Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry--and Made...

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 560 pages
• Published by: Touchstone; 1st Touchstone Ed edition January 21, 1994
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0671880748
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0671880743
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Weighs: 1.9 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
According to this "independent" biography, the computer whiz kid, Harvard dropout, youngest self-made billionaire ever William Henry "Bill" Gates III (b. 1955) has dominated the immense, dramatic story of America's electronic revolution. Manes, a former columnist for PC/computing magazine, and Seattle Times high-tech reporter Andrews combine authoritative discussions of technology with a clear and entertaining prose style. They explain how Gates and his partner commercialized computer software back in 1975; today, as cofounder and chairman of the Seattle-based Microsoft Corp., Gates supplies a multibillion-dollar world market with the leading software programs. Most interesting is the glimpse of the turbulent 20-year history of the computer industry--geometrically expanding invention; products that prove incompatible or instantly obsolete; controversy; deception; promotional hype; all-or-nothing gambles; and cooperation, competition and high-stakes litigation. photographs not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Because the life of Bill Gates is indistinguishable from the history of the Microsoft Corporation he created in 1975, this is as much an industrial history as a biography of a "smart guy" whose work impacts everyone who works with a microcomputer. Writer/programmer Manes and Andrews, a columnist for the Seattle Times , provide refreshing disclosures on the source of their information and reveal the close cooperation of both Gates and other corporate insiders. Rich with detail, this book is thorough and not always laudatory of Gates. Much has been written on Gates, and most libraries owning James Wallace and Jim Erickson's Hard Drive ( LJ 6/1/92) will find that to be sufficient. Business libraries should acquire both titles.
- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
I am on my fourth copy of this book, my favorite among six accounts of Bill Gates and Microsoft. When confronted by young professionals who know only today's politically correct and somewhat unfavorable characterization of Microsoft's founder, I press this book upon them and urge them to dig a bit deeper into this fascinating personality. Other newer books of course are more complete in chronicling the growth of Microsoft, but none covers Gates' boyhood and early Microsoft years so well. You do not know Gates or Microsoft unless you know what both were like during the first years of Microsoft's existence in Albuquerque from 1975 until the relocation to the Seattle area in late 1978. After reading this book I felt I understood the essential Bill Gates. He never is going to quite grow up, and he is always going to be a bit of a mystery to those who did not become forever fascinated with computers by age thirteen. If you are not a Gates fan now, you may like Bill Gates (privileged son of accomplished but non-technical parents, congressional page, avid water skier, college poker player) a bit more after reading this. If you are an aging hacker like me, you will smile many times at the accounts of Bill's early fascination with a timesharing computer terminal and his amazing success following on Microsoft's original products, adaptations of the Basic computer language for microcomputers beginning with the Altair. I guess you will have to be a techie to love this book as much as I do, but it is at least essential reading for all students of the history of computer technology. Check the index and almost all of the early pioneers are there, from Altair's Roberts to Xerox's Metcalfe. And the photos are great! Comment | | (Report this)