Wednesday, November 27, 1996
TECHNOLOGY:
Bill Gates promotes revised book, Internet endeavorsBy Phil
Hong
Daily Bruin Contributor
William H. Gates III, the CEO of Microsoft, will be making an
appearance in Ackerman Grand Ballroom today at noon to discuss the
world’s digital future and promote a polished paperback edition of
his best-selling book, "The Road Ahead."
Gates’ rise to prominence began with a milestone decision in
1975 to not finish his undergraduate studies at Harvard University,
opting instead to form Microsoft, a software company that he
co-founded with his close friend, Paul G. Allen.
The world’s largest software company began with a small program
written for a primitive computer that used an early-model Intel
microprocessor.
Gates and Allen then began writing programs for traffic meters,
later dropping out of school to devote all of their energy to the
newly-founded company.
Microsoft’s big break in the technology industry happened in
1981, when IBM licensed its revolutionary Disk Operating System
(DOS) to the company as an integral unit of the world’s first
mass-marketed personal computer.
Much has changed since the company’s founding. Microsoft
headquarters has moved from Gates’ college dorm room to a
state-of-the-art corporate campus based in Redmond, Wash. The
text-based MS-DOS has been virtually replaced by Microsoft-produced
graphical user interfaces, such as Windows 3.1, 95 and NT.
And now, Gates is one of the richest individuals in the nation,
whose collective fortune is estimated at $15 billion  most of
which is tied up as stock in Microsoft.
But while Microsoft has held a virtual monopoly on computer
software since the early 1980s, the vast corporation was caught
off-guard in 1995 just after releasing its much-touted Windows 95
operating system.
The technology industry was indeed blown away in 1995, but not
by Gates’ operating system. Instead, industry-wide acclaim was
reserved for a small company based in Shoreline, Calif., whose
product allowed users to browse a massive network of images,
information and interactivity in a realm largely ignored by
Microsoft  the Internet.
That company was called Netscape, and the product was called
Navigator, a web browser now used by 70 to 90 percent of web
surfers worldwide.
Touted as "the little company that could," Netscape has
established firm relationships with Sun Microsystems, by being the
first to endorse Sun’s Java technology. Many champion the dynamic
duo as capable of dismantling Gates’ multi-billion dollar
conglomerate.
Netscape and Sun Microsystems awoke the sleeping giant, who had
previously exhibited very little interest in the Internet. Gates
hopes that Microsoft’s Internet endeavors such as Internet
Explorer, the Microsoft Network and Microsoft’s joint venture with
NBC (MS-NBC) can make up for the oversight.
Since Microsoft’s business strategy had shifted to focus more on
the Internet, Gates decided that a new testament of his
self-proclaimed prophecy, "The Road Ahead," was in order.
"The rise of the Internet provoked me to reinvent my company,
and the book needed the same re-evaluation," he explained.
The revised edition of "The Road Ahead” is such a thorough
overhaul that Gates promotes it as practically new.
"I really enjoyed the opportunity to go back and make
improvements to the book and to describe why the near future is
coming at us more quickly  and somewhat differently Â
than I described in the first edition," he said.
With the revised version, Gates will be giving teachers and
students a reason to be thankful this holiday season. Proceeds from
the sale of the "The Road Ahead" will be donated to the National
Foundation for the Improvement of Education and The Road Ahead
Program.
The program will help community-based institutions such as
libraries, museums, and Boys and Girls Clubs, access and use
information technologies to enhance learning.