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" Inside Story "
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Biography
of Bill Gates from 1968
Born
on
Oct. 28, 1955,
He grew up in
Seattle
with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle
attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a school teacher,
University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way
International.
He attended public
elementary school and
the
private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software
and began programming computers at age
13.
It
was
during the spring term
of 1968, at Lakeside
Prep School that Bill Gates first used a computer. Though computers
were still too expensive to buy, the school held a
fundraiser and
acquired computer time on a DEC PDP-10 owned by General Electric. This
cost them several thousand dollars but the school expected this to last
them a whole year. However the schools did not count on the enthusiasm
of several young students.
He,
Paul
Allen and
several other students
(of which many became Microsoft programmers) became addicted to the
computer, spending all day and all night writing programs and reading
all the material they could get their hands on. Soon this began to take
its toll on their education. Homework was being handed in late, classes
were being skipped and all the schools computer time was used up in a
few weeks.
In
autumn
1968, the
Computer Centre Corporation
opened in Seattle, offering computer time at good rates. A deal was
soon struck between Lakeside Prep School and the Computer Centre
Corporation that allowed the school to continue to provide
computer
time for their students.He and his friends wasted no time in
exploring the new machine and soon started causing
problems. They
caused the system to crash several times and broke the security
system.
They even got
banned
for several
weeks after changing into the file
that
recorded how much computer time they were using and altered it.
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In late
1968 the Lakeside
programming
group was
formed consisting of him, Paul and two other students from
Lakeside Prep School. They wanted to apply their new computer skills to
the real world. They got this chance when the Computer Centre
Corporation struck a deal with them. In exchange for unlimited computer
time, He and his friends searched the computer for bugs and
weaknesses in the system. "It was when we got free time at C-Cubed
(Computer Centre Corporation)
that we really got into computers. I mean, they I became addict. It was
day and night,".
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The
Computer Centre
Corporation went out of
business in March 1970. The Lakeside programmers now need a new source
of computer time. Their next chance came from Information Sciences Inc.
who hired them to create a payroll program. In exchange for this they
would be given free computer time and royalties from the software,
giving in them a source of income for the first time.
Traf-O-Data
was his
and Allen's next
project
creating software to help measure traffic flow. They earned
Wealth of
approximately
$20,000
from the company in total, which latest untill he
left for college.
In
the autumn of 1973,
He started studying in
university at Harvard. However like at Lakeside Pre, his heart was not
in his studies.
IHe
entered Harvard University as
a
freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now
Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed
a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer
- the MITS Altair.
In his junior year,
He left Harvard to
devote
his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his
childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would
be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they
began developing software for personal computers. He foresight and
his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of
Microsoft and the software industry.
In 1975 he dropped
out
of
Harvard and
Microsoft was
formed.
William
(Bill) H. Gates
is chairman of Microsoft
Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions
that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft
had revenues of US$44.28 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2006,
and employs more than 71,000 people in 103 countries and regions.
In
1999,
He wrote Business @ the Speed of
Thought, a book
that shows how computer technology can
solve business
problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25
languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the
Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on
the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street
Journal and Amazon.com. His previous book, The Road Ahead, published
in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for
seven weeks.
On
June
15, 2006,
Microsoft announced that
effective July 2008 he will transition out of a day-to-day role in
the company to spend more time on his global health and education work
at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 he
will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor
on key development projects. The two-year transition process is to
ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of his
daily responsibilities. Effective June 2006, Ray Ozzie has assumed his
previous title as chief software architect and is
working side by side with him on all technical architecture and
product oversight responsibilities at Microsoft. Craig Mundie has
assumed the new title of chief research and strategy officer at
Microsoft and is working closely with him to assume his
responsibility for the company’s research and incubation
efforts.
Under his
leadership,
Microsoft's mission has
been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to
make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to
use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected
in its investment of approximately $6.2 billion on research and
development in the 2005 fiscal year.
He has donated the
proceeds of both books to
non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in
education and skills development.
In addition to his
love of computers and software,
He founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest
resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of
art and photography from public and private collections around the
globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire
Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business
activities.
Philanthropy
is also important to him. He
and
his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8
billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in
the
areas
of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st
century, advances in
these
critical areas will be available for all
people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than
$3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2
billion to improve learning opportunities, including the his
Library
Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public
libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada;
more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest;
and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving
campaigns.
He
was
married
on Jan. 1, 1994, to
Melinda French Gates. They have three children.He is an avid
reader,
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and
enjoys
playing golf
and bridge.
Bill Gates left Microsoft Chairman post on Feb 4 2014 is now technology
advisor and board member of Microsoft Corporation to help Microsoft
compete harder in the software market.
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