The Human Factor

Bill Gates

Gates wrote his first software program at the age of 13. In high school he helped form a group of programmers who computerized their school's payroll system and founded Traf-O-Data. A company that sold traffic-counting systems to local governments. In 1975 Gates, joined his hometown friend to develop software for the first microcomputers. They began by adapting BASIC, a popular programming language used on large computers for use on microcomputers. After they formed Microsoft. Gates's sway over the infant microcomputer industry greatly increased when Microsoft licensed an operating system called MS-DOS to International Business Machines Corporation - then the world's biggest computer supplier and industry pacesetter - for use on its first microcomputer, the IBM PC. After its release in 1981, IBM quickly set the technical standard for the PC industry, and MS-DOS likewise pushed out competing operating systems. While Microsoft's independence strained relations with IBM, Gates deftly manipulated the larger company so that it became permanently dependent on him for crucial software. Makers of IBM-compatible PCs also turned to Microsoft for their basic software. By the start of the 1990sw he had become the PC industry's ultimate kingmaker.

Since the introduction Windows 3.0 almost decades ago, Microsoft's real innovations have been in ways to stifle competition. Gates did a little history revision himself in this regard in his farewell, saying "When we got it right, betting on graphics interface, even though we told our competitors that they should and tried to get them to do it, they didn't.By the time it was clear that it was a mistake, they were in deep trouble because we had done the work and we were there."

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2016). Bill Gates | American computer programmer, businessman, and philanthropist. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bill-Gates [Accessed 29 Oct. 2016].
InfoWorld. (2016). Bill Gates and PC history. [online] Available at: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2639623/techology-business/bill-gates-and-pc-history.html [Accessed 29 Oct. 2016].