Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite Account of The Early Gates
Review: I am on my fourth copy of this book, my favorite among six accounts of Bill Gates and Microsoft. When confronted by young professionals who know only today's politically correct and somewhat unfavorable characterization of Microsoft's founder, I press this book upon them and urge them to dig a bit deeper into this fascinating personality. Other newer books of course are more complete in chronicling the growth of Microsoft, but none covers Gates' boyhood and early Microsoft years so well. You do not know Gates or Microsoft unless you know what both were like during the first years of Microsoft's existence in Albuquerque from 1975 until the relocation to the Seattle area in late 1978. After reading this book I felt I understood the essential Bill Gates. He never is going to quite grow up, and he is always going to be a bit of a mystery to those who did not become forever fascinated with computers by age thirteen. If you are not a Gates fan now, you may like Bill Gates (privileged son of accomplished but non-technical parents, congressional page, avid water skier, college poker player) a bit more after reading this. If you are an aging hacker like me, you will smile many times at the accounts of Bill's early fascination with a timesharing computer terminal and his amazing success following on Microsoft's original products, adaptations of the Basic computer language for microcomputers beginning with the Altair. I guess you will have to be a techie to love this book as much as I do, but it is at least essential reading for all students of the history of computer technology. Check the index and almost all of the early pioneers are there, from Altair's Roberts to Xerox's Metcalfe. And the photos are great!
Rating:
Summary: Great history of PC computing
Review: I bought this book expecting to skim through it to find out a little more about what Bill Gates was like. But it's a wonderfully readable history of the growth of PC's, from the early days when the best a school kid (Bill himself) could do was to try to get access to a teletype time-share system, on through the first home "computers" that amounted to little more than a bunch of switches and LEDs (no keyboard or monitor), to IBM coming out with the PC and Microsoft's amazing good fortune at supplying the OS (great story! Bill just cared about programming languages, mostly BASIC, and saw the DOS manuever mostly just as a way to ensure that BASIC would run on the new IBM machine!), on thru the OS/2 vs. Windows battles. It even has a lot of inside detail on the development of the Apple Macintosh. I recently read "Accidental Empires" (the basis for the TV documentary "Triumph of the Nerds"), and found Gates to be a far better and more readable history of the PC's startup. The book is packed with interviews and amusing or interesting anecdotes. It's well written and well edited. One drawback for some people will be that it hasn't been updated since 1995, but for the two main things that have happened since then - the anti-trust suit against Microsoft and the rise of the Internet - there are plenty of other sources.
Rating:
Summary: Still Best Gates Biography Around
Review: I first read "Gates" back in 1993. Many books about Bill Gates have been written since. But "Gates" by Stephen Manes and
Paul Andrews is still by far the best book about Bill Gates.
Rating:
Summary: A Detailed History in the Making of a Monoply...
Review: I won't get wordy here but I read this book twice and enjoyed it both times. It goes into the life of Bill Gates; his thought process, his work ethics, his childhood and how Microsoft established it's dominance. It's a good read even though it's over 500 pages. I highly recommend this book along with the book "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire". This is the way it really happened. Not the way the movie "Pirates of SV" incorrectly portrayed it.
Rating:
Summary: The preeminent book about Bill Gates and a young Microsoft
Review: The breadth of knowledge imparted by the authors for this book is exhaustive and expansive. Bill Gates became a billionaire when being a billionaire "meant something" and when becoming one was a major media event. Now paper billionaires and multimillionaires are so numerous, that crossing such a financial milestone has become rather passe'. Thanks to the quality content of GATES, the reader will become, if he or she is not already, quite competent in the language and the business of software (up until 1994 anyway). And the reader will also have an intimate look at the fascinating professional and personal life of the man responsible for creating the commerce of software, which is currently more than a $220 billion industry. Part scientist part ruthless businessman, Bill Gates is this generation's Henry Ford and Thomas Edison rolled into one. Some people may consider Gates more like a John D. Rockefeller than a Thomas Edison...but love 'em or hate 'em, you can't ignore him. This book is be a must-read for any aspiring or current entrepreneur.
Rating: 
Summary: For any Gates fans, don't miss this book
Review: This book tell about Gates and his company quite detail. Any Gates's fans surely can trace how Gates built his company from zero to the top,step by step quite completely, through this book. Even this book maybe little bit confusing to read at first coz many technical names, this book is worth to be read. Just by looking the front cover and reading the first page, I think any Gates's fans like me will like this guy more.
Rating:
Summary: In-depth look at MSFT
Review: This is an in-depth account of Microsoft's "early" (i.e., pre-1995) days. First, let me say that I wish the authors had updated the book, since the computer business has gotten VERY fascinating since the launch of Windows 95, as the Internet seized the day and also as an intrusive DOJ started an effort to dismantle a 20-year-old company that had suddenly become America's Public Enemy No. 1. That said, this book provides excellent accounts of Bill Gates as a person and Bill Gates as Microsoft. The emphasis is on how Bill Gates ran Microsoft as a business, how he interfacted with his employees, business allies and competitors. If you are looking for information on how Windows 3.0 or Flight Simulator was designed, this is not the place. But if you want to know how Microsoft really got started, how Gates allegedly "screwed" Apple, or how Gates started dating Melinda French, you'll find it right here. Stephen Manes has been a long-time critic of Microsoft's producty quality (and rightly so, IMHO), and the book comes across as quite critical of Gates' business tactics ("bullying", "anti-competitive", etc.) and personal idiosyncracies (both selfish and selfless, intolerant, etc.). At the same time the authors show admiration for the Gator as a technical and business genius. But because the authors evidently believe that Microsoft has done lots of evil, every conflict Microsoft had with a competitor would be Microsoft's fault. In summary, this book is easy to read, generally objective (Gates was interviewed extensive for this "unauthorized" biography), and informative. I highly recommend it to anyone fascinated by Bill Gates and Microsoft.
Rating:
Summary: In-depth look at MSFT
Review: This is an in-depth account of Microsoft's "early" (i.e., pre-1995) days. First, let me say that I wish the authors had updated the book, since the computer business has gotten VERY fascinating since the launch of Windows 95, as the Internet seized the day and also as an intrusive DOJ started an effort to dismantle a 20-year-old company that had suddenly become America's Public Enemy No. 1. That said, this book provides excellent accounts of Bill Gates as a person and Bill Gates as Microsoft. The emphasis is on how Bill Gates ran Microsoft as a business, how he interfacted with his employees, business allies and competitors. If you are looking for information on how Windows 3.0 or Flight Simulator was designed, this is not the place. But if you want to know how Microsoft really got started, how Gates allegedly "screwed" Apple, or how Gates started dating Melinda French, you'll find it right here. Stephen Manes has been a long-time critic of Microsoft's producty quality (and rightly so, IMHO), and the book comes across as quite critical of Gates' business tactics ("bullying", "anti-competitive", etc.) and personal idiosyncracies (both selfish and selfless, intolerant, etc.). At the same time the authors show admiration for the Gator as a technical and business genius. But because the authors evidently believe that Microsoft has done lots of evil, every conflict Microsoft had with a competitor would be Microsoft's fault. In summary, this book is easy to read, generally objective (Gates was interviewed extensive for this "unauthorized" biography), and informative. I highly recommend it to anyone fascinated by Bill Gates and Microsoft.
Rating:
Summary: The most informative Bill Gates book out there!
Review: This is by far the most personal look at Bill Gates I've ever seen. It gives an insider's view of what it was really like to work for Microsoft in the early years. This includes everything from Bill's temper tantrums to his personal hygiene and old girlfriends. A must read for any Bill Gates follower!
Rating:
Summary: An interesting account of Bill and the evolution of the PC
Review: This very readable book provides a candid overview of the rise of Bill Gates and Microsoft. I found it interesting and insightful. Like much of the material about "billg", I find it a little sycophantic -- but it is not over the top. Key success ingredients: early signs of selfishness, million dollar trust-fund from his grandfather (which no doubt provided safety and leverage at the start), an early passion for an incredibly important technology at the critical period and a shrewd, single-mindedness. I suspect Bill is not a particularly compassionate, polite, happy or fair person -- however I bet he is really efficient!
| 
