See Also

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III is the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft Microsoft

company_name = Microsoft Corporation ... 

. He is also the founder of Corbis, a digital image archiving company. Forbes Forbes

Forbes is a publishing and media company.... 

magazine's The World's Billionaires list has ranked him as the richest person in the world for the last twelve consecutive years. In 1999, Gates' wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion making him the world's first centibillionaire . According to the Forbes Forbes

Forbes is a publishing and media company.... 

2006 magazine Magazine

A magazine is a periodical publication [i] containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising [i] ... 

, Bill Gates's current net worth is approximately $53 billion.

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Timeline

1955   Born

1975   The name "Micro-soft" (for microcomputer Microcomputer

Although there is no rigid definition, a microcomputer is most often taken to mean a computer [i] with ... 

 software Computer software

Software fundamentally is the unique image or representation of physical or material alignment that ... 

) is used by Bill Gates in a letter to Paul Allen Paul Allen

Paul Gardner Allen is an American [i] entrepreneur whose fortune was founded when he form ... 

 for the first time (Microsoft Microsoft

company_name = Microsoft Corporation ... 

 becomes a registered trademark Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or is a distinctive sign [i] of some kind which is ... 

 on November 26, 1976).


Quotations

The next generation of interesting software will be done on the Macintosh, not the IBM PC.

BusinessWeek, 26 November 1984

It's not manufacturers trying to rip anybody off or anything like that. There's nobody getting rich writing software that I know of.

Interview with Dennis Bathory-Kitsz in 80 Microcomputing (1980)

The best way to prepare to be a programmer is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and fished out listings of their operating system.

The finest pieces of software are those where one individual has a complete sense of exactly how the program works. To have that, you have to really love the program and concentrate on keeping it simple, to an incredible degree.

We're no longer in the days where everything is super well crafted. But at the heart of the programs that make it to the top, you'll find that the key internal code was done by a few people who really know what they were doing.

The worst programs are the ones where the programmers doing the original work don't lay a solid foundation, and then they're not involved in the program in the future.

       More Quotes >>


Encyclopedia

Because of recent , editing of this by anonymous or newly registered users is currently . Such users may discuss changes, , or .


William Henry Gates III is the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft Microsoft

company_name = Microsoft Corporation
... 

. He is also the founder of Corbis, a digital image archiving company. Forbes Forbes

Forbes is a publishing and media company.... 

magazine's The World's Billionaires list has ranked him as the richest person in the world for the last twelve consecutive years. In 1999, Gates' wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion making him the world's first centibillionaire .
According to the Forbes Forbes

Forbes is a publishing and media company.... 

2006 magazine Magazine

A magazine is a periodical publication [i] containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising [i] ... 

, Bill Gates's current net worth is approximately $53 billion. When family wealth is considered, his family ranks second behind the Walton family.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer Personal computer

A personal computer is usually a microcomputer [i] whose price, size, and capabilities make it suitable ... 

 revolution. He is widely respected for his foresight and ambition. He is also frequently criticized as having built Microsoft through unfair or unlawful business practices. Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently [i] operated charitable foundation [i] ... 

, founded in 2000. On June 16, 2006, Bill Gates announced that he would move to a part-time role with Microsoft in 2008 to begin a career in philanthropy, but will remain as chairman; the announcement coincided with decisions by billionaire Warren Buffett Warren Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist.... 

 to double the Gates Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently [i] operated charitable foundation [i] ... 

, matching contributions $1.5 billion in stock per year for 20 years.

Time magazine Time (magazine)

Time is a weekly American [i] newsmagazine [i], similar to Newsweek [i] and U.S. News & World Report [i] ... 

 has ranked Bill Gates among the world's most influential people Time 100

The Time 100 [i] is an annual list of the world's 100 most influential people.... 

 more times than any other man, and as one of only four people in history to have shaped both the 20th century and the early 21st Time 100

The Time 100 [i] is an annual list of the world's 100 most influential people.... 

. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda Melinda Gates

Melinda French Gates is a former Microsoft [i] employee who was the product unit manager of Microsoft Publisher [i] ... 

 and U2 U2

U2 are an Irish rock [i] band formed in Dublin [i], featuring Bono [i] on vocals [i], rhyt... 

's lead singer Bono Bono

Paul David Hewson, nicknamed Bono Vox and Bono, is the lead singer [i] and occasional rhythm ... 

 as the 2005 Persons of the Year Person of the Year

Person of the Year is an annual issue of U.S.... 

 for their humanitarian efforts. That same year he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British [i] order of chivalry [i] est ... 

 by Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

}
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Elizabeth II is the Queen [i] of 16 independent sovereign [i] state [i] ... 

, which would entitle him to be known as Sir William Gates if he were a citizen of Britain or the Commonwealth. In 2006, Gates Foundation was awarded the Premio Príncipe de Asturias en Cooperación Internacional. In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman New Statesman

The New Statesman is a British [i] left-of-centre political magazine [i] published we... 

in 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".

Early life

Bill Gates III was born in Seattle Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the largest city [i] in the Pacific Northwest [i] region of the United States [i]. ... 

, Washington Washington

Washington is a state [i] in the Pacific Northwest [i] of the United States [i]. ... 

 to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and The United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi , and one younger sister, Libby.

According to the 1992 biography Hard Drive, Maxwell set up a million-dollar trust fund for Gates the year he was born.
Gates vehemently denied this in a 1994 interview with Playboy Playboy

Playboy is an American [i] adult [i] entertainment [i] magazine [i], fo ... 

:
The 1993 biography Gates calls the trust fund claim one of the "fictions" surrounding Gates' fortune.

Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in mathematics Mathematics

Mathematics is the discipline that deals with concepts such as quantity [i], structure [i], space [i] a ... 

 and the science Science

Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means.... 

s. He attended the Lakeside School Lakeside School

Lakeside School is a private school [i] for grades five through twelve located in the Haller Lake [i] ne ... 

, Seattle's most exclusive preparatory school where tuition in 1967 was $5,000 . Lakeside rented time on a DEC Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation was an American [i] pioneering company in the computer [i] i ... 

 PDP-10 PDP-10

The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation [i] from the late 1960s [i] on; ... 

 owned by Computer Center Corporation. Gates and other students exploited bugs Software bug

A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault [i] in a computer program [i] that p... 

 in the system software until CCC banned them, at which point Gates says he swore off computers for a year and a half.

CCC approached the Lakeside students in 1968 because other users were continuing to exploit the flaws in their system software. The company offered them unlimited computer time in exchange for finding and fixing software problems. Gates identified this as the point at which he became devoted to computing. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when it went out of business. The following year Information Sciences Inc. hired the Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them not only computer time but royalties as well. Gates also formed a venture with Lakeside student Paul Allen Paul Allen

Paul Gardner Allen is an American [i] entrepreneur whose fortune was founded when he form... 

, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 Intel 8008

The Intel 8008 was an early microprocessor [i] designed and manufactured by Intel [i] and introduced in ... 

 processor.


According to a press inquiry, Bill Gates scored 1590 on his SAT SAT

The SAT Reasoning Test, formerly called the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Asses... 

s, which at the time corresponded to an IQ of 170 -a figure frequently reported in the popular media , and was able to enroll at Harvard University Harvard University

"Harvard" redirects here. For other uses of the name Harvard, see Harvard [i].
... 

 in the fall of 1973 to pursue a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and pre-law. It was there he met his future business Business

In economics [i], business is the social science [i] of managing people [i] to organize and m ... 

 partner, Steve Ballmer Steve Ballmer

Steven Anthony Ballmer is an American businessman and has been the chief executive officer [i] of Microsoft Corporation [i] ... 

.

Microsoft

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics Popular Electronics

Popular Electronics was started by Ziff-Davis [i] in October 1954 as a magazine for students and exp ... 

that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates called MITS Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

External links
[i]
... 

 , the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others had developed a version of the programming language Programming language

A programming language is an artificial language [i] that can be used to control [i] ... 

 BASIC BASIC

In computer programming [i], BASIC refers to a family of high-level programming language [i]s.... 

 for the platform. This was untrue, as Gates and Allen had never used an Altair previously nor developed any code for it. Within a period of eight weeks they developed an Altair emulator Emulator

A software emulator allows computer program [i]s to run on a platform other than the one for which they ... 

 that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. Allen and Gates flew to MITS to unveil the new BASIC system. The demonstration was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to buy the rights to Allen and Gates's BASIC for the Altair platform. It was at this point that Gates left Harvard to found Micro-Soft, which later became Microsoft Corporation, with Allen. Gates dropped out of Harvard to work at MITS's offices in Albuquerque.

Anti-piracy efforts


In February 1976, Gates published his often-quoted "Open Letter to Hobbyists". In the letter, Gates claimed that most users were using "stolen" pirated copies of Altair BASIC and that no hobbyist could afford to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment. This letter was unpopular with many amateur programmers, not just those few using copies of the software. In the ensuing years the letter gained significant support from Gates' business partners and allies. Eventually, the closed source, for-profit model Gates had envisioned would become the dominant model of software production and distribution, largely displacing the hobbyist model of open source Open source

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's s... 

 software produced and distributed for free. Despite Microsoft's reliance on closed source, Gates has said that he collected discarded program listings at Harvard Harvard University

"Harvard" redirects here. For other uses of the name Harvard, see Harvard [i].
... 

 and learned programming techniques from them.


Microsoft and IBM

In 1980 IBM IBM

company_name = International Business Machines Corporation |
... 

 approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC IBM PC

The IBM PC , was the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible [i] hardware platform [i] ... 

. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system Operating system

An operating system is a software program [i] that manages the hardware [i] and software [i] ... 

, Bill Gates referred them to Digital Research Digital Research

Digital Research, Inc. was the company created by Dr.... 

, makers made the widely used CP/M CP/M

[i] and [[Zilog Z80]... 

 operating system that ran on a related type of microprocessor Microprocessor

A microprocessor is a digital [i] electronic [i] component with transistor [i] ... 

. When IBM's representatives did not reach immediate agreement with DR, they went back to Gates to ask about alternatives. Gates offered to provide a CP/M compatible operating system himself; He licensed a CP/M-compatible OS called QDOS QDOS

QDOS, the "Quick and Dirty [i] Operating System," was a simple 16-bit [i] operating system [i] ... 

  from Tim Paterson Tim Paterson

Tim Paterson is an American [i] computer programmer [i], best known as the original author ... 

 of Seattle Computer Products Seattle Computer Products

Seattle Computer Products was a Seattle, Washington [i] computer hardware company which was one of the f ... 

,, had it adapted for the PC, and IBM shipped this as PC-DOS PC-DOS

IBM PC-DOS was one of three major operating system [i]s that dominated the personal computer market from... 

.

Later, after Compaq Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation is an American [i] personal computer [i] company founded in 1982 [i]... 

 successfully cloned the IBM BIOS BIOS

BIOS, in computing [i], stands for Basic Input/Output System or Basic Integrated Operating Syst ... 

, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones. Microsoft was quick to license DOS to other manufacturers, calling it MS-DOS MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system [i] commercialized by Microsoft [i]. ... 

 . By marketing MS-DOS aggressively to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft went from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry. Microsoft continued to develop operating systems as well as software applications Application software

Application software is a defined subclass of computer software [i] that employs the capabilities of a c ... 

.

Windows

In the early 1980s Microsoft introduced its own version of the graphical user interface Graphical user interface

A graphical user interface , is a particular case of user interface [i] for interacting with a computer [i] ... 

 , based on ideas originally pioneered by the Xerox Xerox

Xerox Corporation is an American [i] document management [i] company, which manufactures... 

 corporation, and further pioneered and developed by Apple. Microsoft released "Windows Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a family of operating system [i]s by Microsoft [i].... 

" as an alternative to their DOS command line, and to compete with other systems on the market that employed a GUI. By the early 1990s, Windows had pushed other DOS-based GUIs like GEM Graphical Environment Manager

GEM was a windowing system [i] created by Digital Research, Inc. [i] for use with the CP/M [i] ... 

 and GEOS out of the market. The release of Windows 3.0 Windows 3.0

Windows 3.0 was the third major release of Microsoft [i] Windows [i], and came out on... 

 in 1990 was a tremendous success, selling around 10 million copies in the first two years and cementing Microsoft's dominance in operating systems sales.

By continuing to ensure, by various means, that most computers came with Microsoft software pre-installed, the Microsoft corporation eventually became the largest software company in the world, earning Gates enough money that Forbes Magazine Forbes

Forbes is a publishing and media company.... 

 named him the wealthiest person in the world for several years. Gates served as the CEO of the company until 2000, when Steve Ballmer Steve Ballmer

Steven Anthony Ballmer is an American businessman and has been the chief executive officer [i] of Microsoft Corporation [i] ... 

 took the position, and continues to serve as chairman of the board as of September 2006.

Bill Gates' role



Since Microsoft's founding in 1975 and as of 2006, Gates has had primary responsibility for Microsoft's product strategy. He has aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft has achieved a dominant position he has vigorously defended it. Many decisions that have led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates' approval. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft United States v. Microsoft

United States v. Microsoft 87 F. Supp. 2d 30 [i] was a court case filed against Microsoft Corporation [i] ... 

case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued over the definitions of words such as: compete, concerned, ask, and we. BusinessWeek reported, "early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail Gates both sent and received." Despite denials by Bill Gates, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, blocking competition, in violation of the Sherman Act.

Gates meets regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. By all accounts he can be extremely confrontational during these meetings, particularly when he believes that managers have not thought out their business strategy or have placed the company's future at risk. However, he often backs down when the targets of his outbursts respond frankly and directly. When he is not impressed with the technical hurdles managers claim to be facing, he sometimes quips, "Do you want me to do it over the weekend?"

Gates' role at Microsoft for most of its history has been primarily a management and executive role. However, he was an active software developer in the early years, particularly on the company's programming language Programming language

A programming language is an artificial language [i] that can be used to control [i] ... 

 products. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100 line, but he wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products.

On June 15 2006, Gates announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft effective July 31 2008, to allow him to devote more time to working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently [i] operated charitable foundation [i] ... 

. During an interview with Fortune.com published on June 26 says his recent decision to "shift priorities" his day-to-day role has changed to June 2008 instead of the original date of July 2008. After that date, Gates will continue in his role as the company's chairman and act as an advisor on key projects. His role as Chief Software Architect will be filled immediately by Ray Ozzie Ray Ozzie

Ray Ozzie is Chief Software Architect [i] at Microsoft [i]. ... 

 who joined the company last year due to Microsoft taking over his company Groove. One of his last initiatives before announcing his departure was the creation of a robotics Robot

A robot is an electro-mechanical device that can perform autonomous or preprogrammed tasks.... 

 software group at Microsoft.

Personal life



Bill Gates married Melinda French Melinda Gates

Melinda French Gates is a former Microsoft [i] employee who was the product unit manager of Microsoft Publisher [i] ... 

 of Dallas, Texas Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in the state of Texas [i] and the ninth-largest [i] ... 

 on January 1 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates , Rory John Gates and Phoebe Adele Gates .
Bill Gates' house is one of the most expensive houses in the world, and is a modern 21st century earth-sheltered home Earth sheltering

Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth [i] for external thermal mass [i] aga... 

 in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington Lake Washington

Lake Washington is the second largest natural lake [i] in Washington [i] State, USA, after Lake Chelan [i] ... 

 in Medina, Washington Medina, Washington

Medina is a city located in the Eastside [i], an affluent region of King County, Washington [i]... 

. According to King County King County, Washington

King County is located in the U.S. state [i] of Washington [i]. ... 

 public records, as of 2006 2006

2006 is a common year starting on Sunday [i] of the Gregorian calendar [i].
... 

, the total assessed value of the property is $125 million, and the annual property tax is just under $1 million. Also among Gates' private acquisitions are the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was a talented Italian Renaissance [i] Roman Catholic [i] ... 

 which Gates bought for $30.8 million United States dollar

For details of current paper money [i] and coins, see Federal Reserve Note [i] and United States coinage [i] ... 

 at an auction in 1994 , and a rare Gutenberg Bible Gutenberg Bible

The Gutenberg Bible is a print of the Latin Vulgate [i] translation of the Bible [i] that was printed by ... 

.

In 2000, Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently [i] operated charitable foundation [i] ... 

, a charitable organization, with his wife. The foundation's grants have provided funds for college scholarships for under-represented minorities, AIDS AIDS

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a collection of symptoms and infections [i] ... 

 prevention, diseases prevalent in third world Third World

The subjective terms First World [i], Second World [i], and Third World, can be used to divide the natio ... 

 countries, and other causes. In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge University of Cambridge

name = University of Cambridge
... 

 with $210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The Foundation has also pledged over $7 billion to its various causes, including $1 billion to the United Negro College Fund United Negro College Fund

The United Negro College Fund is a Fairfax [i], Virginia [i]-based American [i] p ... 

; and as of 2005, had an estimated endowment of $29.0 billion. He has spent about a third of his lifetime income on charity.

Gates has received three honorary doctorates, from the Nyenrode Business Universiteit Nyenrode Business Universiteit

Nyenrode Business Universiteit is the Netherlands [i]' leading business school and only private university [i] ... 

, Breukelen Breukelen

[i]
... 

, The Netherlands Netherlands

The Netherlands is the Europe [i]an part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands [i] , which is formed ... 

 in 2000, the Royal Institute of Technology Royal Institute of Technology

name =Royal Institute of Technology
... 

, Stockholm Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital [i] of Sweden [i], and consequently the site of its Government [i] ... 

, Sweden Sweden

The Kingdom of Sweden is a Nordic country [i] in Scandinavia [i]. ... 

 in 2002 and Waseda University Waseda University

name = Waseda University
... 

, Tokyo Tokyo

listen is one of the 47 prefectures [i] of Japan [i] and is the location of its capital [i] ... 

, Japan Japan

is an island country [i] in East Asia [i]. ... 

 in 2005. Gates was also given an honorary KBE  from Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

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Elizabeth II is the Queen [i] of 16 independent sovereign [i] state [i] ... 

 of the United Kingdom United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country and sovereign state [i] tha ... 

 in 2005, in addition to having entomologists Entomology

Entomology is the scientific [i] study of insect [i]s. ... 

 name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi Bill Gates' flower fly

Bill Gates' flower fly is a flower fly [i] found only in the Costa Rica [i]n forest. ... 

, in his honor.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stated that Gates is probably the most "spammed E-mail spam

E-mail spam is a subset of spam [i] that involves sending nearly identical messages to thousands of ... 

" person in the world, receiving as many as 4,000,000 e-mail E-mail

Electronic mail is a store and forward [i] method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving message ... 

s per day in 2004, most of which were junk. Gates has almost an entire department devoted to filtering out junk emails. In an article, Gates himself has said that most of this junk mail "offers to help [him] get out of debt or get rich quick", which "would be funny if it weren't so irritating".

Influence and wealth



Gates is widely considered one of the world's most influential people. Time Magazine Time (magazine)

Time is a weekly American [i] newsmagazine [i], similar to Newsweek [i] and U.S. News & World Report [i] ... 

 named him one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005 and again in 2006. Gates and Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey is a multiple-Emmy Award [i] winning host of The Oprah Winfrey Show [i], the hig ... 

 are the only two people in the world to make all four lists. He was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian The Guardian

The Guardian is a British [i] newspaper [i] owned by the Guardian Media Group [i]. ... 

as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001. Gates has been number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2006 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995-2006 with 50 billion US dollars. In 2004, he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway is a massive holding company [i] headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, that oversees ... 

, the investment company headed by Warren Buffett Warren Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist.... 

, the second wealthiest person in the world according to Forbes and a long time friend of Gates.
In 1999, Gates' wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion making him America's first centibillionaire.
Since 2000, Gates' wealth has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's share price Dot-com bubble

The "dot-com bubble" was a speculative bubble [i] covering roughly 19972001 during which ... 

 and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates gave away over $29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards. These donations are usually cited as sparking a substantial change in attitudes towards philanthropy among the very rich, as philanthropy eventually became the norm for the very rich. The Gates received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006, in recognition of their world impact through charity giving.

Gates owns a lavish home, with gardens and art collection. Gates claimed in 2005 that he has gone to work every day since 1975, which in recent years includes both his role at Microsoft, and his leadership position at the Gates Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently [i] operated charitable foundation [i] ... 

. In May 2006, Gates said in an interview that he wished that he was not the richest man in the world, stating that he disliked the attention it brought.

Popular culture

Gates is often characterized as the quintessential example of a super-intelligent "nerd" with immense power and wealth. This has in turn led to pop culture stereotypes of Gates as a tyrant or evil genius, often resorting to ruthless business techniques. As such he has been the subject of numerous parodies in film, television, and video games.

Works


Gates has published several essays throughout the years based on his theories, predictions and visions of the computing industry. In these publications he often expresses his personal views on current topics, and discusses Microsoft's plans. His writings have been published by BusinessWeek BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek is a business magazine [i] published by McGraw-Hill [i]. ... 

, Newsweek Newsweek

Newsweek is a weekly newsmagazine [i] published in New York City [i] and distributed throughout the ... 

, USA Today USA Today

USA Today is a national American [i] newspaper [i] published by the Gannett Corporation [i] ... 

, The Economist The Economist

The Economist is a weekly news and international affairs publication of The Economist Newspaper Ltd ... 

and Time. Some of his publications since 1997 include:
  • Person of the Year, Time, December 2 2005
  • The New World of Work, Executive E-mail, May 19 2005
  • The PC Era Is Just Beginning, Business Week, March 22 2005
  • Building Software That Is Interoperable by Design, Executive E-Mail, February 3 2005
  • The Enduring Magic of Software, InformationWeek, October 18 2004
  • Preserving and Enhancing the Benefits of E-mail: A Progress Report, Executive E-mail, June 28 2004
  • Microsoft Progress Report: Security, Executive E-mail, March 31 2004
  • Losing Ground in the Innovation Race?, CNET News.com, February 25 2004
  • A Spam-Free Future, The Washington Post, November 24 2003
  • Why I Hate Spam, The Wall Street Journal, June 23 2003
  • Building Trust in Technology, Global Agenda 2003 , January 23 2003
  • Security in a Connected World, Executive E-Mail, January 23 2003
  • The Disappearing Computer, The World in 2003 , December 2002
  • Slowing the Spread of AIDS in India, The New York Times, November 9 2002
  • Trustworthy Computing, Executive E-Mail, July 18 2002
  • Computing You Can Count on, April 2002
  • Tech in a Time of Trouble, The World in 2002 , December 2001
  • Moving into the Digital Decade, October 29 2001
  • The PC: 20 Years Young, August 12 2001
  • Why We’re Building .NET Technology, June 18 2001
  • Shaping the Internet Age, Internet Policy Institute, December 2000
  • Now for an Intelligent Internet, The World in 2001 , November 2000
  • Will Frankenfood Feed the World?, Time, June 19 2000
  • Yes, More Trade with China, Washington Post, May 23 2000
  • The Case for Microsoft, Time, May 7 2000
  • Enter "Generation i", Instructor, March 2000
  • Product Distribution Goes Digital, IEEE Internet Computing, January 2000
  • Beyond Gutenberg, The World in 2000 , November 1999
  • Everyone, Anytime, Anywhere, Forbes ASAP, October 4 1999
  • The Second Wave, IEEE Internet Computing Magazine, August 18, 1999
  • Microprocessors Upgraded the Way We Live, USA Today, June 22 1999
  • Why the PC Will Not Die, Newsweek, May 31 1999
  • The Wright Brothers: The 100 Most Important People of the Century, Time, March 29 1999
  • Compete, Don't Delete, The Economist, June 13 1998
  • Who Decides What Innovations Go into Your PC?, 1997

See also


References and footnotes


Further reading

  • Bill Gates, Business @ The Speed of Thought Business @ the Speed of Thought

    Business @ the Speed of Thought is a book [i] written by Bill Gates [i] in 1999 [i]. ... 

    ISBN 0-446-67596-2
  • Bill Gates, The Road Ahead The Road Ahead

    The Road Ahead, a book written by Bill Gates [i] with Nathan Myhrvold [i] and Peter Rinearson [i] an ... 

    ISBN 0-14-026040-4
  • James Wallace, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire Harper Business. ISBN 0-88730-629-2
  • James Wallace, Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-18041-6
  • Janet Lowe, Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-29353-9
  • Jennifer Edstrom and Marlin Eller, Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5755-2
  • Jeanne M. Lesinski, Bill Gates, Lerner Publications Company. ISBN 0-8225-9689-X
  • David Bank, Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft, Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-0315-1

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