Alan M. Boyd
Encyclopedia
Alan Boyd, born Kilwinning
, Scotland, 1951, is a pioneer of the personal computer software industry through the 1970s and 1980s. Leaving Scotland in 1968 he studied Physics and Mathematics at the University of Bath
in England and later Columbia University
in the USA. In the mid 1970s he hand-built one of the earliest personal computers and taught himself how to program microprocessors, writing some innovative machine code to do complex mathematics in a very limited memory space (256 bytes). After a spell working as a professional audio engineer he befriended Bill Gates and Paul Allen and moved to Seattle to become Manager of Product Development at Microsoft in 1980.
management team (1980) he was one of a small handful of people who reported directly to Bill Gates
and alongside Microsoft Japan President (Kay) Kazuhiko Nishi
was an early influence on Microsoft’s product strategy. As Manager of Product Development his remit was to identify, develop and, where necessary, acquire products that complemented Microsoft's internally developed products.
Boyd set up several of the company’s core groups, including Product Marketing, responsible for bringing all the company’s products to market, and the Acquisitions Group, responsible for all licensing and acquisition. When Microsoft incorporated in 1981, Boyd was one of a small number of people who received "founders shares". In that same year Boyd was sent to Europe to prepare the way for the opening of the first Microsoft Europe offices in London, Frankfurt and Paris - the first Microsoft offices outside the USA.
While he was at Microsoft he led or was involved in a large number of software products that have since become household names and are amongst the world’s best-selling, including MS-DOS
, Microsoft Word
, Microsoft Excel
, Microsoft Works
and Microsoft Windows
. He also led the development of the first Microsoft Flight Simulator
in 1981 and marked Microsoft’s entry into the home/entertainment market. A software tool he designed to help control the huge number of projects he managed later became Microsoft Project
.
Boyd suggested as early as 1986 that Microsoft should incorporate a hypertext
browser as its user interface instead of a 'desktop' but was rebuffed by Gates. Over 25 years since Boyd first suggested it, Microsoft are finally moving their products to a browser interface in an effort to keep them up-to-date.
For many years Boyd was the "Macintosh Champion" inside Microsoft and encouraged the company to support the Macintosh in addition to their own Windows system. He set up a new Microsoft product line called Mac Library to encourage software developers to support the (then) struggling Macintosh. When Gates decided to end Macintosh development in 1986 Boyd soon left in search of more interesting ventures.
In Asia Boyd also worked closely with Nishi on the development of the MSX
home computer
architecture in the mid-1980s. Designed specifically for the home and gaming markets, MSX became quite popular in Japan - where it still has a cult following
Later he was instrumental in setting up Microsoft Press
where he inspired and encouraged Peter Norton
to quit his job and write his first book. This was one of the first pair of books published by Microsoft Press
.
by Deputy Prime Minister Wu Yi
as advisor to the Chinese government on the development of their technology industries and is now recognised as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the burgeoning Chinese software industry. Settled in China, Boyd is now a prominent member of the Chinese venture capital
community and he is also very active in promoting young Chinese to start their own technology companies.
In 2008 Boyd was one of the founders of YõULíNG, a group set up specifically to encourage young Chinese companies to innovate, create their own intellectual properties and eventually export them to the rest of the world.
Kilwinning
Kilwinning is a historic town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is known as The Crossroads of Ayrshire. The 2001 Census recorded it as having a population of 15,908.-History:...
, Scotland, 1951, is a pioneer of the personal computer software industry through the 1970s and 1980s. Leaving Scotland in 1968 he studied Physics and Mathematics at the University of Bath
University of Bath
The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....
in England and later Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in the USA. In the mid 1970s he hand-built one of the earliest personal computers and taught himself how to program microprocessors, writing some innovative machine code to do complex mathematics in a very limited memory space (256 bytes). After a spell working as a professional audio engineer he befriended Bill Gates and Paul Allen and moved to Seattle to become Manager of Product Development at Microsoft in 1980.
Microsoft
One of the first MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
management team (1980) he was one of a small handful of people who reported directly to Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
and alongside Microsoft Japan President (Kay) Kazuhiko Nishi
Kazuhiko Nishi
worked for Microsoft during the 1980s as Vice President of the Far East operations.In 1986, Kazuhiko Nishi left Microsoft to devote himself mostly to ASCII Corporation to develop the MSX standard together with NEC executive Kazuya Watanabe...
was an early influence on Microsoft’s product strategy. As Manager of Product Development his remit was to identify, develop and, where necessary, acquire products that complemented Microsoft's internally developed products.
Boyd set up several of the company’s core groups, including Product Marketing, responsible for bringing all the company’s products to market, and the Acquisitions Group, responsible for all licensing and acquisition. When Microsoft incorporated in 1981, Boyd was one of a small number of people who received "founders shares". In that same year Boyd was sent to Europe to prepare the way for the opening of the first Microsoft Europe offices in London, Frankfurt and Paris - the first Microsoft offices outside the USA.
While he was at Microsoft he led or was involved in a large number of software products that have since become household names and are amongst the world’s best-selling, including MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
, Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
, Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
, Microsoft Works
Microsoft Works
Microsoft Works is an integrated package software that is produced by Microsoft. Works is smaller, less expensive, and has fewer features than Microsoft Office or other major office suites. Its core functionality includes a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database management system...
and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. He also led the development of the first Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft Flight Simulator is a series of flight simulator programs for the Microsoft Windows operating system, although it was marketed as a video game. It is one of the longest-running, best-known and most comprehensive home flight simulator series...
in 1981 and marked Microsoft’s entry into the home/entertainment market. A software tool he designed to help control the huge number of projects he managed later became Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is a project management software program, developed and sold by Microsoft, which is designed to assist a project manager in developing a plan, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads.The application creates critical path...
.
Boyd suggested as early as 1986 that Microsoft should incorporate a hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
browser as its user interface instead of a 'desktop' but was rebuffed by Gates. Over 25 years since Boyd first suggested it, Microsoft are finally moving their products to a browser interface in an effort to keep them up-to-date.
For many years Boyd was the "Macintosh Champion" inside Microsoft and encouraged the company to support the Macintosh in addition to their own Windows system. He set up a new Microsoft product line called Mac Library to encourage software developers to support the (then) struggling Macintosh. When Gates decided to end Macintosh development in 1986 Boyd soon left in search of more interesting ventures.
Early Asian Involvement
Boyd's early involvement with Asia is evidenced by an article he wrote in Personal Computing magazine in January 1981 giving the first complete hands-on evaluation of Nippon Electric's NEC PC-8000, the first commercially produced Japanese PC. Although it was a year before these computers started to appear in North America, Boyd pronounced, "the Japanese invasion has indeed begun" setting the scene for the coming PC 'clones' that would soon arrive from Japan to challenge IBM.In Asia Boyd also worked closely with Nishi on the development of the MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
architecture in the mid-1980s. Designed specifically for the home and gaming markets, MSX became quite popular in Japan - where it still has a cult following
Books and Magazines
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Boyd was a prolific writer for many magazines including Personal Computing, PC Magazine, PC World, Macworld and Softalk (where he wrote the popular System Notebook monthly column) and his books were published by Bantam and by Softalk.Later he was instrumental in setting up Microsoft Press
Microsoft Press
Microsoft Press is the publishing arm of Microsoft, usually releasing books dealing with various current Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Press' first introduced books were The Apple Macintosh Book by Cary Lu and Exploring the IBM PC by Peter Norton in 1984 at the West Coast Computer Faire...
where he inspired and encouraged Peter Norton
Peter Norton
Peter Norton is an American programmer, software publisher, author, and philanthropist. He is best known for the computer programs and books that bear his name. Norton sold his PC-Software business to Symantec Corporation in 1990....
to quit his job and write his first book. This was one of the first pair of books published by Microsoft Press
Microsoft Press
Microsoft Press is the publishing arm of Microsoft, usually releasing books dealing with various current Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Press' first introduced books were The Apple Macintosh Book by Cary Lu and Exploring the IBM PC by Peter Norton in 1984 at the West Coast Computer Faire...
.
China
In 1986 he was invited to the People’s Republic of ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
by Deputy Prime Minister Wu Yi
Wu Yi
Wu Yi was one of four Vice Premiers of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, overseeing the country's economy until March 2008. Known as the "iron lady", Wu is one of the toughest negotiators in China's government.-Biography:...
as advisor to the Chinese government on the development of their technology industries and is now recognised as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the burgeoning Chinese software industry. Settled in China, Boyd is now a prominent member of the Chinese venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
community and he is also very active in promoting young Chinese to start their own technology companies.
In 2008 Boyd was one of the founders of YõULíNG, a group set up specifically to encourage young Chinese companies to innovate, create their own intellectual properties and eventually export them to the rest of the world.