Who is the creator of Microsoft (Microsoft Corporation)? Bill Gates and Paul Allen are the founders of Microsoft. Microsoft history and logo. Bill Gates - biography, photo, founding of Microsoft, personal life What Bill Gates came up with

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.

He received his secondary education at the 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 the university he met Steve Ballmer, who would later become general director 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 results of the young programmers' work satisfied the customers, Paul Allen was hired, and Bill Gates, taking a sabbatical from Harvard, was 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. The system's original code name was Interface Manager, but the Windows variant was eventually 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 Windows system 95, complemented by Internet access software 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. At the same time, the founder of Microsoft remains a member of the company's board of directors and is a consultant on the company's key 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 newspaper's bestseller list. The New York Times. 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

Biography of Bill Gates

Bill at an early age

Bill Gates and his sisters

Bill Gates's parents

Gates in childhood

Bill in school years

Young Bill Gates

At age 17, Gates, Paul Allen, and Paul Gilbert founded Traf-O-Data. The company's main goal is to create meters for reading road traffic and generating reports for traffic engineers. In 1973, after graduating from school, the young man entered Harvard University, where he met his future companion Steve Ballmer. After 2 years, Bill is expelled. And he decided to devote himself entirely to programming, without being distracted by his studies. In January 1975, the American computer magazine Popular Electronics published an article about the new Altair 8800 personal computer. After reading the article, Gates contacted the president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, Ed Roberts, and told him that he and his friends were working on software of this computer. But in fact, Gates and Allen had nothing to do with the Altair 8800. The MITS president invited them to his office and within a few weeks they were already working for him. And here it is, that very moment: Gates and Allen create the Micro-Soft company specifically to develop programs for MITS, in Albuquerque. The hyphen was later removed and a new trademark, "Microsoft", was registered on November 26, 1976.

Corporation logo from 1975

Initially, Microsoft did not have its own OS, so it licensed the 86-DOS (QDOS) system 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. This is how the MS-DOS operating system appeared and the collaboration between Microsoft and IBM began. In the 80s, their company had already become one of the largest players in the software market, and by the early 90s it had become a huge corporation. By the way, in the early years he actively collaborated with Microsoft.

Bill and Steve Jobs at the conference (05/31/2007)

Next, the corporation is working on a completely new operating system, the idea of ​​which was clearly taken from Xerox and Apple. And already on November 20, 1985 it was published - Microsoft Windows. It was this OS that launched a new era in computer technology. And thanks to her, Bill Gates became the successful and richest man in the world.

Preview: Wikimedia Commons - World Economic Forum
Life Story of Bill Gates- Documentary ("The Biography Channel", still images)
Wikimedia Commons - Joi Ito from Inbamura, Japan
Social media
Bill Gates' personal archive

"Business - most exciting game, in which maximum excitement is combined with a minimum of rules,”- this is approximately how Bill Gates spoke about what became his life’s work. However, as we know, this is not just a business, but brilliant ideas that turned the IT world upside down and still have a huge impact on the most different areas our life.

- was born on October 28, 1955 in the family of lawyer William Gates and school teacher Mary Gates.

He first attended a public school and then entered a private school, Lakeside School. It was there, at the age of 13, that Bill first became interested in programming, and their friendship with Paul Allen played no less a role in his life: “I'm obsessed with computers. I skipped physical education. I sat in the computer class until nightfall. Programmed on weekends. We spent twenty to thirty hours there every week. There was a period when we were banned from working because Paul Allen and I stole passwords and hacked into the system. I was left without a computer for the whole summer. Then I was fifteen or sixteen years old...” Concerned about their son’s addiction, the parents even referred the boy to a psychiatrist.

Much later in their public speaking Gates admits: “Sometimes I envy those who program. After I stopped programming for Microsoft, I myself often half-jokingly said in meetings: “Maybe I’ll come over this weekend and write this program myself.” Now I don’t say that anymore, but I think about it all the time.”. In general, the result of the training was almost complete indifference to humanitarian subjects in comparison with a keen interest in the exact sciences.

After graduating from school in 1973, Gates entered Harvard University. There, in the student dormitory, it happened fateful acquaintance with Steve Ballmer, with whom Gates developed the BASIC programming language. Ballmer subsequently took the post of vice president of Microsoft.

However, after his second year, Gates was expelled from the university. However, his studies at that time worried him less and less: he was captivated by the idea of ​​​​developing software for personal computers in which accurately guessed the future. Later in his "Road of the Future" he will say: “One of the most important lessons taught by the computer industry is that to the user, the value of a computer is determined primarily by the quality and variety of existing programs».

In 1975, Gates and Allen created Micro-Soft, which later became Microsoft Corporation. Having based the company's work on the desire to make working on a PC as simple and user-friendly as possible, Bill Gates is gradually building the most influential corporation in the software industry, which has a developed network of branches around the world. To this end, he makes a number of strategic decisions, relies on innovative research and development, investing considerable funds in this area.

In 1983, Allen left the company, unable to find mutual understanding with Gates regarding development strategy.

In 1985, the first version of Windows, 1.0, was released. long years which has become the most popular product on the operating systems market. Subsequently, releases were released at intervals of 2-3 years, until another breakthrough was made in 1995: the system came out with a radically updated interface, separate NT and server lines appeared.

“They don’t switch to other versions just because bugs are fixed. This is absolutely true. The dumbest idea I've ever heard of is to upgrade to new versions of software because bugs have been fixed. When we make new versions, we add new features that people ask us for,” says Gates.

Since 1995, developments for mobile devices have been introduced, which subsequently grew into a line of products called Windows Mobile. Every year, improving and releasing new versions of the product, Microsoft won an increasing share of the market, until in 2004 antitrust sanctions were first applied to it. But to this day, Windows OS is used on 90% of personal computers.

In 1995, Bill Gates’ famous book entitled “The Road to the Future” was published.

In it, Gates outlines his views on the future development of society in the era of information technology:

I think they're coming interesting times. Never before have there been so many opportunities to do what previously seemed simply impossible. Now is the best time to open a new business, move science forward (for example, medicine, which improves the quality of life), and not lose contact with friends and family. Both good and bad sides technical progress It is very important to discuss it as widely as possible so that its direction is determined by the whole society, and not just specialists.

We are forced to constantly improve our software products in order to keep up with the progress of hardware. Each subsequent version only gains acceptance from new users if it is accepted by existing customers... Only major advances can convince enough people that improved versions are worth the cost.

The end for a market leader can come very quickly. When you are suddenly thrown out of the positive cycle feedback, then it is often too late to change something: all the delights of a negative spiral come into play. The most difficult thing, therefore, is to catch the first signs of a crisis and begin to act when, it would seem, things are going well.

The book was published in more than 20 countries and entered the bestseller list. However, already in 1996, Gates made adjustments to it: the company made a powerful turn towards Internet technologies, and it was interactive networks that were emphasized in the second edition of “The Road to the Future.”

In 1999, a second book entitled “Business at the Speed ​​of Thought” was published, co-authored with Collins Hemmingway. Here Gates goes into more detail about how information Technology can influence a variety of business areas: "Most reliable way to differentiate your company from competitors, to break away from the crowd of pursuers is to organize your work with information well.”. Gates directs proceeds from the sale of the book to a special fund, the purpose of which is to support the introduction of information technology into the educational process.

Gates' interests also include biotechnology, communications and all kinds of innovative developments in the IT field. He regularly acquires companies and invests in projects in which he sees good prospects. One of these projects was, in particular, the launch of several hundred satellites into low Earth orbit in order to provide two-way broadband communications. And in 2008, he founded his third company, bgC3, which is engaged in research in the field of science and high technology.

In 1994, Gates married Melinda French, who works as a product manager for Microsoft. Bill and Melinda have three children - Jennifer Katharine, Rory John and Phoebe Adele. Together they founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2005, Bill Gates was awarded the title of Knight Commander of the Order British Empire– for his contribution to British businesses and addressing the problems of the world's poor. That same year, Time magazine named Bill and his wife People of the Year.

In 2008, Bill Gates stepped down from direct leadership of Microsoft, still remaining Chairman of the Board of Directors and overseeing special projects. And in 2010, he left the post of president of the corporation, handing over the reins to Steve Ballmer.

His passion for biotechnology and all kinds of electronic devices also affected his life: with a rather modest design, the Gates’ house is literally crammed with all kinds of gadgets. At the same time, life founder of Microsoft can be called ascetic, without any frills or hints of luxury. What in its own way makes Gates similar to his eternal antagonist - .

The ceiling of his library features quotes from The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald's legendary book that chronicles an iconic era in American history. To some extent, Gates’s own life credo intersects with the moral of the book: “Success is a bad teacher. He's dizzy. He's unreliable. A business plan or the latest technology is the height of perfection today; tomorrow it can be as hopelessly outdated as eight-track tape recorders and televisions. vacuum tubes or mainframes. I watched closely as this happened. Long and careful observation of many companies helped to draw good lessons and taught us how to plan for years to come.”.

Bill Gates' personal qualities and hobbies include his love of reading, golf and bridge. He was repeatedly recognized as the richest man on the planet - from 1996 to 2007 and in 2009. At that time, his fortune was estimated at $50 billion, but according to the latest data, it decreased by 7 billion due to the global financial crises.

The Microsoft founder remains one of the most generous philanthropists of our time. To date, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated about $28 billion to various initiatives in the fields of education, health, and charity.

And, of course, this man is still one of the most prominent figures in the IT field and beyond, rightfully called a “living legend” and a true icon for businessmen around the world. Every year since 2009, he delivers a message on behalf of his Foundation, touching on global themes for all humanity: infant mortality, the fight against AIDS and polio, the economic crisis, agriculture, aid to third world countries, innovation and education.

There is also a movie about Gates called “Pirates of Silicon Valley.” It chronicles the emergence of the Bill Gates we all know. By the way, a short review of this film will be on my blog soon.

Good luck to you friends, achieve success!

Simple guy Bill Gates, or William Henry Gates III ( full name), is the richest man in the world, computer tycoon, founder and owner of Microsoft Corporation. Born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington, USA, he is the son of corporate lawyer William Henry Gates II and board member of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell and the national board of United Way Mary Maxwell Gates.

Young Bill Gates, biography which, of course, did not end with one birth :), received his primary education at a municipal elementary school, and at the age of 12 he was transferred to the most exclusive school in Seattle, where he was able to develop his programming skills on the school minicomputer. Gates did not excel in grammar, civics, and other subjects he considered trivial, but did achieve top marks in mathematics. This modest, even shy, and slightly awkward child dreamed of becoming a mathematics professor and was not at all like his father - a tall, handsome man and a successful lawyer. So, despite his unique abilities in mathematics and logic, Bill Gates did not show the leadership abilities characteristic of his parents.

A year later, Bill created the first computer program. This was the time of giant computers that occupied entire rooms and were “subject to” the minds of only scientists in white laboratory coats. In college, Bill Gates founded the company Traf-O-Data, which employed classmates of the future tycoon. They developed computer systems for local authorities and calculated city transport schedules. He was 15 years old when he wrote a program to regulate traffic and earned $20,000 from the project. And at 17, he received an offer to write a software package for the distribution of energy at the Bonneville Dam.

In 1973, following family tradition, Gates entered his freshman year at Harvard University, planning to become a lawyer, like his father. But he was still just as withdrawn and uncommunicative, which was absolutely not suitable for his chosen profession. At Harvard he lived on the same floor as Steve Ballmer, with whom he became friends and who currently heads Microsoft.

In December 1974, Bill Gates saw a $397 computer that his friend Paul Allen said anyone could build. The only thing the machine was missing was software. Bill Gates and Paul Allen contacted representatives of the company M.I.T.S, offering them software (BASIC version) for their Altair 8800 computer. This option suited the managers, who invited young people to work on writing programming languages. The couple left for New Mexico, where the history of Micro-soft began (they removed the dash later).

Firmly convinced that a personal computer would become indispensable in every workplace and in every home, they began to develop software for personal computers. Bill Gates's foresight regarding the development of personal computers was a key factor Microsoft's success and the software industry as a whole (in 1986 Microsoft was transformed into Joint-Stock Company open type and in the same year Bill Gates became a billionaire, then he was 31 years old).

Microsoft's first five customers went bankrupt, but the guys did not despair and returned to Seattle in 1979. That same year, Bill Gates was expelled from the university for absenteeism and poor academic performance. But this fact did not greatly upset the unfortunate student, since he received an offer from IBM to create an operating system for the world's first personal computer.

Then Bill Gates purchased the QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) system for $50,000 and changed the name to MS-DOS and sold the license to IBM. The proceeds allowed Microsoft to operate for several years. The presentation of a new IBM computer with Microsoft software created a real sensation in the market. Many companies began to approach Microsoft for a license.

In releasing the applications Microsoft Word And Microsoft Excel, the company has gained an even stronger foothold in the global market. Thanks to the Corbis company, which became part of the Microsoft corporation, Bill Gates received a huge photo file of Bettman and other photographers. Photos were used for electronic distribution.

The following year, Microsoft introduced the first version of Windows to the market. And already in 1993, the total monthly sales of Windows exceeded one million. In 1995, Windows 95 arrived and sold seven million copies in two weeks.

Microsoft software became so widely used that the company came to the attention of the American antitrust committee, which several times tried to initiate a case to force the division of Bill Gates' monopoly.

Problems with the US Antitrust Committee arose again in 1999, when a district court declared Microsoft Corporation a monopoly. In April 2000, the US Department of Justice proposed breaking Microsoft into two separate corporations: one would deal with Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, while the other would exclusively deal with Windows (by the way, this operating system is used in more than 85% of the world's computers). Bill Gates' objections are based on the fact that it is technically impossible to separate Windows from other Microsoft applications. As Bill Gates says, we are calling for the fairest court possible - the court of history.

In 1995, Microsoft's policy was radically changed - the main emphasis began to be placed on the Internet. In the same year, 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. The book was co-written by Nathan Myhrvold, vice president of Microsoft, and journalist Peter Rinearson.

On January 1, 1994, Bill Gates married Melinda French, a Microsoft manager, with whom he had three children - a daughter, Jennifer Katharine, in 1996, a son, Rory John, in 1999, and another daughter, Phoebe Adele. Interestingly, under the terms of the marriage contract, Bill Gates undertakes to pay $10 million for each child they have together.

With the advent of his family, Bill Gates began to pay more attention to charity. One billion dollars was invested in scholarships that Microsoft provides to talented but disadvantaged students (Gates Millennium Scholarship Program), Bill Gates invested $750,000 in a program to develop vaccinations (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization). 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.

With elastic Bill and Melinda Gates Founded a charitable foundation and contributed more than $17 billion to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of health and education. To date, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given more than $300 million to health organizations and more than $300 million to improve education, including the Gates Library Initiative. , which will allow the low-income population of the United States and Canada to work with personal computers and the Internet in public libraries. More than $54 million was allocated to public projects in the countries of the northwest coast Pacific Ocean and more than $29 million for other special projects and annual giving campaigns.

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. This book, co-authored with Collins Hemingway, has been released in 25 languages ​​and sold in more than 60 countries. Business at the Speed ​​of Thought received critical acclaim and was listed on the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestseller lists.

In addition to his passion for computer technology, Gates also develops the aforementioned company Corbis, which is developing the largest source of visual information in the world - a comprehensive digital archive of works of art and photographs from public and private collections stored in different countries.

1 December 4, 2004 Bill Gates joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway, thus formalizing his relationship with Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate that includes Geico (auto insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints), and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates sits on the board of directors of Icos, a Bothell biotechnology company. Bill Gates has also invested in the company Teledesic, which is working on an ambitious project to launch into low orbit around globe several hundred satellites. The mission of these satellites is to provide worldwide two-way broadband telecommunications.

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 the American Time magazine. On June 7, 2007, Bill Gates began to be considered a graduate of Harvard University. The decision to award Gates a diploma was made by the university administration.

In 1998, Gates resigned as president of Microsoft Corporation, and in 2000 he left the post of chief executive officer. Steve Ballmer received both positions. On January 7, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intentions to step down as the head of Microsoft Corporation in July 2008. On June 15, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to resign as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Microsoft effective July 2008. After leaving his post, he intends to devote himself entirely to management charitable foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Day June 27, 2008 became Bill Gates' last as head of Microsoft. Despite this, he does not break with the company for good; Gates remains Chairman of the Board of Directors (but without executive powers). He is also involved in special projects and remains the largest (8.7% of Microsoft shares) shareholder of the corporation, which employs more than 61,000 people in its branches located in 102 countries.

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.

In his spare time, Bill Gates reads a lot and also enjoys playing golf and bridge. More detailed information about the activities of Bill Gates, as well as materials from his speeches and essays can be found on the web server http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/ (English language).

William Henry Gates III. Born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, USA. Better known as Bill Gates. American entrepreneur and social activist, philanthropist, co-founder (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 work time on 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 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 the joint business, Paul Allen was involved in technical ideas and promising developments; Gates was closer to negotiations, contracts and other business communications. 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 processors 8086, so it licensed the 86-DOS (QDOS) system, 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 the “Bill Gates Annual Message” on the official website of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 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).