became DOS, then Windows 1.0-3.11 (this OS was developed by Microsoft, although the ideas were stolen from Apple), eventually the crooked line of Windows died at Windows Millennium. The long-term construction of Windows NT (hereinafter 2000/XP/Vista/Win7) entered the scene, in which a lot was also stolen from competitors, in particular from IBM's OS / 2.
In 1986, Microsoft shares went public for the first time, and Bill Gates became fabulously rich overnight.
So where is the genius of Bill Gates? Who would he be without the connections of his father among lawyers and his mother among business sharks? And where is the “Cinderella”, who achieved everything himself exclusively with his brains?
