Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire (45 page)

BOOK: Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
4.38Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

LifeBoat Associates, 177 Lipkie, Dan, 255, 306 Little, Gary, 39 Lotus

agreement with IBM, 408 and Microsoft, 230-33, 278-87, 365, 400 profits of, 326 sale of public stock by, 320 spreadsheet, 211, 229-30, 258, 295-96, 398

and Windows, 310, 360-61 Lowe, Bill, 167-68, 170, 171, 205, 346-48, 358

Lubow, Miriam, 126-27, 136, 192-93, 209, 231

McCarthy, John, 31

McCracken, Edward, 406 McDonald, David, 341 McDonald, Marc, 24, 107-9, 118, 121-22, 134, 137-38, 154, 198, 326 McEwen, Dorothy, 175, 179 McGovern, George, 46 MacGregor, Scott, 253-55, 257-58, 261-62, 277, 294-304, 306, 309-11, 348 Macintosh, 267-70
See also
Apple McLain, Tom, 42 McSharry, Nancy, 360, 408 Maestretti, Gary, 38 Magid, Lawrence, 353 Magnovox, 112 Magnuson, Warren, 14
The Making of Microsoft
(Daniel Ichbiah and Susan Knepper), 11, 42, 186 Manzi, Jim, 358, 367, 370 Maples, Mike, 379, 391-92, 400-401, 4067,410, 418 Mark 1, 68-69 .

Markhula, Mike, 269 Marquardt, David, 209, 321, 326 Marsh, Bob, 105 Martin, Eff, 322

Maxwell, Adelle Thompson, 8-9, 15 Maxwell, James Willara, 8-9 Mellencamp, John Cougar, 272 Metaphor Computer Systems, 364 Metcalfe, Bob, 156-57, 219-20, 382-85, 387-88 Micrographx, 390-92 Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
See
MITS MicroPro, 146, 211, 217, 239-40 Microsoft

and 8086 BASIC, 142-44 antitrust investigation of, 372-81 and Apple, 220-21, 314-18, 351-56 business tactics of, 381-97 consumer products of, 146-49, 238-45 corporate culture of, 11, 125-29, 159-61, 221, 263-66, 275-77, 290-94, 417-19 and Digital Research, 174-79, 211-13 early years of, 107-10 effect of IBM clones on, 233-35 and Excel, 278-87 and Federal Trade Commission, 3-4 financial position of, 207-210 foundation of, 88-91 growth of, 333-36 hiring practices of, 258-63 and IBM, 4, 139-41, 164-65, 168-70, 170-74, 186-87, 188-90, 190-93, 194-202, 204-6, 344-51, 356-59, 363-65,371-72 .

and Macintosh, 268-69 major stockholders of, 325 management structure of, 304-6 marketing of, 117-25, 149-53 and MITS, 93-99, 111-17 move to Seattle of, 132-38 and MS-DOS, 1-3, 215-16 operating practices of, 397-401 overseas expansion of, 225-26

and Pertec, 115-16 prospects for future of, 401-10 sale of public stock by, 319-30 and Seattle Computer Products, 183-85, 194-97, 202-4, 340-44 and SoftCard, 157-59 success of, 2

Windows, 250-53, 269, 294-304, 30614, 359-63 and XENIX, 155-57 Microsoft BASIC

development of, 74-81 marketing of, 91-94 pirating of, 99-107 Microsoft Word, 238-45 Micro type, 156-57

MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) and Altair 8080, 79-80 history of, 71-73 and Microsoft, 93-99, 111-17 and Microsoft BASIC, 91-94 and HuiI Allen, 83, 85-88 Money, 137, 231 Motorola, 113 MS-DOS, 202-4, 340-44 Multiplan, 221-22, 229-33

National Cash Register (NCR), 109, 134 NEC, 135

Nelson, Greg, 61-62, 75 Neukom, William, 323, 373, 410 Newell, Gabe, 312 Newman, Blair, 156-57, 209 Newsweek, 137 New
Yorker,
1, 338

The Night the Bed Fell
(James Thurber), 47 Nikora, Leo, 255-56, 296-97, 301, 303-4, 306-9, 334 Nishi, Kay

background of, 122-23 and Bill Gates, 330-33 and IBM, and Digital Research, 140, 170, 186

and laptop computers, 224-25 and Microsoft, 135, 144, 145, 154 Norton, John, 50

Novell Corporation, 383, 385-86, 389-90, 402, 408

Odyssey
(Jon Sculley), 355

Oki, Scott, 225-26, 227, 236, 326, 410

Opel, John, 189

O’Rear, Bob, 133-34, 136, 139-41, 142-44, 185-89, 194-96, 199, 206 Orr, Michael, 160 Orwell, George, 267 OS/2, 344-51, 356-59 Osborne, Adam, 75, 148, 168, 223-24

Palmer, Arnold, 11 Papadimitriou, Christos, 65-66 Pascal, Blaine, 148

Paterson, Tim, 143-44, 158, 182-85, 19496, 199, 203, 204, 215, 341-42, 407 Pitton, George S., 245 Puiley, Jane, 262

PDP-10, 20-21, 28-29, 82 PDP-8, 70
People,
137, 270 Pershing, John J., 8
Personal Computing,
96 Persona] Software, 145-46 Pertec

and Microsoft, 115-16, 126 and MITS, 113-14 Peterson, Pete, 351, 397 Paling, Harold, 411

Popular Electronics,
26, 67, 72-73, 75, 85,

87

Presentation Manager, 344-51 Processor Technology, 104-5
Programmers at Work
(Susan Lammers), 23,
121

Prusky, Jonathan, 231, 241, 242 Public Stock, 319-30

Quarterdeck, 256-57, 307-8 Quindlen, Ruthann, 303-4, 324, 328, 376

Raburn, Veml46-47, 158, 217, 228-29, 245,303, 376,411, 416 Radio Shack, 134, 224-25
See also
Tandy Raikes, Jeff, 208, 222, 227, 232, 234, 278, 287, 291, 378, 396, 410 Rand, 112 Randlett, Peter, 39 Rasch, Ingrid, 259, 265, 276, 335 Raskin, Jeff, 269-70 Reed, Sandra, 357 Richardson, Jean, 290-91 Roach, John, 120 Roberts, Ed

and Altair, 72-73, 86-87, 91-92 and Bill Gates, 101-2 and Microsoft BASIC, 74-75, 78, 79-80 and Microsoft and MITS, 71-72, 104-6 Roizen, Heidi, 381, 412 Rona, Monique, 26 Roosevelt, Franklin, 35, 115 Rubinstein, Seymour, 175, 239-41 Russell, Steve, 29, 31-32, 33, 56 Ruttenbur, Jerry, 279-81 Rydacom, 112

Sams. Jack, 164-65, 168-74, 179-82, 18790

Santa Cruz Corporation, 155 Sarubbi, Joe, 216 Sculley, John

and IBM, 214-15, 404-5, 407 on Lotus, 285

and Microsoft, 316-17, 352
Odyssey,
355 and: Steve Jobs, 316 Seattle Computer Products finances of, 215

and Microsoft, 183-85, 194-97, 202-4, 340-44 A
Separate Peace,
35 Shaffer, Peter
Black Comedy,
47

Shaffer, Richard, 405 Shakespeare, William
Julius Caesar,
67 Sherlund, Rick, 373, 403 Shirley, Jon, 225, 247-50, 279, 280, 286, 294, 300, 305, 321, 322, 325, 326, 329, 341,351,388,410, 418 Shockley, William, 69-70 Simonyi, Charles .

background of, 217-20 and Excel, 278 hiring of, 99, 227, 384 and Macintosh, 268 as Microsoft stockholder, 325 and Microsoft Word, 238, 242, 244 and Multiplan, 221-22, 230 and Paul Allen, 198 responsibilities of, 297, 369 ana Scott MacGregor, 253-54 and “Simonyi Revenue Bomb," 208, 292, 333

Smith, Harry, 201

Smith, Steve, 147-49, 149-52, 178, 210, 255

SoftCard, 157-59 Softklone Corporation, 354 Software Arts, 146
Software Review
, 222 Solomon, Les, 72-73, 87
The Soul of a New Machine
(Tracy Kidder), 193

Spindler, Michael, 404 Stalin, Joseph, 115 “Star Trek,” 72 Steinbeck, John
Cannery Row,
401 Stempel, Robert, 411 Stephens, Anne, 47 Stocklin, Paul, 21 Stratton, Dorothy, 235 Stroum, Samuel, 89-90 Sun Microsystems, 328-29 Sybase, 388-90

Syndes, Bill, 167, 168, 170, 171-72, 180, 193, 201

Tandy

computers, 111 and Microsoft, 119-20
See also
Radio Shack Tarter, Jeffrey, 356 Tate, Ashton, 310

Technology Venture Investors, 109-10, 325 Tektronix, 148, 227, 262 Texas Instruments, 114, 134 3Com Corporation, 155-57, 382-85, 387

88

Thurber, James

The Night the Bed Fell
, 47
Time
, 78, 137, 230, 272 T-Maker, 381

Toleman, Keith, 393 Torode, John, 175, 181-82 Towne, James, 227-28, 236, 245-48, 249, 262

Traf-O-Data, 44-45, 58 TRW, 48-50

Turbo Pascal, 277-78 '

Turner, Dale, 6-8, 111
2001: a Space Odyssey
, 413

Uttal, Bro, 323, 324

Van Wieringen, Dan, 12 VisiCalc, 145-46, 221-22, 231 VisiCorp, 217, 239, 251, 256-57, 307-8

Wallace, Bob, 133, 138, 208, 220, 221
Wall Street Journal
, 135, 271, 288-90 Warnock, John, 382 Watanabe, Kazuya, 135 Watson, lliomas J., Sr., 165 Weiland, Richard, 24, 26, 30, 33, 42-43, 98, 107, 125-26 Weissman, Jerry, 371-72 Weizenbaum, Joseph

Computer Bower and Human
Reason, 3435

Whitten, Greg, 277 Wilkinson, Dick, 27-28, 42 Winblad, Ann, 274, 337-40 Windows

development of, 250-53, 255-58, 269, 294-304, 306-14 emphasis on, 356-59 reintroduction of, 359-63 Winkless, Nelson, 96, 124 Wolf, Charles, 406 Wolf, Tom, 61-62 Wood, Marla, 136-37, 144, 161-63 Wood, Steve, 108-9, 114, 118, 119, 120, 125-26, 128-29, 131, 132, 134, 135

  1. 137, 144-45, 148, 159, 162-63, 176, 177-78, 326 WordPerfect, 396-97, 398 WordStar, 146 Wtamiak, Steve, 100 Wright, Fred, 23-24, 27

XriNIX, 155-57 Xerox Corporation
I
computers of, 218-19 and Microsoft, 150-51 and Windows, 269

Yeh, Frank, 394 Young, John, 198

Ziegler, Bart, 405-6 Zilog, 112

Znaimer, Sam, 54, 55, 56, 57, 61, 110 Z-Nix, 394-96

The true story behind the rise of a tyrannical genius, how he transformed an industry, and why everyone is out to get him.

In this fascinating expose, two investigative reporters trace the hugely successful career of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Part entrepreneur, part
enfant terrible,
Gates has become the most powerful

and feared

player in the computer industry, and arguably the richest man in America. In
Hard Drive,
investigative reporters Wallace and Erickson follow Gates from his days as an unkempt thirteen-year-old computer hacker to his present-day status as a ruthless billionaire CEO. More than simply a “revenge of the nerds” story though, this is a balanced analysis of a business triumph, and a stunningly driven personality. The authors have spoken to everyone who knows anything about Bill Gates and Microsoft

from childhood friends to employees and business rivals who reveal the heights, and limits, of his wizardry. From Gates’s singular accomplishments to his equally extraordinary brattiness, arrogance, and hostility (the atmosphere is so intense at Microsoft that stressed-out programmers have been known to ease the tension of their eighty-hour work weeks by exploding homemade bombs), this is a uniquely revealing glimpse of the person who has emerged as the undisputed king of a notoriously brutal industry.

“A fascinating tale. ...If you are interested in computers, you’ll find this eye-opening. If you’re interested in money, here’s a case study in how to make it. If people are what fascinate you, finding out what makes Gates swing will keep you absorbed.”

New York Post

“Unusually authoritative..
..Hard Drive
sets the standard against which other such efforts will be measured for some time to come.”


Windows
magazine

James Wallace
and
Jim Erickson
are investigative reporters whose work was featured in a prizewinning six-part series for the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

mm
HarperBusiness

A Division of
J larperCollins/Wi/wAm

Cover design
©
1993 by Laurie Angel-Sadis Cover photograph
©
1993 by Rex Rystedt

USA
S14.00

CANADA
$19.50

Other books

A Killing of Angels by Kate Rhodes
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
Sinners and Shadows by Catrin Collier
The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle, Terry Castle
Welcome to Dog Beach by Lisa Greenwald