The wave started again... Bill Gates is a genius.. Gates is great.. From post to post video "Think about yourself..."“I created a corporation almost from scratch... at the age of 31 I became a billionaire...” How was it really?

“Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. He and his two sisters grew up in Seattle. Their father, William Gates II, is a lawyer. Mr. Gates' mother, Mary Gates, was school teacher…»

The baby was born into the family of a modest lawyer and a school teacher... He studied and worked a lot... Thanks to his genius, he became the richest man on planet Earth and transformed the world.

How was it really?

Bill Gates or William Henry Gates III - already sounds, doesn't it? - was born on October 28, 1955, not in an ordinary family, but in a family with rich traditions in business, politics and public service. The Gates family enjoys great weight and authority in Seattle, and throughout the state of Washington. His great-grandfather was a state legislator and mayor of Seattle, maternal grandfather - Vice President of the US National Bank, father - William Henry Gates II (William Henry Gates II) - a famous and very rich lawyer, and mother - Mary Maxwell Gates (Mary Maxwell Gates) - the first woman - a member of the board of directors of First Interstate Bancorp, a member of the board of directors of Pacific Northwest Bell, U.S. West Inc. and KIRO-TV in Seattle, President of the National Board of United Way International - not bad for a simple school teacher?

Until about the age of eleven, Billy grew up as a mischievous tomboy. In the private school class he was known as a clueless playwright. The performance did not correspond in any way to the child’s hypothetical talents. It never occurred to him to follow the example of an exemplary older sister Christie. Even the trouble-free method of financial incentives for academic achievement, proven by many generations, did not help - brother and sister could count on 25 cents for each positive grade. The current situation did not suit the Gates family, respected in Seattle, who were proud of their traditions and roots. I even had to see a psychiatrist.

When Gates was 13 years old, his parents, deciding to introduce their son to the circle of the elite, transferred him to the private privileged school Lakeside School. And it was in 1968 that the administration of this Seattle Lakeside school decided to introduce its students to the new technology and language of computers. The price of a computer at that time was far beyond the school budget, so the school decided to rent “computer time” from a computer owned by some corporation. With the help of a teletype, he could be contacted over telephone lines. To implement this plan, the school director turned to the parents' committee with a request to raise money to buy a teletype and help pay for computer time. The committee's coffers had to be relieved by $3,000 so that each school class could learn to use a nearby PDP-10 (DEC) minicomputer owned by General Electric.

Gates' first venture was founded with Paul Allen back in 1972. The company was called Traf-O-Data and there were only two employees - Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Within this office for the City of Seattle(there were no problems getting the order, we guess?) A traffic control program was written for a system based on the Intel 8008 microprocessor. Traf-O-Data earned twenty thousand dollars from this, but the business did not go any further and the shop was closed.

Gates graduated from high school in 1973, and following family tradition, entered Harvard study to become a lawyer.

In July 1975, a partnership called “Micro-Soft” (Microcomputer Software) was organized in Albuquerque (New Mexico). On November 26, 1976, Microsoft was incorporated.

In late 1976, a dispute arose between Microsoft and MITS successor company Pertec over the “Basic” software. Gates without hesitation turned to his father for advice on this matter. William Henry Jr. was happy to help. He himself gave some wise advice, assured Bill that his company would win the case and found a capable attorney in Albuquerque to represent Microsoft.
The process lasted six months and an arbitrator was eventually appointed to decide the matter. This was good news and meant that the case would soon be over - a normal legal process could take several years. In December 1977 Microsoft won the case. The referee was very harsh on Pertec and Ed Roberts. He called the situation “an extreme case of commercial piracy” and ruled that MITS had the right to use BASIC, and Microsoft had the right to sell it at its discretion.

According to Steve Wood, after 1977 Microsoft never had financial problems again. This is despite the fact that Microsoft's first five customers went bankrupt and Bill Gates and Paul Allen returned to Seattle in 1979 (that year Bill Gates was expelled from the university for absenteeism and poor academic performance).

And here the mother of our young genius comes into play. She was the chairman of the executive committee at United Way International, along with two very influential leaders of the computer market monster IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) John Opel and John Akers (John Opel, president since 1981, then John Akers, president since 1985 .). They decided " help the boy get up” (look at the obituary of the death of the mother of a genius in The New York Times), and at the same time make money yourself. The unknown company Microsoft received an offer from the IT giant IBM to develop an operating system for the first personal computer.

Of course, as with BASIC, Gates did not develop the OS. He simply bought the QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) system created by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) for $50,000, changed the name to MS-DOS and sold the license to IBM, asking to retain the copyright to Microsoft .

And IBM agreed! (surprising, right?) She bought a license for MS-DOS and made a deal an unusual agreement for that time, under which Microsoft continues to be the owner of the system and IBM pays them every time it sells a computer with MS-DOS installed.
Thus was born the concept of proprietary software, although up to this time the usual practice was for software to be given away for free, since computers themselves were very expensive and additional costs were undesirable.

Qdos became DOS, then Windows 1.0-3.11 (this OS was developed by Microsoft, although the ideas were stolen from Apple), and ultimately the crooked Windows line died on Windows Millenium. The long-term Windows NT (hereinafter 2000/XP/Vista/Win7) appeared on the scene, in which much was also stolen from competitors, in particular from OS/2 from IBM.

In 1986, Microsoft shares went public for the first time, and Bill Gates became fabulously rich overnight.

So where is the genius of Bill Gates? Who would he be without his dad's connections among lawyers and his mother's connections among business sharks? And where is the “Cinderella”, who achieved everything himself solely with his brains?

The name Bill Gates is known throughout the world. But how did this happen? How did an ordinary bespectacled nerd become the richest man in the world and hook the whole world on his programs?

After all, at the time when he started, no one really believed that computers would take over the world and that one could make money from it.

But Bill Gates proved that any idea can not only be implemented, but implemented effectively. From 1994 to 2010, Bill Gates spent only on charity 28 billion! Dollars, of course.

Bill Gates was born in the city of Seattle, which is located in Washington state. His parents were not mere mortals. Father - lawyer William Henry Gates II, mother - Mary Maxwell Gates, a member of the board of directors of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell and the national board of United Way.

Of course, he was lucky with his birth. But this is not the main thing. There are many examples where a person born into a prosperous family died as a loser.

Bill studied at a very prestigious school in the city, called Lakeside. He worked hard on the school mini-computer and acquired some good ones.

When Bill was 13 years old, he was able to write his first program. This program was the game "Tic Tac Toe". He used the BASIC programming language.

In the 8th grade, he became involved with Paul Allen, who was then in the 10th grade. Of course, this happened in programming class. With his friends, Gates used a PDP-10 computer manufactured by Digital Equipment, part of the Computer Center Corporation (CCC).

During these classes, students worked on the computer. Working hours were limited because there were few computers. One day, when the time allotted for Bill and his friend Paul to use the CCC ended, they got a little upset and hacked the computer (well, of course, not in literally). For this offense, 4 schoolchildren, including Bill Gates, were not allowed to use computers for a whole year.

How Microsoft came to be

Today Microsoft is known all over the world. But this, of course, was not always the case.

Bill Gates began studying at the university in 1973. And not just any school, but Harvard University. In these student years he met Steve Ballmer, who later became Bill's business partner. After 2 years, Gates was expelled from the university. But this did not upset him much, since he began to enthusiastically start programming.

Bill's friend Paul Allen saw in Popular Electronics magazine interesting article. It talked about a new personal computer called the Altair 8800. This happened in January 1975.

Paul told Gates about this. Gates also read the article, and then contacted the president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), and also contacted the creator of the new computer mentioned in the article, Ed Roberts. Bill told him that he and his friend were developing software for this computer. In reality, neither Gates nor Allen had anything to do with the Altair 8800. However, they emulated the operation of its processor.

The head of MITS spoke with Paul. During the conversation, Paul showed a working BASIC language interpreter for the Altair 8800 computer. As a result, after some time the friends were already collaborating with the MITS company.

So they created their own company and began to think about its name. At first the name “Allen and Gates” came up, but they thought that such a name looked a lot like the name of a law firm.

Then Paul suggested the name Micro-Soft, from the words microprocessors (microprocessors) and software (software).

Initially, “Micro-Soft” was specially created to develop software for the tasks of the MITS company.

After some time, after about a year of work at MITS, the hyphen disappeared from the name “Micro-Soft”. And on November 26, 1976, a new trademark “Microsoft” appeared.

Paul received 36% of the company's shares, and Gates, since he was the major contributor to the product, received 64%.

The CP/M operating system was the most popular in the 1970s when it comes to computers based on Intel processors 8080 and Zilog Z80.

Since 1980, IBM decided to improve the quality of its computers, so it began to look for a more suitable OS that could be used on the IBM PC. At first they wanted to use the CP/M operating system.

IBM was in talks with Digital Research. But the negotiations ended without results. Therefore, IBM eventually came to an agreement with the then small company Microsoft (this was not without the connection of family ties, or, as they say in Russia, without cronyism, but such is life - and not only in Russia))).

Microsoft did not have its own OS for Intel 8086 processors. Because of this, it was necessary to purchase a license from Seattle Computer Products for the 86-DOS system (QDOS). It was a 16-bit copy of CP/M.

Microsoft then acquired full rights to 86-DOS. Subsequently, the 86-DOS system was significantly improved and adapted for IBM PCs. At the same time, Microsoft “heated up” by $50,000 (and we must understand that the dollar of that time is not the same as today’s).

So the legendary MS-DOS operating system prosaically came into the world and the collaboration between Microsoft and IBM began.

In 1980, Microsoft entered into an agreement with IBM. According to this agreement, Microsoft was to create the MS-DOS operating system and provide it to IBM.

But Microsoft didn't meet the deadline. The system was transferred to IBM only in 1981, and it was quite crude and required improvement.

This half-baked system contained a game called DONKEY.BAS, made by Bill Gates and Neil Konzen. This game only demonstrated the capabilities of the system. However, it was the predecessor of all IBM PC games. In this game the user controls racing car, and in the management process it is necessary to avoid donkeys. In 2012, this game was revived for smartphones, for operating systems Windows Phone 7.5/8 (free to download), and iOS (costs $0.99).

Microsoft then begins work on a completely new OS. Bill got the idea for a new operating system from Xerox and Apple.

The partnership continues with IBM, which was destined to introduce the new OS.

As a result, on October 20, 1985 it was published Microsoft Windows(Wits translate this as “micro-small windows”). Thus began the era of Windows - the legendary operating system that immortalized the name of Bill Gates, and at the same time allowed him to become one of the richest people in the world.

In general, Gates is often accused of plagiarism. In particular, Steve Jobs really disliked Gates because he believed that Gates was stealing his ideas.

But this is generally typical for Apple. They always think that all their ideas have been stolen from them, and are constantly suing either Samsung or someone else.

There's actually nothing wrong with using someone else's idea. After all, one idea is not enough - it still needs to be implemented.

For example, the same Jobs accused Gates of stealing his idea text editor. So what? After all, Gates borrowed only the user interface (and even then not 100%), and all the source codes and so on were developed by Microsoft.

Moreover, it is simply impossible to prove that Jobs was the first to come up with this idea. Very often the same ideas and discoveries come to different people independently. For example, we believe that Popov invented radio, but in the West we are sure that Marconi did it. It’s just that these two people were independently engaged in research in this direction. And it was Popov who was the first to exchange radio signals between the transmitter and the receiver! But Marconi patented this invention.

By the way, this editor, about which Gates and Jobs “broke their spears,” is still available in Windows (well, at least in XP). You can call it from by typing edit, and you will see the DOS time editor.

Eh... It was a long time ago...

Summary

Why do you need Bill Gates' life story?

Well, first of all, I think that every programmer should know how computer technology and software, and who was at the origins.

Secondly, every programmer, if he believes in himself and goes towards his goal, can achieve both fame and fortune. And who can we learn this from, if not from those who have already achieved this?

However, first of all, you need to be a professional (in any field). Well, if we are talking about programming, then we need to learn, study and study again.

American entrepreneur, founder of Microsoft Corporation William (Bill) Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle (Washington, USA). His father was a lawyer, his mother a schoolteacher, a board member of Washington State University and chairman of United Way International.

Received secondary education in a privileged private school Seattle's Lakeside School.

Gates began to show interest in computer programming at the age of thirteen. In 1970, he wrote his first traffic control software with his high school friend Paul Allen and started a distribution company called Traf-O-Data. Gates and Allen earned $20,000 from this project.

On the wave of success, friends were eager to open their own company, but Gates’s parents opposed this idea, hoping that their son would graduate from college and become a lawyer.

In 1973, Bill Gates entered Harvard University. At university, he met Steve Ballmer, who would later become CEO of Microsoft. However, Gates was not interested in studying; he often skipped classes and worked on programming. Gates continued to communicate with Paul Allen, who entered the University of Washington, but after two years he dropped out and moved to Boston (Massachusetts), where he began working for the Honeywell Corporation. In the summer of 1974, Gates joined his friend.

In 1975, after reading an article in Popular Electronics magazine about the Altair 8800 computer created by MITS, Bill Gates and Paul Allen suggested that MITS write software for the computer in Basic. The result of the work of the young programmers satisfied the customers, Paul Allen was hired as a staff member, and Bill Gates took over academic leave at Harvard, became actively involved in writing programs and organizing his own company, Micro-Soft. It was under this name that the company, which later became Microsoft, was registered in 1976.

In February 1976, Gates introduced the practice of selling licenses for his software directly to computer manufacturers, which allowed them to “build” these programs - operating systems and programming languages ​​- into computers.

This marketing innovation dramatically increased the firm's revenue. And although the MITS company soon ceased to exist, Microsoft was able to attract new customers - Apple and Commodore, which were quite firmly on their feet, as well as the Tandy company, which produced the popular Radio shack computers.

In 1979, Gates was expelled from Harvard. And already in 1980, Microsoft received an offer from IBM to create an operating system for the world's first personal computer. For these needs, Gates acquired the right to exclusively license and then own the 86-DOS operating system created by Seattle Computer Products (SCP), adapted it for IBM's needs and profitably sold it to IBM under the name PC-DOS. The release of the IBM PC and MS-DOS was widely announced in August 1981.

The agreement with IBM provided for payments for each copy of Microsoft software, which provided significant dividends thanks to the success of the IBM PC in the 1980s. The success of both products subsequently led to the fact that Intel architecture, IBM computers and Microsoft programs became de facto industry standards.

After Microsoft was restructured in 1981, Bill Gates took over as president and chairman of the company's board of directors. In November 1985, the first version of Microsoft Windows appeared. Original code name system was Interface Manager, but the Windows option was ultimately chosen because it best described the on-screen computing "windows" that became the centerpiece of the new product.

In 1986, Microsoft shares began trading on the stock exchange. The price of shares grew at lightning speed, and within a few months, at the age of 31, Bill Gates became a billionaire for the first time. In 1988, Microsoft became the world's largest-selling computer software developer.

In 1993, total monthly sales of Windows exceeded one million copies. By 1995, when the company released a new operating system, Windows 95, supplemented software Internet access - Internet Explorer, approximately 85% of PCs worldwide used Microsoft software.

As the head of Microsoft and the holder of the majority of its shares, Gates became the richest person in the world by 1998. At the end of 1999, Gates announced his decision to step down as head of the company and take up programming. Despite this, he remained in charge of Microsoft's manufacturing strategy until he stepped down from business development responsibilities in 2006, saying he wanted to devote his time to philanthropy.

Bill Gates was the non-executive chairman of the company's board of directors, but on February 4, 2014, he left this post. Wherein founder of Microsoft remains a member of the company's board of directors and is a consultant on key company projects.

For the 21st time in a row, Bill Gates, with a fortune of $81 billion, topped the annual list of the 400 richest people in the United States, published by the American magazine Forbes.

In September 2015, he topped the rankings for the 22nd time with a net worth of $76 billion, 13% of which comes from Microsoft shares and the rest from the billionaire's investments in numerous businesses across a variety of industries.

Bill Gates has been investing for many years through his investment company Cascade Investment. Nearly 50% of the funds managed by Cascade Investment are invested in Warren Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. Gates' top five investments also include shares of Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Caterpillar (a manufacturer of equipment for the construction and mining industries) and the Canadian National Railway Company (a railway company).

He is the author of two bestsellers. Published in 1995, The Road Ahead spent seven weeks at number one on The New York Times bestseller list. In 1999, Gates published Business the Speed ​​of Thought, which has been translated into 25 languages ​​and explores new ways to use computer technology to solve business problems. Proceeds from the sale of both books were donated to non-profit organizations dedicated to supporting the development of technology and education.

Bill Gates is a Knight of the British Empire (2005). In 2007, the administration of Harvard University, recognizing the merits of Bill Gates, presented its former student with a diploma.

Bill Gates is married to Melinda French Gates and they have three children: Jennifer Katharine, Rory John and Phoebe Adele.

In 2000, the couple founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation to support health and education initiatives.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

William Henry Gates III. Born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, USA. Better known as Bill Gates. American entrepreneur and public figure, philanthropist, co-creator (with Paul Allen) and former largest shareholder of Microsoft.

Until June 2008, he was the head of the company; after leaving his post, he remained as its non-executive chairman of the board of directors. He is also co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the period from 1996 to 2007, in 2009 and in 2015 - the richest person on the planet according to Forbes magazine. His fortune in March 2015, according to Forbes magazine, was estimated at $79.2 billion, an increase of $13.2 billion compared to September 2012. This made him the richest man in the United States 20 times in a row and the first in the world 16 times (the second was Carlos Slim Helu with his family, his fortune is estimated at $ 77.1 billion).

Bill Gates is one of the record holders for the amount of money donated to charity: between 1994 and 2010, he contributed more than $28 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In February 2010, Gates made a proposal to all billionaires to donate half of their wealth for charitable activities.

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of corporate lawyer William Henry Gates II and board member of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell, and national board member of United Way Mary Maxwell Gates. Gates has 2 sisters: the older one is Christy and the younger one is Libby.

Gates attended Seattle's most exclusive school, Lakeside, where he was able to develop his programming skills on the school's mini-computer. At the age of thirteen, Bill wrote his first program, the Tic Tac Toe game, in the BASIC programming language. In eighth grade, during a programming class, he met tenth-grader Paul Allen. With his friends, Gates tested the PDP-10 computer from Digital Equipment Corporation, owned by Computer Center Corporation (CCC).

When the time allotted for Bill and his friend Paul to work in the CCC expired, they hacked the program. For hacking computers, four students at the school - Rick Wayland, Kent Evans, Paul Allen and Bill Gates - were banned from working on computers throughout the summer. The initiator of the punishment was the Computer Center Corporation, whose computer the students hacked. After the punishment ended, the students offered the company to find errors in their software in exchange for the opportunity to work on the company’s computers. The company agreed, and Gates and his friends studied a variety of software source codes written in languages ​​such as FORTRAN, LISP, and machine code.

This cooperation continued until 1970, when the company went bankrupt. Next year, Information Sciences, Inc. hired four students (including Bill and Paul) to write a payroll program. The program was needed in the Cobol language, in return the guys received free working time on the PDP-10. They called their company Lakeside Programming Group, but were unable to complete the work.

At school, Gates did not excel in grammar, social studies, and other subjects he considered trivial, but he did achieve top marks in mathematics. By the end of elementary school, Gates's bad behavior began to worry his parents and teachers so much that he was referred to a psychiatrist.

At age 17, Gates, Paul Allen, and Paul Gilbert founded Traf-O-Data. The name was coined by Gates from “jack-o’-lantern” - a jack-o’-lantern. The company's goal was to create meters to read road traffic and generate reports for traffic engineers. The Traf-O-Data device was sold 1972 to 1982. and as a result, $794.31 remained in the company’s account.

December 25, 1972 (Christmas Day) Bud Pembroke, the one who invited Bill and Paul to work for Information Service Inc., invited them to work for TRW. A large software project was underway for the Bonneville Power Administration using the PDP-10.

In 1973, Bill Gates entered Harvard University, where he met his future partner Steve Ballmer. After 2 years, Gates was expelled and immediately began creating software.

In January 1975, Paul Allen read an article in Popular Electronics magazine about the new Altair 8800 personal computer. After reading the article, Gates contacted the president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the developer of the new computer, Ed Roberts, and told him that he and his friend are working on the software for this computer (although in fact Gates and Allen had nothing to do with the Altair 8800, but emulated that processor).

The MITS president invited Paul to his office and he demonstrated a working BASIC interpreter for their computer, and within a few weeks Paul and Bill were working at MITS. They thought about calling their company “Allen and Gates,” but felt that it was more suitable for a law office, and then Paul suggested Micro-Soft, from microprocessors and software. In the credits of the BASIC language interpreter, which they created at the request of MITS, the friends included the following line: "Micro-Soft BASIC: "Paul Allen wrote the supporting codes. Bill Gates wrote the executable codes. Monte Davidoff wrote a mathematical library".

In 1975, Bill was arrested for the first time, for speeding and driving without a driver's license, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After which he began to quarrel with the policeman and he was put in a “bad” cell, where there were drunkards and it was not cleaned. Bill made the required one call to Paul Allen and he collected the last money available to rescue Bill. "Micro-Soft" was created specifically for the development of programs for MITS, in the city of Albuquerque. Within a year of working for MITS, the hyphen in Gates and Allen's company name disappeared, and on November 26, 1976, the new trademark "Microsoft" was registered with the New Mexico District Clerk's Office. Paul got 36% of the company's shares, Bill 64%, basically how Bill saw his contribution to the product.

IN joint business Paul Allen was involved in technical ideas and promising developments; Gates was closer to negotiations, contracts, etc. business conversation. And yet, the friends resolved the main issues together - sometimes, as Gates later admitted, the arguments continued for 6-8 hours in a row.

In the mid-1970s, the CP/M operating system was the most popular operating system for Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 based computers. In 1980, IBM began searching for a suitable operating system for the IBM PC personal computer. Initially it was planned to use CP/M for it. Negotiations were held with Digital Research, a company owned by Gary Kildall and his wife. However, the deal did not take place, and IBM entered into an agreement with the small company Microsoft (the mother of the owner, Bill Gates, was the chairman of the executive committee at United Way International, along with two very influential leaders of the computer market monster IBM, John Opel and John Akers (John Opel, President since 1981, then John Akers, President since 1985).

Microsoft did not have its own OS for Intel 8086 processors, so it licensed 86-DOS (QDOS), which was a 16-bit clone of CP/M, from Seattle Computer Products. Subsequently, Microsoft completely bought the rights to 86-DOS, after which, after working on it, it was completely adapted for IBM personal computers, earning $50,000. This is how the MS-DOS operating system appeared and the beginning of the collaboration between Microsoft and IBM.

In 1977, Gates was arrested a second time, for running a red light and, again, for driving without a driver's license.

In 1980, Microsoft signed a contract with IBM to develop MS-DOS for IBM. But Microsoft did not meet the deadline and transferred the source code to IBM for faster development in 1981. This half-baked system featured a demo game called "DONKEY.BAS" made by Bill Gates and Neil Konzen. "DONKEY.BAS" was a tech demo of the PC-DOS system and the BASIC language, and is the predecessor of all IBM PC games. In this game you control a racing car and have to avoid donkeys. In 2012, this game was re-released for Windows Phone 7.5/8 (free to download), iOS (costs $0.99).

Next, Microsoft is working on a completely new operating system, the idea of ​​which was taken from Xerox and Apple. Cooperation with IBM continued and on November 20, 1985, the new Microsoft Windows operating system appeared. Thus began the era of Windows - the operating system that glorified and made Gates the richest man.

In 1989, Gates founded the multimedia company Corbis and was arrested a third time on charges of drunk driving.

In 1994, Gates acquired Codex Leicester, a collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci. Since 2003 it has been on display at the Seattle Art Museum.

In 1995, Bill Gates wrote the book The Road Ahead, in which he outlined his views on the direction in which society is moving in connection with the development of information technology. In 1996, when Microsoft was refocused on Internet technologies, Gates made significant adjustments to the book.

In 1997, Gates spoke via video link in Boston at the Macworld Expo, where they talked about the development of MS Office, IE, Java products for the Macintosh, and investing $150 million in Apple. Bill's performance was broadcast on the big screen and it was like Big Brother performing in the Apple "1984" commercial.

In 1997, Gates became a victim of extortion by Chicago resident Adam Quinn Pletcher. Gates testified at the subsequent trial. Pletcher was found guilty and sentenced in July 1998 to six years in prison.

The following episode gives some insight into Gates' religious views: when a correspondent for The Times magazine asked whether he believed in God, Gates replied: "I don't have any facts about him."

According to Forbes magazine, Gates donated money to George W. Bush's presidential campaign in 2004. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Gates donated at least $33,335 to more than 50 political campaigns during the 2004 election.

In 1999, Bill Gates wrote the book Business @ the Speed ​​of Thought, which shows how information Technology can solve business problems in a completely new way. Of particular note is the fact that Bill Gates' ideas fit well with the concept of lean manufacturing.

This book has been released in 25 languages ​​and is sold in more than 60 countries. Business at the Speed ​​of Thought received critical acclaim and was featured on the New York Times, America Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestseller lists.

On December 14, 2004, Bill Gates joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway, thus formalizing his relationship with Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate that includes Geico (automotive insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints), and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates also serves on the board of Icos, a Bothell biotechnology company.

On 2 March 2005, the UK Foreign Office announced that Gates would receive the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to UK businesses and his efforts to reduce global poverty.

At the end of 2005, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates were named People of the Year by American Time magazine.

On January 7, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intentions to step down as the head of Microsoft Corporation in July 2008, switching his activities to charity.

On June 15, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to leave his full-time job at Microsoft as of July 2008. After leaving his post, he intends to devote himself entirely to managing the charitable foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

June 27, 2008 was Bill Gates' last as Microsoft CEO. Despite this, he is not breaking with the company for good - Gates will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors (without executive powers), will be involved in special projects, and will also remain the largest (8.7% of Microsoft shares) shareholder of the corporation. In 2008, Gates resigned as president of Microsoft Corporation, and in 2010 he left the post of chief executive officer. Steve Ballmer received both positions. In December 2011, he denied rumors about his possible return to managing the company.

At the end of October 2008, in Kirkland (Washington State, USA), Bill Gates registered his third company called “bgC3”. Unverified sources claim that "bgC3" stands for Bill Gates Company Three. It was announced that this will be a research center whose tasks will include the provision of scientific and technological services, work in the field of analytics and research, as well as the creation and development of software and hardware.

Since 2009, Bill Gates has published on the official website of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation " Annual Message Bill Gates”, in which he talks about the achievements of his charitable organization, and also makes plans for the future.

Personal life of Bill Gates:

On January 1, 1994, Gates married Melinda French. They have three children - Jennifer Katharine (born 1996), Rory John (born 1999) and Phoebe Adele (born 2002).

Date of birth: October 28, 1955
Place of birth: Seattle. Washington state. USA

Bill Gates- entrepreneur. William Bill Gates managed at one time to place a bet on software development, at a time when companies around produced only the computers themselves and did not perceive such an idea as wealthy business model and did not see a future in it. Having managed to take over and practically monopolize the modern world of computers, he became one of the most famous and richest people on earth.

The first program he developed was a simple script for regulating traffic, which he made together with his friend Paul Allen, and with it he was able to earn his first twenty thousand dollars.

At the age of seventeen, Bill received an order to develop a software package for the operation of the Bonneville Dam, and he managed to agree with the leadership of his school that this project would be taken as exams for him in most subjects and thus received a high school diploma.

Like his parents, after graduating from school, Gates entered Harvard University to study law and subsequently consider moving to the faculty of mathematics. During his training, he meets Steve Ballmer, who this moment replaced Gates in office general director Microsoft. Bill devotes most of his time to working with computers and at the same time spends many hours playing poker on the university campus, which, of course, cannot have a beneficial effect on his studies.

After Gates comes across a popular electronics publication, he learns about the newly created company MITS, and sends them a proposal to develop the first operating system for the computer they produce. The company not only agrees to work with Gates and his friend Paul, but also takes Paul on staff, while Bill decides to take a sabbatical from the university so as not to be distracted from completing the order.

First of all, young people decide to create a company that receives the name Microsoft, which is initially written with a hyphen and after a year, the name turns into the one we are familiar with and under new company receives official registration.

This passion for writing programs led to his expulsion from Harvard University in 1979. Just a year later, in 1980, Microsoft signed an agreement to create the world's first operating system for a personal computer, which the company was going to release to the market. Gates does not dare to create his own product from scratch and simply buys an existing one from a company from Seattle, which he slightly changes and optimizes for hardware. new car and is sold by IBM under the name PC-DOS.

At the same time, according to the terms of the contract, all rights to the new operating system remain with Gates’ company, and he subsequently sells it to several more manufacturers.
Having changed the structure of Microsoft, Gates in 1981 appointed himself to the position of president and served as chairman of the board of directors.

In 1985, the first operating system called Windows 95 entered the market, which became a new era for all humanity using computers.
The operating system was an incredible success, and the production of personal computers developed at a rapid pace, opening up unprecedented opportunities for Beal’s company.
Thanks to these conditions and the success of Windows, Bill decides to release his company to the stock market, and in 1986 he made an initial public offering on the stock exchange.

The price of shares since entering the stock market within a few months made Gates a billionaire at the age of thirty-one.
By 1993, more than one million copies of the Microsoft operating system had already been sold worldwide, and by 1995, the new Windows 95 was already on more than 85% of user computers around the world.

Having decided to devote more time to a charitable foundation than to work in the company, in 1998 Bill resigned as president of Microsoft and, despite this, took the position of executive director. After Gates formally left, virtually nothing changed in the company's policies, and its predatory strategy worked just as much for his business.
In 2006, Gates resigned from his position as director of development and explained this by the fact that his free time was still not enough for his wife's foundation, and he wanted to devote more time to its program and philanthropy in general.

While remaining as chairman of the board of directors, Gates never left the company completely and, according to many employees, takes an active part in developing a new strategy for developing the mobile device market.

Beal's philanthropic activities have grown significantly since his departure from the company, and he continues to lead various projects that he and his wife began more than ten years ago. The Corbis International Foundation is creating the largest electronic database of works of art, which contains a huge amount of information.

In 1995, Gates wrote the book The Road to the Future, which presents his worldview to the world and describes the problems of society in the light in which he imagines them. The book has been the best-selling book in many countries around the world for seven years in a row, according to the newspaper. NY, and it has been translated and published in more than twenty countries around the world.

Gates’s rather ambiguous business model is fully revealed and described in the book he published in 1999 called Business at the Speed ​​of Thought, which presents him as a philanthropist and is more aimed at creating an image of business as a socially oriented model of society. The book is also an incredible success, being published in more than sixty countries and available for purchase online at a time when it was still a novelty. Bill donates all proceeds from the publication of his books to his wife’s charitable foundation. Over the years, he was practically able to defeat polio in countries South Africa, for which he managed to receive accusations of testing vaccines on its residents and children.

During his dizzying career, Bill became a seven-time winner of first place in the list of the richest people on the planet and remained in the top three for many years.

Achievements of Bill Gates:

Created a corporation that became a monopolist in software production
Created the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation
Became the richest man in the world seventeen times
Almost eradicated polio from the African continent

Significant dates in the life of Bill Gates:

1968 wrote the first commercial program
1972 graduation and first contract
1973 admission to Harvard University and meeting Ballmer
1979 expulsion from Harvard and the first operating system bought from the authors and sold by himself
1985 entry into the stock market and the first billion
1995 first version of the Windows operating system
1998 and 2008 leaving key positions at Microsoft
2010 ranked as the richest person in the world

Interesting facts from the life of Bill Gates:

Every minute, Gates' personal account is replenished with $6,659
Water flies. Recently discovered by scientists, it was named after Gates
Many years later, only in 2007, he received a diploma from Harvard University.
Sworn enemies and competitors Gates and Jobs, as part of a talk show in which they participated together, suddenly recognized each other as the greatest people and exchanged compliments for their achievements in business.
Most arrived. The corporation receives money not from sales of Windows, but from the created auxiliary set of Microsoft Office tools.