BILL

GATES….
1. Inspiring the era of the home computer

During the late 1960s, Bill Gates and his school friend Paul Allen learnt the BASIC
programming language whilst studying at Lakeside School in Seattle.

BASIC's popularity stemmed from the fact that it was simple to use for beginners, but
had functionality that could be stretched by advanced coders.

While BASIC was designed in 1963, it wasn't until Gates and Allen produced a version
for the Altair 8800 that it really started to fly. In 1975, the two sold the code to MITS for
$3,000.

BASIC sparked the home computing boom of the 1980s, appearing on the IBM PC,
Commodore VIC-20, BBC Micro and the Apple II (to name but a few).

2. Commercialising the operating system

Gates and Allen founded Microsoft in 1976. In 1980, the company inked a landmark deal
with IBM to produce an operating system for its up-and-coming personal computer (PC).
Microsoft bought 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, a Disk Operating System
designed for 8086-based computers.

It used the 86-DOS code as the basis for IBM's first PC OS, which became known as PC-
DOS. When clones of IBM's PC started to appear, Microsoft pushed their own version of
PC-DOS, MS-DOS, to system builders.

3. Launching Windows 95

When you look back at the career of Bill Gates, it's easy to focus on Microsoft's biggest
product – Windows. You can now find versions of Windows on around 90 per cent of the
world's computers.
It powers business servers, mobile phones, PDAs, cash machines, retail displays, set-top
boxes and old Sega Dreamcast consoles. Windows is everywhere. Windows 95 was
arguably the game-changer.

The original Windows 1.0 OS was a effectively a graphical version of MS-DOS, born to
compete against the GUI on Apple's 'Lisa'. In comparison, Windows 95 was designed to
replace MS-DOS and enabled revolutionary features such as multi-tasking and Plug and
Play.

4. Becoming the richest man in the world

Bill Gates became the richest man on the planet at the age of 39. He stayed at number one
on the Forbes list of the World's Richest People until 2007.

According to Wikipedia, Bill Gates was worth more than $101 billion in 1999; while
Wired reports that, when Microsoft stock hit a high in 1996, Gates was earning $30
million a day.

He's now third on the Forbes list (behind his friend Warren Buffet and Mexican telecom
mogul Carlos Slim Helu) with an estimated fortune of $58 billion.

5. Giving his money away

As Bill Gates clocks out of his day job at Microsoft, the world will arguably be a better
place for it. Inspired by the work of John D Rockefeller, Gates and his wife Melinda head
up the charitable behemoth that is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2006, Warren Buffet gifted $31 billion to the Foundation, which already had over $30
billion of Gates' own money in its coffers. In 2007 alone, the Foundation spent over $2
billion on global education and health initiatives.
=BILL GATES GRADUATES FROM HARVARD
Bill Gates is to graduate from Harvard, 34 years after he first studied there. The
Microsoft founder and chairman will speak at Harvard University 's commencement
ceremony in June and - like all commencement speakers - will receive an honorary
degree from the university.

Unlike his fellow graduates, it's doubtful that Gates' graduation will make much
difference to his CV or future prospects. Last year, Microsoft raked in $44 billion. But
Gates is still likely to feel proud of his achievement.

Bill Gates enrolled at Harvard University in 1973 and got to know Microsoft's current
CEO, Steve Ballmer, whilst living in the same halls of residence. The students both
shared an interest for computer programming.

At Harvard, Gates developed a version of the Basic programming language for the first
microcomputer, MITS Altair. He dropped out of his course in order to work full time at
Microsoft, the company he had started with childhood friend Paul Allen.

Bill Gates will receive his honorary degree at a Harvard ceremony on 7 June. In July he
plans to step down from his Microsoft duties to focus on his philanthropic work for the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . He will remain as chairman of Microsoft.

= http://www.techradar.com