Gates, William H., III

1955–

U.S. Industrialist

In the process of building the Microsoft empire, Bill Gates has become one of the richest men in the world, and is considered by many to be a living symbol of the best and worst aspects of U.S. capitalism. Gates has written two books explaining his vision of the future of technology, and his views have helped to shape the computer industry in the United States.

Born to a prominent family, Gates grew up in Seattle and attended the private Lakeside School, where he discovered his interest in computer software and began programming at the age of 13. Gates and friend Paul Allen wrote a scheduling program for the school. While in high school, Gates and Allen founded a company, Traf-O-Data, to analyze and graph traffic data for the city.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University. While there, he and Paul Allen developed the first BASIC interpreter for the Intel 8080 microprocessor, as well as a version of the programming language BASIC for Altair, the first microcomputer from Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (M.I.T.S.). MBASIC was later used by M.I.T.S. to accompany its Altair 8800 kit; by 1977, 10,000 Altairs had been sold. His success in software programming led Gates to leave Harvard in his junior year and turn his focus to Micro-Soft, a company he had co-founded with Allen in 1975 (the hyphen was later dropped).

Microsoft established its leadership in microcomputer programming languages, first by fitting IBM PCs with its Disk Operating System (DOS) in 1981, and later by equipping non-IBM PCs with MS-DOS. In 1987, Microsoft introduced its first version of the Windows operating system (OS). By 1993, Microsoft was selling a million copies of Windows a month. The popularity of Windows 3.0, and later Windows 95, established Microsoft's leadership role in the computer-software industry worldwide; Windows currently runs on 85 percent of the world's computers. Microsoft became the world's leading supplier of OSs and applications, with a market capitalization that exceeded half a trillion dollars. Its success with Windows also contributes to the immense growth of the computer industry. Microsoft's Windows OS is the de facto desktop standard, as well as a leader in the server arena, and Microsoft Office is a highly successful application suite.

Microsoft is also successful in other software categories. It has a strong presence in the Internet industry; its Internet Explorer, which was later integrated into its Windows 98 OS, is currently a leading Web browser. In addition to its operating systems and a spectrum of software products that ranges from programming tools to end-user applications, Microsoft has also ventured into different types of media; it has entered into the development and production of CDROMs, and collaborated with the NBC television network to create MSNBC.

Gates himself is known not only for Microsoft's success, but also for its legal battles over alleged antitrust violations. Taking advantage of its leading role in the OS arena, Microsoft induced PC makers who relied heavily on Windows to adopt other Microsoft products as well, such as its Office applications and Web browser. By doing so, Microsoft protected its place as the standard OS for PCs.

...