Bill Gates

Maria-Gratias Sinon

Background info

• Bill Gates wasborn on October28, 1955 inSeattle,Washington.

• Interest incomputers andprogrammingstarted at age 13

His beginnings

• Started programming for corporationsand companies such as Seattle’sComputer Center Corporation (CCC)with his friends.

• He later wrote and developed with hisfriend Paul Allen a program- a “BASIC”language that fitted into New Mexico’sMITS Company. The program made theindustry dominate the software market.

Microsoft

• Bill Gates and PaulAllen co-foundedtheir own companynamed MicrosoftCompany in 1975.

• With their continuedsuccess of $30000,Microsoft alsoworked for othercompanies such asCommodore andApple.

Microsoft’s mission

• To advance andimprove onsoftwaretechnology and tomake moreaccessible andaffordable forpeople.

Risks

• Gates and Allenborrowed $50000 toacquire an operatingsystem named “Q-DOS”(Quick and DirtyOperating System) inorder to sell it to acorporation named IBM(International BusinessMachines)

• “Q-DOS” then changedinto “MS-DOS” (MicrosoftDisk Operating System)

Risks continues

• Microsoft asked IBM to release itssecret design formula so that softwaremakers could create software moreeasily.

• With IBM’s approval, over a hundredcompanies bought licenses to use “MS-DOS” so they would be IBM compatible.

Risks lead to success

• “MS-DOS” made Gates’s fortunehad been put into motion within ayear.

• Microsoft’s staff and profits hadgrown exponentially.

Other Accomplishments

• Gates started todevelop applicationssoftware: programsthat tell a computerto perform specifictasks.

Ex: word processingIt helped software

businesses.

Accomplishmentscontinues

• In 1987, a new and more powerfulsystem that could perform multipletasks at once by Microsoft was namedOS/2.

• It facilated computers’use andefficiency.

• The availability of Microsoft Word (aword-processing program), Windows3.0(operating system based on icons)expanded the number of computerusers worldwide.

Works cited

• Gates, Bill. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2010. Grolier Online. 9Feb.2010 http://gme.grolier.com/article?assetid=0116916-0.

• Promoting Technology Adoption - and Prosperity - Through Public-Private Partnerships. Microsoft News Center. 8 May 2008.http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/writing/05-08-08TechAdoption.mspx

• Henry Unger. The Atlanta Journal- Constitution. Atlanta, Ga. 2 Feb.2010. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1952510451

• Gates, Bill. American Social Leaders. 01 Jan 2001. eLibrary. Web. 19Feb 2010.http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/elib/do/document?set=di