Who is Bill Gates?

Bill Gates, an American businessman and co-founder of Microsoft software company, is the manufacturer of Microsoft Windows, the world’s most used personal computer operating system manufacturer.

Bill Gates and Microsoft Story

Due to his policy of expanding the use of Microsoft products at all costs, he has been accused of monopoly several times, and his company has been tried. For several years, he has had one of the most enormous personal fortunes in the world.

Biography

Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. He is the son of a leading lawyer, William Henry Gates II, a professor at Washington University, and director of the First Interstate Bank, Mary Gates.

He lived with them and his two-year-old sister in Seattle, Washington. He was a regular student at a public school until the sixth grade.

Childhood

In elementary school, Bill Gates and his brother were rewarded for every “A” (equivalent to 100 points) they earned. However, his father decided to send him to Lakeside School to change his rebellious behavior because the program at this school included an academic method to teach students to improve their behavior and responsibility in their studies.

Seeing this, William’s parents decided that this was the right place for their son, Bill Gates.

His first contact with computers and programming languages ​​was in 1968, in the eighth grade.

That same year, Lakeside College, like few others in the United States, purchased a computer network connected by a telephone line.

It was there that he met his future business partner, Paul Allen. At that time, when he was only 13 years old, he began programming and earning his first income.

University Period

He studied at Harvard University from 1973 to 1976. He entered the world of computers, collaborating with his friend Paul Allen to form a small team dedicated to running programs that they sold to companies or public administrations.

While a student at Harvard University, he founded the Microsoft software company on April 4, 1975. He left the university in 1976 and moved to Albuquerque, the headquarters of Altair, to sign a deal with the company to transfer Basic, a computer language, for 50% of sales. The following year, he learned of Apple’s success and that they needed a Basic translator.

In 1980, he met with representatives of the IBM company in Seattle. Although it does not yet have it, Microsoft has managed to sell the DOS operating system, which is the first milestone of its operation.

During the year, an agreement was signed with IBM for the distribution of the MS-DOS operating system under the name PC-DOS. This product, previously called Q-DOS, was purchased by Microsoft for $50,000 from Seattle Computer Products.

Years later, the latter sued Microsoft for hiding his contract with IBM at the time of purchase.

The key is that he did not buy MS-DOS from Microsoft but instead offered a redistribution agreement.

The reason for such a decision, which is not appropriate for IBM and is decisive for Microsoft’s future, is a mystery.

Others explain this because of the employment relationship between Gates’ mother and IBM CEO John Opel, then executives of the United Way company.

The Birth of Microsoft Windows

Realizing the importance of the graphic environment that Apple showed on its Lisa computer, it also began to show the graphic environment and the mouse to operate it.

When Apple founder Steve Jobs started the development of the Macintosh, Bill Gates visited Apple. He offered to develop his spreadsheets and other programs.

He threatened to sell his computer equipment to IBM by taking the Apple-Microsoft alliance. Microsoft legally acquired the mouse and graphic environment technology. Then Microsoft launched Windows as a direct competitor to the Macintosh.

Windows was launched in 1985 but was not stable until 1990. It was the first graphic environment widely used on IBM-PC-compatible computers.

From a technical point of view, it was far from offering any innovations, as there were similar environments of much higher quality.

The victory of Windows over the system offered by Apple was not due to the technical merits of the former.

This is one of the keys to the quality of the proprietary software distribution model. However, the provider’s commercial ability is valid.

Millions of profits in the 1990s turned into billions, and Microsoft managed to become a monopoly. With the dot.com business boom in 1999, Bill Gates’ fortune is estimated at $90 billion.

It has become one of the world’s most profitable companies and has flooded the market with its products.

Microsoft introduced functionality for Internet access in its operating systems using the Internet Explorer browser in 1993.

The history of bugs and problems with Internet Explorer is extensive, but it has improved significantly in recent years.

Free alternatives have emerged, such as the Mozilla Firefox browser, which also works on several different platforms. Despite not being included on the Windows installation CD, it is enjoying increasing acceptance among Internet users.

Bill Gates Family

He is married to Melinda Gates; they got married on January 1, 1993, in a secret location in Hawaii; he didn’t want any reporters to take pictures. So, he rented out all the hotels on the island in total. He has a daughter named Jennifer Bellamy Gates, born on April 26, 1996.

Both are leaders of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to rebalancing health and education opportunities, especially in less desirable regions. For this, they were awarded the 2006 Prince of Asturias International Award for International Cooperation.

Gates is ranked second on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the most enormous personal fortunes. In 2010, his assets were estimated to exceed $53 billion.

On June 16, 2006, he publicly announced his intention to step down from his day-to-day duties as head of Microsoft in early 2008 to devote himself entirely to the Foundation.

On June 27, 2008, he resigned from his position as head of Microsoft, handing the company over to Steve Ballmer. Initially, he devoted 70% of his time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the other 30% to the company.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

In 2005, he promised to donate $750 million to the Global Vaccine and Immunization Alliance.

“2005 must be the turning point of poverty in Africa,” Gates said with rock stars Bono and Tony Blair at the Davos World Economic Forum.

Much has been written about the generosity and establishment of Bill Gates.

Gates is often portrayed as the most outstanding philanthropist on the planet, but in reality, the Gates Foundation is the wealthiest charity in the world. Their annual income exceeds that of many small countries.

The Los Angeles Times wonders: why is the world’s wealthiest charity a shareholder in companies that are the source of sanitary and ecological pollution, which he also claims to fight?

Quotes from the Gates Foundation, which donated $218 million for a worldwide vaccine campaign against poliomyelitis and rubella, including the Niger River Delta.

However, the Foundation also inFoundation3 million in ENI, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, and Total, responsible for most of the gas emissions that pollute most of the gas emissions polluting the skies of the Niger River region.

On his India tour, where he came to receive the Indira Gandhi Peace, Disarmament and Development Award on behalf of the Foundation, he chaFoundationhis wife, Gates, spoke about American immigration at a forum in New Delhi.

Gates hardened his immigration policy and the idea of his country’s congress on this subject as “terrible for the USA and the world.”

“Why can’t you make exceptions for intelligent people with engineering degrees and let them stay?” Gates asked more Indian graduates to work for his company, although it may not seem to want “exceptions” for other “less intelligent” immigrants.

Free Software Movement

In 1984, American Richard Stallman created a community of programmers to create a new operating system together like the old hackers who share programs.

He put the idea on an e-mail distribution list, and a good group of creators gradually joined them.

The GNU/Linux system, the mother of Free Software, emerged in 1990. Stallman and his FSF (Free Software Foundation) also described that free software is software that considers these four freedoms for users:

1. Using the program for any purpose.
2. Access the source code to adapt it.
3. To be able to distribute copies.
4. To improve and make improvements open to everyone.

Bill Gates’ comparison of free software with modern communism sparked intense controversy among the hacker community. Some don’t like it, while others are proud to see free software as the engine of a fundamental change in the economic system.

The truth is that the internal functioning of the Hacker community is as it should be in a future socialist society: workers work for the community, have means of production, and “according to each one’s abilities,” each said.

The free software production system will ideally operate in a non-capitalist economy, but it will never be a definitive solution to social injustices.

Today, Microsoft is a mega-company with thousands of patents. Microsoft said in court that Windows’ main competitor is Linux, which refers to the free GNU/Linux operating system.

Leaked internal documents say Microsoft is trying to use software patents to stop developing GNU/Linux.

Capitalism means monopoly, at least Gates-style capitalism. People who think that someone should be free to run a program and free from writing complicated software are communists, says Mr. Gates. However, these communists even infiltrated the Microsoft meeting room. In 1991, Microsoft told employees:

If people understood how patents would be given when most of today’s ideas were invented and patented, the industry would be completely frozen today. A future start-up company without a patent would have to pay the price chosen by the giants.

It turned out that Mr. Gates was now a communist. Microsoft has acknowledged that software patents are harmful until they become one of these giants.

Microsoft is now trying to use software patents to impose the price it chooses on consumers, and if end-users and people often disagree, Mr. Gates will call them “communists.”

Lawsuits Against Microsoft

Microsoft Vice President for Windows 98: The government accuses Microsoft of writing emails that can prove that it has been performing unfair competition practices.

Janet Reno was responsible for the process against the US Chief Public Prosecutor and, therefore, Microsoft James Barksdale. James Barksdale is the head of Netscape, the company that makes the scanner that competes with Microsoft.

David Colburn is Vice President of the American On-Line (AOL) business area, which has reached an agreement to distribute Microsoft’s scanner program to thirteen million customers.

Steve McGeady is Vice President of Intel Corporation, which devotes much of its research and development to the Internet and Java-related programs.

The government accuses Microsoft of trying to expel Intel from this market, as it represents serious competition for their interests.

Avie Tevanian is Apple’s Vice President, responsible for the development and marketing of Quicktime, Apple’s multimedia applications program, and competing directly with Microsoft’s Netshow.

After several trial delays, Microsoft sat on the bench of the Washington court in October 19ltiple charges against the software company are summarized together: monopolistic practices against the free competition to control the software market and the Internet.

Microsoft’s attempts to delay the investigation of the case and attempts at reconciliation between Bill Gates’ company and the Ministry of Justice have failed.

The trial is a turning point in the history of the United States, which pays much attention to market intervention. Peers include the antitrust case against Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and telephone company ATT.

Both were forced to divide by a court to break their excessive dominance in the market. However, the conclusion in the Microsoft case is more ambiguous.

First, it isn’t easy to control the technological innovation that the Ministry of Justice sees as a common good because one of the scenarios of alleged monopoly practices is currently one of the least regulated areas.

Key Prosecutors of the Trial: The Ministry of Justice is leading the monopoly complaint with chief prosecutors from the other 20 states in the country.

The legal team consists of 24 lawyers. The star lawyer is David Boies, who represents the Department. Boies was IBM’s successful advocate in a similar complaint.

Defenders: Microsoft has a lawyer and publisher legion working on the case.

Second, in this lengthy judicial process, he tried to control the damage caused by the company. Microsoft’s lawyer for stars is John Warden, partner of the prestigious New York law firm.

First charge: Connecting the browsers; after realizing that it was lagging behind the Internet, Microsoft started a broad strategy. Explorer was trying to sell its browser more than competing Netscape. Therefore, he integrated the browser into the Windows operating system used by 90% of personal computers.

Pre-installed, users had no choice but to use Explorer. First Defense: Microsoft defends this claim as part of product development. The company has already won part of this case, as an appellate judge has decided that the integration of Explorer with the Windows 95 operating system is legal.

Second fee: Microsoft advised Netscape to share the pies of the Internet market, plotting to divide the market with a series of meetings and e-mail messages. The core test was a meeting between Netscape President James Barksdale and Microsoft executives on June 21cond. Defense: Microsoft talks about the collaboration with competitors and offers notes sent by Netscape that show the warmth of their relationship. As in most cases, the company justifies these meetings as global coordination to improve technology and better serve the public.

Third fee: Special deals: Microsoft pressured computer manufacturers to integrate the Windows operating system with Explorer preinstalled on their new products.

It also forced Internet companies such as the America On-Line service to use Explorer as their favorite browser. There is also evidence of bribing the Intuit president, who will receive a million dollars in exchange for including the Explorer browser in the Quicken account program.

Third defense: Microsoft couldn’t fully win, so it has recently terminated deals with computer manufacturers. Intuit for Microsoft chose their browser because it is superior to Netscape. Netscape recognized this in an internal document—fourth accusation: Attacks against Sun Microsystems.

Microsoft acquired the Sun Microsystems license to adapt Java to the Windows operating system for another basic fee. Later, Microsoft created new products for Java-Windows that were incompatible with the original Java. This betrayal threatens Sun’s market.

Fourth defense: Technological innovation is hidden in the development of products for the customer. He claims that his contracts with Sun Microsystems allow it—the subject of the trial. Gates’s attorneys have made it increasingly difficult to deal with the Department of Justice’s avalanche of evidence.

New evidence in the lawsuit filed against the software company showed Microsoft how to incorporate the Explorer browser into their computers, instead of Netscape Navigator, to Apple, its rival for years.

However, the $150 million ransom package had one condition: Apple computers had to preload Microsoft’s Explorer browser.

In addition to the letter sent by prosecutors, incriminating documents from America On-Line were also presented. This company, which provides online services to 15 million people worldwide, has been forced by Microsoft to install the Navigator browser instead of Navigator.

America On-Line administrators agreed that Microsoft, in return, guarantees that this company will install its icon on the Windows operating system.

Gates’ expected registration statement was made public on November 2, 28, in the courtroom where the antitrust case against the software company was tried.

In the video, the world’s wealthiest businessman in the US advocates answers single syllables and memory shortage, as well as questions about his plans to monopolize the world software market.

The 60 minutes that the judge has jurisdiction to monitor address questions about her relationship with computer company Apple, to which Gates has consistently denied offering to distribute the multimedia software market.

Bill couldn’t resist it, and after four weeks of silence when he had to listen to the accusations from the vast majority of computer kings, he came out of his lethargy and responded.

“As the situation progresses, it appears that a real effort has been made to add the interests of a particular group of our competitors to the interests of the public and the economy,” Gates said at Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting.

Bill Gates, who appeared before his company’s partners, was not the same as a few years ago. He said he had tremendous respect for the American judicial system in front of an audience of about 2,000 people, but he had severe doubts about the case he founded 23 years ago.

Gates used this opportunity to reject Apple’s accusations of attempting to sabotage multimedia programs strictly.

While everyone tried to hold their composers and put up with the bars falling everywhere during the first sessions and outlooks, Microsoft said it was enough.

After Intel’s vice president Steve McGeady’s third appearance, Gates’ corporate lawyer, McGeady, claimed that he was an angry “prima donna” producing false evidence.

His company’s defense said that Intel’s vice president was excited about a future without competition from Microsoft, and he started dealing with Netscape to make headlines and transfer information. McGeady acknowledged that he gave the New York Times an informal file.

The Justice Department prosecutor David Boies tried to portray McGeady as a trusted and representative person with first-hand knowledge of possible illegal Microsoft practices.

They even provided some e-mails from Intel’s vice president as proof of their allegations. In one of these, Bill, who was sent to Intel president Andrew Grove on his own, told how he got a call from Bill, who threatened to destroy Intel’s laboratories.

Public Laughter at the Hearing The twenty-third day of the Microsoft trial was one of the funniest days since the start of the sessions.

In the session held on December 298, the last part of his videotape release was made public and was a surprise for his company’s lawyers.

And at this session of the trial, he did not remember almost any of what the prosecution lawyers asked him.

It was hard to believe that all the influential owners of Microsoft had no idea about the legal procedure that Sun Microsystems company had carried out against the company or that Microsoft was involved in the development of Java.

The controversy over the reliability of McGeady’s testimony and the uncertain future of the research increases the fact that he meets with Netscape co-founder Jim Clark, who has a good friendship, day by day.

Unless Microsoft has big competitors and they both publicly dislike their hate for this company.

Although everyone harshly attacked him during the trial, his popularity among the company’s shareholders has not changed a bit.