Gates : How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry--and Made Himself the Richest Man in America

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!

Rating:
Summary: Still Best Gates Biography Around
Review: When, coming from UNIX, I decided to explore the PC platform in Jan 95, I was first an "ABM" (Anything But Microsoft), thus following the buzz. When, two years later, I investigated personally into this, I discovered with great surprise at which point all the mediatrics were twisting the facts, mostly in the same official buzz word, "lynch Microsoft". Mostly, but not always - which made hard to be sure of anything.

In about every article or book I checked, I found factually false statements (in either camp's favor); this "Mogul" book was the only that at the same time contained a lot of precise facts and dates, and none that I could find in error.

The writing and its index are very good, offering an optimized combination of fun reading, fast finding, accurate checking.

[e-mail] - Paris, Fri 22 Jun 2001 14:02:20 +0200