The Microsoft File : The Secret Case against Bill Gates

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! Great reporting, a thrilling read, many new facts
Review: After having read the book "Apple : The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders" I was curious to see the "other side" of the computer world, and I read this book. Although I found the melodramatic writing style distracting and that a bit too much literary license had been taken, I must give the writer some props for trying to put together a tome of otherwise boring and inundating material into a readable form for the masses. I felt the book was informative, and clear in it's presentation, if not a smidge one sided (against Microsoft). It's not a bad read, and aside from all the melodrama (which I just skimmed through anyway), I would say I liked it. Check it out if you're interested in getting some information on how Microsoft has been allegedly (and in my opinion, truly) handling itself and it's monopoly.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, the true story on Microsoft
Review: First, the good points about this book: well-researched, well-written (despite some ramblings), and timely.

Now, my first impression after reading this book was: gee, I wonder if somebody in Nazi Germany had written a similar account about Jews. Jews were persecuted and executed because of their successes and because of the perception that they are masters of underhanded techniques, and in this book Bill Gates is portrayed as too smart to be a good man, and since he's so successful, he must be evil, must be prosecuted, and must be disgraced.

I think the author started the book on an incorrect premise (that Gates is the Devil himself), and tainted the whole case against Microsoft with her personal prejudice. You can't find anything positive about Gates, or Ballmer. On the other hand, the DOJ is portrayed as heroes, and Microsoft's competitors as innocent victims (read the part on Netscape!).

My suggestion is that read other books on Microsoft first before you pass a judgement, just like recent revelations about DOJ's handling of Waco tell us that the line between devil and hero can be very blurry.

Rating:
Summary: A little too tabloidish for my taste.
Review: I bought this book hoping to find the real "case against Bill Gates", or more specifically against Microsoft. Goodness knows he and his cronies made plenty of secret business deals that, exposed to the light of day, would really damage the company. A book detailing (and, more importantly, documenting) all these things I've been trying to tell people for years would at the least make me seem less of a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist among my peers.

But, unfortunately, this book seems to concentrate mainly on what kind of a person Bill Gates is, including a truly baffling amount of coverage of Bill's courting of some woman who worked for Microsoft. I don't care about that [stuff]; I want to see the LEGAL case against him, not things that belong in the gossip column.

Thus disillusioned, I never finished the book, so for all I know it may contain what I hoped to find, but if so, it's not in the first half of the book.

Rating:
Summary: A little too tabloidish for my taste.
Review: I bought this book hoping to find the real "case against Bill Gates", or more specifically against Microsoft. Goodness knows he and his cronies made plenty of secret business deals that, exposed to the light of day, would really damage the company. A book detailing (and, more importantly, documenting) all these things I've been trying to tell people for years would at the least make me seem less of a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist among my peers.

But, unfortunately, this book seems to concentrate mainly on what kind of a person Bill Gates is, including a truly baffling amount of coverage of Bill's courting of some woman who worked for Microsoft. I don't care about that [stuff]; I want to see the LEGAL case against him, not things that belong in the gossip column.

Thus disillusioned, I never finished the book, so for all I know it may contain what I hoped to find, but if so, it's not in the first half of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! Great reporting, a thrilling read, many new facts
Review: Microsoft's public relations armies must have come out in swarms to disparage this incredible, factual book that was the first to expose scores of predatory practices Microsoft engaged in to lock up the market. (If you read some of the statements Microsoft made in public about it, you will not believe it! Compare the review in The Nation, versus the Wall St. Journal, which is against the very existence of antitrust law to begin with!) This book came out before the antitrust trial began and turned out to be prophetic, given Judge Jackson's recent ruling. A must read ! Also see Rohm's book "Under the Radar." This book was highly controversial for one reason: it's GREAT, and exposes the ugly practices of a very dishonest band of senior executives--not a pretty picture for those who prefer to see Bill Gates as a hero.

Rating:
Summary: Great reporting from the Ida Tarbell of the information age
Review: The Microsoft File is a great read and an incredible work of investigative journalism. Published originally a few months before the Microsoft trial began, it turned out to be prophetic and revealed a goldmine of information that had been kept secret from the public. Rohm collected internal Microsoft documents including email from Bill Gates himself, to document her account of Microsoft's predatory activities over the past decade. Bravo ! Rohm is the Ida Tarbell of the information age. Her book is the current day version of Tarbell's masterpiece "The History of Standard Oil." Not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: The Microsoft File provides background to Microsoft's trial
Review: The Microsoft File, presents us with an interesting and timely account of the Department of Justice's current antitrust case against Microsoft. Wendy Rohm translated an intensely complex issue into an interesting and coherent chronicle. Covering the antics of Microsoft's attempts to maintain its monopoly in the computer industry on several continents is a challenging task and Rohm has successfully merged Gates' actions in America, Europe, Asia and Australia in her narrative. The book is an colorful amalgamation of facts and anecdotes about Gates, his legal staff, and other key players in the computer industry. What makes the book a non-stop read is her depiction of the personalities of the major players thus providing a fine blend of significant technical information and character portrayals of the key players in the computer industry who had a hand in establishing Microsoft's dominant position. Bill Neukom, Gates' chief counsel , who has masterminded Microsoft's legal victories from the outset, is a particularly intriguing character. There's a fellow who knows a good thing when he sees it and sticks to it. One quibble with the book is the lack of a glossary of the numerous acronyms and abbreviations which are frequently used. I kept wishing I could go to the back of the book and see what OEM, DOJ, DR-DOS, FTC , NT represent without having to skip back through the pages wherein they were originally defined.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent piece of journalism into how Microsoft works.
Review: This is the first book I've read in a single day in some time. Wendy Goldman Rohm has created a rare piece of true journalism in a time when the art seems to have lost it's form. She has done her homework and explained to the reader how Microsoft has achieved its place in the computer software world.

I have had first hand experience with Microsoft as a senior manager in Information Services in Washington State government and am very familiar with their methods. It is refreshing to see a clearly written account of their business practices that are based on facts and not emotion.

While the author is clear about the significant contributions the Microsoft team has made to computer software, changing the way the world uses it, she is equally clear in separating out those predatory marketing methods that have contributed to their control of the industry.

For the first time, I can understand the complex litigation effort going on between the Federal government and the many States and Microsoft. I now appreciate why it has been so difficult to prove what is obvious from the evidence.

Supporters and opponents of Microsoft will both find this book worth reading. Both will have gained a great insight into how the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department and their European equivalent are constrained in handling companies in the modern electronic computer era. At the same time, the reader will gain a greater respect for the challenges faced by Bill Gates and his team as a small company, years ago.

I strongly recommend "The Microsoft File" to anyone who is in the computer industry, in the legal community, a user of computer software, or to anyone who has been trying to understand why the Federal government won't leave Microsoft alone. Thanks to Microsoft, that includes just about everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly researched, poorly written
Review: With its `The Secret Case Against Bill Gates' subtitle and its early invocation of the obvious Rockefeller parallel this little book seems at first glance to be dynamite. Unfortunately it is marred by exceptionally poor writing. Choppy, confusing and disorganized, the author's continual shifting between places and times is disconcerting to the point of madness. Characters are introduced seemingly at random, often without a clear explanation of the relationship to the story or anything else. Facts are tossed about without any connection to anything, and numerous stories are abandoned without an explanation of the outcome. One moment we are amidst debate before Judge Sporkin over alleged monopolistic practices of Big Bill and the next the Judge is gone, his decision rendered off camera, as if he were an unimportant character in a Shakespearean tragedy. One moment Lotus and Novell are at going full tilt against Microsoft the next they are defeated and out of the picture, with no real explanation of why. By the end, I simply did not care who the new characters were; I just wanted it to be over. More distracting is the author's affection for putting thoughts into the character's heads as if they were fictional. I highly doubt that Gates revealed his secret thoughts to Rohm. Indeed, her tendency for salacious tattle tailing is as annoying as it is distracting. I have no interest in the tawdry details of the sex lives of Microsoft execs; tell me about their business practices. Of course, there is a lot of interesting information here, if one can pierce the complex veil of confusion, it is clear that Microsoft's much ballyhooed monopolistic practices are far more destructive and pervasive than is generally believed. Indeed, one could use the book as a source for writing a detailed indictment of Gates and Co, assuming one had other sources. In fact, the book reads more like a first draft than a finished work, and not simply because of the abrupt ending,