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Paperback
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
ISBN13: 9780887306297
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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 exposé, 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 workweeks 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.
Hard Drive charts Gates's missteps as well as his successes: the failure of OS/2 and the embarrassing delays in bringing Windows to the marketplace; the highly publicized split with IBM, which then forged an alliance with Apple to battle Microsoft; the public relations fallout over various exploits of Gates; and the investigations by the Federal Trade Commission. Wallace and Erickson also examine the combative, often abrasive side of Gates's personality that has alienated many of Microsoft's rivals and even employees, and led to his being labeled "The Silicon Bully" by Business Month Magazine. They report: In the early 80's, Microsoft's Multiplan lost out to Lotus 1-2-3 in the marketplace. According to one Microsoft programmer, a few of the key people working on DOS 2.0 had a saying at the time that "DOS isn't done until Lotus won't run." They managed to code a few hidden bugs into DOS 2.0 that caused Lotus 1-2-3 to breakdown when it was loaded. "There were as few as three or four people who knew this was being done," the employee said. He felt the highly competitive Gates was the ringleader. The first two female executives hired at Microsoft in 1985 were recruited to meet federal affirmative action guidelines so that the company could qualify for a lucrative Air Force contract. One source says,"They would say, 'Well, let's hire two women because we can pay them half as much as we will have to pay a man, and we can give them all this other crap work to do because they are women.' That's directly out of Bill's mouth...." Gates treated one of these executives so badly that she asked to be transferred away from him. Microsoft managers used the company's e-mail system to secretly spy on employee work habits. Only those employees who worked weekends could collect bonuses. In time word got out and some employees logged into their e-mail on weekends with a modem from home so it would appear they had come in.
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| Setting standards is the key to winning |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book was written in 1992 and covers only Microsoft's first 15 or so years but these were the most interesting and the most instructive in terms of lessons for the wealth creator. There are now many Gates' biographies, but Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the MIcrosoft empire, written by two Seattle journalists still gives the best insights into the early years of Microsoft and what it was like to work under its CEO. Later, after Microsoft had relocated to Seattle to be nearer Gates' parents, he confessed to a fellow programmer his two ambitionsd; to design software that would make a computer easy enough for his mother to use and build a company bigger than his dad's law firm. Today, powering 90% of the world's PC's, Windows may have revolutionised PC, but marketing played a vital part in its establishment as the industry standard. Last but not least, what really set Gates apart was the boldness of his vision-"A computer on every desk, and Microsoft software in every computer"-and his natural brilliance as a businessman.
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| Great Biography |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book will give you a great understanding regarding how Bill Gates became what he is today. From the High School days with Paul Allen, developing the first Computer code for a PC at Harvard, the move away from the association with Altair (and the floundering founder), the move to Redmond, buying the DOS program and outsmarting IBM, it is an informative and fascinating read.
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| Very Detailed and Descriptive Book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book was extremely detailed. It told from what courses he studied in college, to the small summer jobs he had while at Lakeside.
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| Very enlightning |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book is wonderful reading. Of course, I like Bill Gates and this makes it more interesting. The reader will find himself wanting to continue reading the book through without putting it down. Great Job, Well written, Very Interesting!!!!
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| Hard Drive is No Mega-Flop, But Not Amazing Either |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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This is a decent book on how Bill Gates and his business team built the Microsoft empire. The good aspects of this book include the following:
* The emphasis on how Microsoft was not built in a day but with many, many long days and lots of innovative thinking. This book illustrates how hard Gates worked.
* The portrayal of how relentlessly competitive and ambitious Gates is, be it at efficient programming, dominating the various software markets, studying higher mathematics or playing poker with his buddies.
* The specific details of the growth of Microsoft, as a company, up until the time of the book's publication.
* The implicit theme of how Gates never stops thinking.
Unfortunately, there are several aspects of this book that I disliked. These include the following:
* The writing is repetitive and often very stream-of-conscious. This book reads like a 250-300 page book diluted into a 400 page book.
* There is a lot of negative commentary about Gates' personality. First, this negative illustration seems to be done without providing the proper context. Gates is often portrayed as very immature. In this book, Gates is described as frequently issuing direct attacks on the intelligence of his employees during meetings and in private communication. He is also portrayed as immature through negligence, such as when he, presumably inadvertently, left his dirty laundry thrown about on a hotel floor for a top executive of his company to collect.
Although these incidents may be true, the authors should have emphasized that Gates is an enormously successful executive who is *only* in his twenties. While this does not excuse the described behavior, it does provide context for it. Needless to say, these immature outbursts would be appalling if they were committed by a seasoned executive in his early sixties.
More generally, this image of Gates conflicts with the image I gathered of him through other means. A friend of mine who worked at Microsoft described Gates as routinely hosting interns in his mansion for dinner, magnanimously forgiving a new employee who accidentally dented his car and graciously answering a personal e-mail concerning the artwork in his home. The Gates I have heard of through my friend, and the one who runs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, does not fit the mold of the Gates described in this book.
I am not challenging the veracity of the information contained within, I am just surmising that the negatives sound like a few bad habits that Gates may have grew out of.
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