Bill Gates – Inventor of OS
Very few people who have lived on earth have created a dent in the universe by creating a shockwave in their respective fields such as medicine, physics, math, and so on. These people always seem to surprise us in a unique way. Well, thanks to one of the great person called Bill Gates whose vision changed the way we see technology. The one who revolutionised software in its early stages and brought many changes to make the world a better and easier place to live by. With his vision and determination, his fruits of labour have come to reality, no wonder he is the co-founder of Microsoft which is the largest PC companies in the world and also the richest man on earth. Gates is also a Business magnate, Investor, Author and Philanthropist. Widely known for his attitude towards charity and for the good cause of humanity. Their NGO called Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was ranked the wealthiest foundation.
ORIGIN
Gates was born in a Christian family on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Their family attended church meetings religiously. His father William. H Gates who was a lawyer and his mother Mary Maxwell Gates who was a board of directors. The Gates family always encouraged competition where there was a reward for winning and penalty for losing which became his life lesson throughout his life. During his time as CEO of Microsoft, one member recalled that when they played a board game in which Gates lost every time. After a month, they played the same game in which he won or tried to win every game which proves that he was a real competitor. Gates enrolled at Lakeside school at the age of thirteen where he was fascinated by how computer software works and how the codes execute the required task so efficiently and smoothly. During his time at school, he along with his three friends were caught exploited CCC’s software to gain computer time. Later after their suspension, they offered to find bugs in exchange for computer time. Gates instead went to their offices to learn various codes. After the Administer became aware of the gates programming abilities. Gates was allowed to programme schedules of students in classes. And just like a teenager, Gates would programme the schedule in such a way that he was placed in a class with the most interesting girls.
Career
In 1973, after graduating from school as a National Merit Scholar Gates joined Harvard University. He took computers to major in. Instead of just studying computer theories, Gates believed in experimenting with them. Soon an opportunity welcomed him when MITS first launched their Altar 8800, it was then in 1975, Gates decided to start his own company and left Harvard to pursue his dream. Gates never graduated from Harvard but said in an interview that he had just taken a leave of absence. After MITS successful launch of their product Altair 8800 which featured in a magazine called Popular Electronics. He contacted them to show a demo and was intrigued and ran their basic simulator which proved to be widely successful. By that time he hired Paul Allen. They named their company Microsoft which would deal with software code and programming.
Success
His early stages of life were run by obstacles and roadblocks which are common but his vision was powerful enough to see past them. With his friend Allen Paul, Gates wrote software codes and shipped them to various companies as an operating system. Soon reports flooded that their system software was pirated and distributed to various other companies.
Gates wrote a letter on the issue of Popular Electric to computer hobbyists that the creator of the codes would not benefit as it was sold illegally. His statement brought about criticism but was gradually accepted. A technological giant called IBM wrote a letter to Gates wanting them to write software codes but Gates declined and suggested them to Digital Research Company, their rival. Meanwhile, Microsoft bought an operating system from Seattle Company and hires Tim Paterson, creator of 86-DOS. Microsoft greatly re-defined it and named it MS-DOS. They soon offered IBM and thus beating Digital Research.
Soon Microsoft created ‘Windows ‘ which was an extension of MS-DOS as a universal operating system. When Microsoft entered the IPO market, its share shot up exponentially and soon dominated the software industry. From that moment on, Microsoft registered 25 million users for Windows. Two years down the line, Microsoft launched Windows 98 with a brand new interface with improved functionality. Then Microsoft launched Windows 2000 which proved to be the best operating system. On January 30, 2007, Microsoft Company released Windows Vista which had the strongest security systems and an office suite called Microsoft Office 2007. But since the introduction of tablets and laptops selling more than the PC counterparts due to mobility, a revolutionary change occurred in 2012, Windows 8 was released to improve user interface on tablets which created competition with mobile operating systems. Windows 8 had a touch sensor optimisation which was criticised by both users and reviewers. The latest Windows series is Windows 10 which includes the Edge browser thus scraping out the ill-performed Internet Explorer.
Post Microsoft
After retiring from Microsoft, Gates and his wife started their philanthropic journey called Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They gathered many influential and wealthiest people on earth to embark on their philanthropic journey. Many people like Bono and Mark Zuckerberg and some of the people who have played a part in charity. Gates prime focus was to get rid of poverty, education and health issues.
Learning
- Bill Gates taught us that you don’t have to have an MIT degree or a doctorate to be successful. Instead, one should pursue his/her dreams with determination and passion, because of this he is widely successful.
- The encouraging competition also played a major role in his life. His parents taught him the right to be a competitor. When you are a competitor, you will make sure that your dreams become reality no matter what the cost.
- Last but not least is Vision. His vision had changed the way computers work. Thanks to Bill Gates, we can send many emails at once, create presentations and whatnot. If he hadn’t had a vision, we would still be standing outside post offices to send letters!
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