Biography of Bill Gates
Early
life of Bill Gates
His
father parents William Gates Sr, was a senior lawyer, and his mother, Mary,
served as an executive for a major bank. The family was wealthy but,
remembering the challenges of the Great Depression, they encouraged their
children to work hard and take nothing for granted.
Aged
13, Gates attended the private Lakeside school. It was here that Gates had his
first introduction to computers. He taught himself to programme in Basic,
making a simple ‘Tic-Tac-Toe’ game. Gates enjoyed the process of working with computers
and arranged with a company Computer Center Corporation (CCC) to spend time on
their computers – learning source code, such as FORTRAN, Machine Code and Lisp.
In
1973, Gates enrolled at Harvard, where he studied mathematics and computer
science. However, Gates was more interested in pursuing his own coding, and
when he saw an opportunity to found his own company, he dropped out of Harvard
without finishing his course.
Bill
Gates foundation of Microsoft
 |
| Altair 8800 computer |
Bill Gates
founded Microsoft in 1976 when he formed a contract with MITS (Micro
Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) to develop a basic operating system for
their new microcomputers. In the early days, Bill Gates would review every line
of code. He was also involved in several aspects of Microsoft’s business such
as packing and sending off orders.
 |
| Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1981 |
The big break
for Microsoft came in 1980 when IBM approached them for a new BASIC operating
system for its new computers. In the early 1980s, IBM was by far the leading PC
manufacturer. However, increasingly, there developed many IBM PC clones; (PCs
produced by other companies compatible with IBM’s). Microsoft worked hard to
sell its operating system to these other companies. Thus Microsoft was able to
gain the dominant position of software manufacture just as the personal
computer market started to boom. Since its early dominance, other companies
have struggled to displace Microsoft as the dominant provider of computer
operating software. Programs like Microsoft Word and Excel have become the
industry standard.
Bill Gates – Windows
In 1990
Microsoft released its first version of Windows. This was a breakthrough in
operating software as it replaced text interfaces with graphical interfaces. It
soon became a best seller and was able to capture the majority of the operating
system market share. In 1995 Windows 95 was released, setting new standards and
features for operating systems. This version of Windows has been the backbone
of all future releases from Windows 2000 to the latest XP and Vista.
Throughout his
time in office, Bill Gates has been keen to diversify the business of
Microsoft. For example, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer became the dominant web
browser, although this was primarily because it came pre-installed on most new
computers. In recent years, Internet Explorer has seen its market share slip.
One area where
Microsoft has never been successful is in the area of search engines. MSN live
search has struggled to gain more than 5% of market share. In this respect,
Microsoft has been dwarfed by Google. Nevertheless, the success of Microsoft in
cornering various aspects of the software market has led to several anti-trust
cases. In 1998 US v Microsoft, Microsoft came close to being broken up into
three smaller firms. However, on appeal, Microsoft was able to survive as a
single firm. Although Microsoft was the dominant computer firm of the 1980s,
and 1990s, they are now seen as an ageing and declining company – compared to
the more dynamic Google and Apple.
Philanthropic Activities – Bill Gates
Bill Gates is
married to Melinda French (married in 1992). They have three children Jennifer
(1996), Rory (1999) and Phoebe (2002). With his wife, Bill Gates formed the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates says much of the inspiration
came from the example of David Rockefeller. Like Rockefeller, Gates has sought
to focus on global issues ignored by the government; he also expressed an
interest in improving the standards of public school education in the US. He
has appeared with Oprah Winfrey to
promote this objective. In respect to charitable, philanthropic activities
Gates has also received encouragement from investor Warren Buffet, who has
given away $17 billion, through the Gates Foundation.
From 2008 Gates
has worked full time on his philanthropic interests. It is estimated Gates and
his wife Melinda have given away $28
billion via their charitable foundation – including $8 billion to improve
global health.
Gates has said
that he has no use for money, and will only leave a small percentage of his
wealth to his children. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Gates states:
“I’m
certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes,” he says,
redundantly. “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is
entirely in building an organisation and getting the resources out to the
poorest in the world.”
His main areas
of interest in philanthropy have been improving health, and in particularly
helping to reduce diseases, such as polio which affect young children. He has
also given more focus to environmental issues. In 2015, he gave $1 billion to a
clean energy project, as he sees supporting new ‘greener’ technologies as a way
to help deal with global warming. Asked about the motivation of his giving,
Gates replies:
“It doesn’t
relate to any particular religion; it’s about human dignity and equality,” he
says. “The golden rule that all lives have equal value and we should treat
people as we would like to be treated.”
Citation: pettinger,
Tejvan. “Biography of Bill Gates”,
Oxford, www.biographyonline.net ,25th Feb.
2015. Updated 10th February 2017.
No comments