Biography of Bill Gates
Together, they created a language they hoped the Altair could understand. Allen went to Albuquerque to see if their hard work had paid off. Gates worried that companies would not take them seriously and question their credibility. On the other hand, MITS, the company who produced the Altair, was astonished and gave them their own Altair 8800. At the age of nineteen, Gates dropped out of Harvard and co-founded Microsoft with Allen. Microsoft started in a hotel room in Albuquerque with Gates and Allen at the helm. They hired a few others, who helped perfect their binary system and get it out on the market. After a year or two of working with this language, profits were minimal, and Microsoft needed a change. Gates and Allen moved to Seattle in 1980, and teamed up with Harvard roommate Steve Ballmer. In August of 1980 the three men went to IBM’s corporate office in Miami, Florida, to offer them a disc operating system. They convinced IBM that they needed “DOS” to compete with Apple. What IBM didn’t know, was that Gates didn’t have a disc operating system. Microsoft bought the product and idea afterwards from a small company in Texas for $50,000, improved it, then brought it to IBM as their own. IBM purchased “DOS” from Microsoft for $125,000.
IBM called the system PC-DOS. “Gates spent a hectic year perfecting the operating software that controls the IBM PC” (People Weekly, 36). In the contract, it stated that Microsoft had the right to license “DOS” to other companies as well. “We gave IBM a fabulous deal-a low, one time fee that granted the company the right to use Microsoft’s operating system on as many computers as it could sell. This offered IBM an incentive to push MS-DOS, and to sell it inexpensively” (Gates, 49). “This put Microsoft in the business of licensing a software platform to the personal computer industry” (Gates, 49). “DOS” then became the standard software in all personal computers except one, the Apple. Apple Company produced the Apple personal computer. Apple Company was co-founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in a garage in Berkley, California, in 1976. Jobs was a great talker like Gates, but didn’t have half of the ideas. The mastermind behind Apple was Wozniak. The first Apple computer competed with the Altair, but blew it, and all the others, out of the water. When IBM saw the personal computer that Apple had produced, that is when they bought “DOS” from Microsoft. IBM figured they could compete with Apple and take over the market.
In 1983, when Apple came out with the “Lisa,” Gates saw hat an amazing invention it was, and wanted access to it. Gates went to Steve Jobs, and convinced him that he could help make Apple’s graphic operating system. When Gates went to work for Apple, Jobs gave him a copy of the newest Apple prototype, the Macintosh. Gates worked with Apple, but at the same time he was working on Windows. Since IBM and most of the other computer companies were working with Gates, Microsoft programs, such as Microsoft Word for DOS, came out with their new computers. Gates basically stole Apple’s graphic interface and Icons, to make them the start of Windows. The Macintosh PC came out in 1984, but the first Windows came out in 1983. Consumers would rather have a cheaper IBM computer with Windows, than a more expensive, yet nicer looking Macintosh, since they both had the same software. Steve Jobs was fired the next year. Bill Gates went on to invent Windows 95, Windows 98, and now Windows 2000. Steve Jobs went back to Apple in 1997 and came together with Bill Gates. At the unveiling of the news that Apple gave in to Microsoft, Steve Jobs told the world, “Thank you Bill. The world is a better place”(Booth, 34). In turn, this merger made Bill Gates the richest man in the world. Today, Gates has resigned from being chief executive officer of Microsoft.
He chose to revel in making software again as the chief software architect. On May 18, 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice and twenty states filed antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft Corporation. They claim that Microsoft is doing business violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890; which is designed to protect consumers and not allow fixed priced or rigging bids. Basically they say that Microsoft has become a monopoly. Microsoft defends this charge by saying that this lawsuit will hurt consumers by distracting the company from technological advances. Competitors claim that Microsoft pressures vendors to choose its Internet Explorer over Netscape Navigator. Gates argues that Netscape’s longtime dominance in the browser market only proves that the company didn’t have any trouble distributing their product. When asked why he didn’t want the government to include Netscape’s browser as well as Microsoft’s with Windows, Gates replied “The government was trying to advantage a competitor of ours. That’s really unprecedented. Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf”(Isaacson, 58). The history behind the case is that Microsoft has had run ins with the law before. In 1990, the Federal Trade Commission launched a non-public investigation into the partnership that Microsoft had with IBM.
Later, in 1984, Microsoft and the Department of Justice came to an agreement, and in return the Department of Justice dropped its investigation. They came to an agreement in the case where Microsoft had eased restrictiveness on the contracts it had with PC manufacturers. Specifically, PC manufacturers could no longer be forced to pay Microsoft a licensing fee for PCs shipped without the Windows operating system. The government’s view on the case is that Microsoft is a monopoly. The company’s behavior has been bad for the consumers, and has entered into unfair and illegal contracts with PC manufacturers. The bundling of Internet Explorer into windows 98 was illegal and was made to run Netscape out of business. The government also mentions that Microsoft tried to convince Netscape to divide the browser market. The accusations by the government lead people to believe that Microsoft is the “Darth Vader” of computer technology. Let’s see what “Darth Vader” has to say. Microsoft says that since production costs are so low, at any time in the software business, one person can create an operating system, which in turn, can become a competitor overnight. Microsoft also says that customers buy Windows because it offers multiple technological benefits, compared to a stand-alone browser such as Netscape’s Navigator. Microsoft argues that PC makers work with Windows because it can be modified, and any extra software can easily be installed. Both of the arguments stated are convincing.
The case between the government and Microsoft is like no other; it could be one of the major turning points in the twentieth century. The government would go to any extreme to have absolute power over the technological advances that Bill Gates has invented. ” The political right of an individual to his own life is an essential principle of liberty. And it rests on the moral rightness of acting to sustain one’s own life, which includes generating the material wealth life requires” (Bernstein, K3970). This statement shows that not only do I think this way, but others also see him as the genius that he is. A man should not be punished for using his imagination to better the world.
