Bill Gates Profile

Bill Gates Profile -

Name : Bill Gates
Nickname : Trey
Date of birth : 28 October 1955
Place of birth : Seattle, Washington, USA
Birth name : William Henry Gates III
Height : 5' 10

Family and Early Childhood -

On October 28, 1955, shortly after 9:00 p.m., William Henry Gates III was born. He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather had been a state legislator and mayor, his grandfather was the vice president of a national bank, and his father was a prominent lawyer. [Wallace, 1992, p. 8-9] Early on in life, it was apparent that Bill Gates inherited the ambition, intelligence, and competitive spirit that had helped his progenitors rise to the top in their chosen professions. In elementary school he quickly surpassed all of his peer's abilities in nearly all subjects, especially math and science. His parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in Lakeside, a private school known for its intense academic environment. This decision had far reaching effects on Bill Gates's life. For at Lakeside, Bill Gates was first introduced to computers.

First computing Experience -

In the Spring of 1968, the Lakeside prep school decided that it should acquaint the student body with the world of computers [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. Computers were still too large and costly for the school to purchase its own. Instead, the school had a fund raiser and bought computer time on a DEC PDP-10 owned by General Electric. A few thousand dollars were raised which the school figured would buy more than enough time to last into the next school year. However, Lakeside had drastically underestimated the allure this machine would have for a hand full of young students. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside students (many of whom were the first programmers hired at Microsoft) immediately became inseparable from the computer. They would stay in the computer room all day and night, writing programs, reading computer literature and anything else they could to learn about computing. Soon Gates and the others started running into problems with the faculty. Their homework was being turned in late (if at all), they were skipping classes to be in the computer room and worst of all, they had used up all of the schools computer time in just a few weeks. [Wallace, 1992, p. 24]

In the fall of 1968, Computer Center Corporation opened for business in Seattle. It was offering computing time at good rates, and one of the chief programmers working for the corporation had a child attending Lakeside. A deal was struck between Lakeside Prep School and the Computer Center Corporation that allowed the school to continue providing it's students with computer time. [Wallace, 1992, p. 27] Gates and his comrades immediately began exploring the contents of this new machine. It was not long before the young ha©kers started causing problems. They caused the system to crash several times and broke the computers security system. They even altered the files that recorded the amount of computer time they were using. They were caught and the Computer Center Corporation banned them from the system for several weeks.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen and, two other ha©kers from Lakeside formed the Lakeside Programmers Group in late 1968. They were determined to find a way to apply their computer skills in the real world. The first opportunity to do this was a direct result of their mischievous activity with the school's computer time. The Computer Center Corporation's business was beginning to suffer due to the systems weak security and the frequency that it crashed. Impressed with Gates and the other Lakeside computer addicts' previous assaults on their computer, the Computer Center Corporation decided to hire the students to find bugs and expose weaknesses in the computer system. In return for the Lakeside Programming Group's help, the Computer Center Corporation would give them unlimited computer time [Wallace, 1992, p. 27]. The boys could not refuse. Gates is quoted as saying "It was when we got free time at C-cubed (Computer Center Corporation) that we really got into computers. I mean, then I became hardcore. It was day and night" [Wallace, 1992, p. 30]. Although the group was hired just to find bugs, they also read any computer related material that the day shift had left behind. The young ha©kers would even pick employees for new information. It was here that Gates and Allen really began to develop the talents that would lead to the formation of Microsoft seven years later.

Roots of Business Career -

Computer Center Corporation began to experience financial problems late in 1969. The Company finally went out of business in March of 1970. The Lakeside Programmers Group had to find a new way to get computer time. Eventually they found a few computers on the University of Washington's campus where Allen's dad worked. The Lakeside Programmers Group began searching for new chances to apply their computer skills.

Their first opportunity came early the next year when Information Sciences Inc. hired them to program a payroll program. Once again the group was given free computer time and for the first time, a source of income. ISI had agreed to give them royalties whenever it made money from any of the groups programs. As a result of the business deal signed with Information Sciences Inc., the group also had to become a legal business [Wallace, 1992, p. 42-43]. Gates and Allen's next project involved starting another company entirely on their own, Traf-O-Data. They produced a small computer which was used to help measure traffic flow. From the project they grossed around $20,000. The Traf-O-Data company lasted until Gates left for college.

During Bill Gates' junior year at Lakeside, the administration offered him a job computerizing the school's scheduling system. Gates asked Allen to help with the project. He agreed and the following summer, they wrote the program. In his senior year, Gates and Allen continued looking for opportunities to use their skills and make some money. It was not long until they found this opportunity. The defense contractor TRW was having trouble with a bug infested computer similar to the one at Computer Center Corporation. TRW had learned of the experience the two had working on the Computer Center Corporation's system and offered

Gates and Allen jobs. However thing would be different at TRW they would not be finding the bugs they would be in charge of fixing them. "It was at TRW that Gates began to develop as a serious programer," and it was there that Allen and Gates first started talking seriously about forming their own software company [Wallace, 1992, p. 49-51].

In the fall of 1973, Bill Gates left home for Harvard University [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. He had no idea what he wanted to study, so he enrolled as prelaw. Gates took the standard freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest math courses. He did well but just as in high school, his heart was not in his studies. After locating the school's computer center, he lost himself in the world of computers once again. Gates would spend many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next days asleep in class. Paul Allen and Gates remained in close contact even with Bill away at school. They would often discuss ideas for future projects and the possibility of one day starting a business. At the end of Gates's first year at Harvard, the two decided that Allen should move closer to him so that they may be able to follow up on some of their ideas. That summer they both got jobs working for Honeywell [Wallace, 1992, p. 59]. As the summer dragged on, Allen began to push Bill harder with the idea that they should open a software company. Gates was still not sure enough to drop out of school. The following year, however, that would all change.

The Birth of Microsoft -

In December of 1974, Allen was on his way to visit Gates when along the way he stopped to browse the current magazines. What he saw changed his and Bill Gates's lives forever. On the cover of Popular Electronics was a picture of the Altair 8080 and the headline "World's First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." He bought the issue and rushed over to Gates's dorm room. They both recognized this as their big opportunity. The two knew that the home computer market was about to explode and that someone would need to make software for the new machines. Within a few days, Gates had called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the makers of the Altair. He told the company that he and Allen had developed a BASIC that could be used on the Altair [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. This was a lie. They had not even written a line of code. They had neither an Altair nor the chip that ran the computer. The MITS company did not know this and was very interested in seeing their BASIC. So, Gates and Allen began working feverishly on the BASIC they had promised. The code for the program was left mostly up to Bill Gates while Paul Allen began working on a way to simulate the Altair with the schools PDP-10. Eight weeks later, the two felt their program was ready. Allen was to fly to MITS and show off their creation. The day after Allen arrived at MITS, it was time to test their BASIC. Entering the program into the company's Altair was the first time

Allen had ever touched one. If the Altair simulation he designed or any of Gates's code was faulty, the demonstration would most likely have ended in failure. This was not the case, and the program worked perfectly the first time [Wallace, 1992, p. 80]. MITS arranged a deal with Gates and Allen to buy the rights to their BASIC.[Teamgates.com, 9/29/96] Gates was convinced that the software market had been born. Within a year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed. by - John Mirick

• 1955 - William Henry Gates III is born on October 28th in Seattle, Washington. Popularly known as Bill Gates, his family called him "Trey" when he was little.
• 1967 - Bill enrolls in the Lakeside School in Seattle and met Paul Allen.
• 1969 - Bill and Paul (a.k.a "Lakeside Programming Group") reports bugs in exchange for computer time.
• 1972 - Bill and Paul forms Traf-O-Data and develops hardware/software to record highway traffic.
• 1973 - Bill Gates graduats from Lakeside High and enrolls in Harvard University, where he majors in pre-law.
• 1974 - Bill Gates and Paul Allen forms Micro-soft.
• 1975 - Bill and Paul writes the first computer language called BASIC and license it to MITS.
• 1976 - Bill writes software routines for BASIC on the Altair to use diskettes for storage. Gates writes his famous "Open Letter to Hobbyists", accusing them of software piracy. Bill Gates drops out of Harvard.
• 1977 - Bill Gates and Paul Allen officially registers a partnership, and Micro-soft becomes Microsoft.
• 1980 - Tim Paterson begans writing an OS for use on Seattle Computer Products' (SCP) 8086-based computer. IBM repesentatives meet Gates and Steve Ballmer to write the OS for their upcoming computer. They meet again and IBM showed the "Acorn" computer running on an 8-bit 8080 processor. Gates recommends the use of a 16-bit 8086 processor instead and promises an operating system. SCP ships QDOS 0.10 (Quick & Dirty Operating System). Paul Allen approachs SCP and purchased the rights to resell to an unnamed client for $50,000 - IBM. Microsoft propose to be in-charged of IBM's entire software development and convert DOS for IBM's PC.
• 1981 - Microsoft buys all the rights to SCP's DOS and renames it MS-DOS.
  IBM introduces its first desktop, Datamaster, which runs on the 16-bit 8086 CPU and Microsoft's MS-DOS.
• 1983 - Microsoft announces Windows 1.0.
• 1985 - Bill Gates gives keynote speech at Comdex. Microsoft releases Windows 1.0.
• 1986 - icrosoft is taken public at an IPO price of $21/share. Bill Gates became a billionaire at 31 years old - the yougest person to do so.
• 1990 - Microsoft releases Windows 3.0 and Microsoft's sales top $1 billion for the first time.
• 1994 - Bill Gates and Melinda French gets married in Hawaii on January 1st. Bill Gates becomes the richest person in America later in the year.
• 1995 - Microsoft releases Windows 95 and Bill Gates becomes the richest person in the world.
• 1996 - Jennifer Katherine Gates is born on April 26th.
• 1998 - Bill, Melinda and Jennifer move into their new multi-million dollar house in Medina, Washington. Microsoft releases Windows 98.
• 1999 - Bill's fortunes swell to $90 billion and maintains his position on Forbes list as the wealthiest person alive.
• 2000 - Microsoft releases Windows 2000 and Windows ME.
• 2001 - Microsoft releases Windows XP.
• 2002 - Stocks and lawsuits bring Gates' net worth down to $53 billion - still good enough for #1 on Forbes list.
• 2003 - Microsoft releases Windows Server 2003.
• 2004 - Microsoft announces a new OS, codenamed Longhorn.
• 2005 - Longhorn is officially named Windows Vista.
• 2006 - After numerous delays, Windows Vista is finally released to business users. Microsoft also RTMs Office 2007.
• 2007 - Bill Gates officiates the public release of Windows Vista in New York's Times Square at midnight on January 30th.