Who is Bill Gates ?

HE CO-DEVELOPED THE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE BASIC FOR ALTAIR

. The case alleged that Microsoft made it difficult to install competing software on computers running Microsoft Windows, and also made it difficult to uninstall programs like Internet Explorer that came automatically installed with Windows. The average Windows user of the ‘90s who suffered through the Internet Explorer loading screen was probably likely to agree that there was something behind the allegations.

HE MADE THE PC DOS OPERATING SYSTEM DEAL WITH IBM

In 2000, Microsoft lost the landmark antitrust case against them, and as a result were ordered to split the company in half, creating what were to be referred to as “Baby Bills.” However, an agreement was reached in 2001 to allow the company to stay as one—only one Bill remains.

HE WAS NAMED AS THE WORLD’S YOUNGEST SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE AT 31

Despite the Antitrust case against Microsoft, Bill Gates is not against big government. Since the ruling, both Gates and Microsoft have been large donors to the Democratic Party, and Gates has made many statements in favor of higher taxes for the wealthy. He told the BBC, “I’ve paid more tax than any individual ever, and gladly so… I’ve paid over $6 billion in taxes.”

Microsoft has upwards of 108,000 employees worldwide as of 2018. However, when the company first started, Bill Gates took a perhaps too-personal interest in the comings and goings of his employees. He admitted to having memorized their license plates and keeping track of when his employees were arriving and leaving work. He said, “Eventually, I had to loosen up, as the company got to a reasonable size.”

Bill Gates had a lengthy and complicated relationship with fellow iconic tech entrepreneur Steve Jobs. The pair began as allies—Microsoft wrote software for the Apple II personal computer and the pair regularly spent time together in Cupertino at Apple’s headquarters. However, while Gates had earlier been critical of Apple’s revolutionary Graphical User Interface, their relationship fractured when Microsoft released its own GUI in the form of Windows in 1985.

After their feud, Steve Jobs took some public pot-shots at Bill Gates’ nerdy, stodgy public image. Jobs said of Gates, “He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

Gates quickly grew out of his school’s computer. He and some schoolmates sought out other computers, including a PDP-10 belonging to the Computer Center Corporation. The students, who included Paul Allen and Ric Weiland, both of whom also went on to become tech industry pioneers, were eventually banned from using the computer after they found a workaround in the software that allowed them to get free computer time.

But the ban didn’t last long—at the end of the summer, the CCC offered computer time to the students in exchange for finding and fixing bugs like the one they’d exploited in their programs. Another company hired them the following year to write a payroll program.

Young Gates used his talents for programming to help out at Lakeside School—and help himself. After the school asked him to write a program to schedule students’ class timetables, Gates modified the code to place himself in classes with a high number of “interesting girls.”

HE WAS NAMED AS THE WORLD’S YOUNGEST SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE AT 31

HIS COMPANY CAME UP WITH WINDOWS 95

BILL GATES BECAME THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD AT THE AGE OF 39

HE DID NOTABLE CHARITY WORK THROUGH BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

GATES IS AMONG THE PIONEERS OF THE PERSONAL COMPUTER REVOLUTION

HE IMPACTED THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS

HE WON THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM IN 2016

HE ESTABLISHED MICROSOFT, THE MOST SUCCESSFUL COMPUTER SOFTWARE COMPANY

HE CO-DEVELOPED THE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE BASIC FOR ALTAIR

HE MADE THE PC DOS OPERATING SYSTEM DEAL WITH IBM

HE WAS NAMED AS THE WORLD’S YOUNGEST SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE AT 31

HIS COMPANY CAME UP WITH WINDOWS 95

BILL GATES BECAME THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD AT THE AGE OF 39