In 1967, Gates was in the sixth grade and was a student who did not want to communicate with others. In the fall, Gates entered Lakeside School, a private boys' school, where he was the smallest student in the class but wore a size 13 shoe.
In 1968, Gates and his Lakeside High School classmate Paul Allen used an instruction manual to start learning Basic programming. At that time, the school owned a PDP-10 computer, with an annual budget of $3,000 for its use.
In just a few weeks, Gates and Allen spent the budget. Soon after, the two young boys signed an agreement with the Computer Center Corporation (CCC). The agreement stipulates that Gates and Allen report software vulnerabilities in the PDP-10 to the CCC; in return, the CCC will provide them with free computer time.
In 1971, Gates wrote programs for Lakeside Middle School, including a class scheduling software.
In 1972, Gates sold his first computer programming work, a timetable system, to his high school for $4,200.
In 1973, Gates was admitted to Harvard University. Gates scored 1590 (out of 1600) on the SAT (American College Admission Test) standardized test. Although Gates has a good memory, he has many "bad habits": he often skips class, doesn't like to take a shower, and only eats pizza and drinks soda when programming or playing cards. Became close friends with Steve Ballmer, who lived in the same dormitory. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the BASIC programming language for the MITS Altair, the first microcomputer.
In January 1975, in the American "Popular Electronics" magazine published that month, an article was published by MITS introducing its Altair 8800 computer. Allen showed Gates a picture of the machine. A few days later, Gates called MITS President Ed Roberts and said that he and Allen had developed a BASIC program for the machine. In fact, they didn't write a single line of code at that time.
On February 1, 1975, after working day and night, Gates and Allen wrote a program that could run on the Altair 8800. The price was sold to MITS for $3,000, but the corresponding royalties were Up to $180,000.
On November 26, 1976, Gates and Allen registered the "Microsoft" trademark. They once considered calling the company "Allen & Gates Inc." (Allen & Gates Inc.), but later decided to change it to "Micro-Soft" (Note: the English abbreviation of "Micro Software"), and The English hyphen in the middle of the name is removed. Allen was 23 and Gates was 21 at the time.
In January 1977, Gates dropped out of Harvard University and went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. There, he found a job writing programs for Roberts, paying $10 an hour. MITS is headquartered in Albuquerque, where Gates also has Microsoft headquarters.
In 1977, when Secretary Gates entered the Microsoft office building, he often found Gates himself lying on the floor sleeping. He still liked to eat pizza at this time, and he was very strict with his subordinates and often had fierce arguments with his colleagues. What Gates often said at the time was: "This is the stupidest idea I've ever heard of in my life."
On January 1, 1979, Gates moved Microsoft's headquarters to Bay Area, Washington. City of Bellevue.
On August 28, 1980, Gates signed a contract with IBM and agreed to develop an operating system for IBM's PCs. He then purchased an operating system called QDOS for $50,000. After slightly improving it, he renamed the product DOS, and then licensed it to IBM for use.
In 1982, during its first year on the market, Gates licensed the MS-DOS operating system to 50 hardware manufacturers.
In 1987, Gates met Melinda French at a press conference held by Microsoft in Manhattan, New York City.
On April 11, 1993, on a charter flight from Florida to Seattle, Gates proposed to Melinda. Gates also arranged for the plane to make a short stop in Omaha, Nebraska, and took Melinda shopping with his friend Warren Buffett.
On January 1, 1994, Gates and Melinda held a wedding on Lanai Island in Hawaii. Gates booked all hotel rooms on the island and all helicopters in Hawaii to prevent outsiders from disturbing their wedding. Guests at the wedding included Paul Allen and Warren Buffett, among others.
On July 17, 1995, Gates topped the Forbes list of global billionaires, with a personal wealth of US$12.9 billion. Gates was 39 years old. Microsoft's sales revenue that year was US$5.9 billion and its employees were 17,801.
Extended information:
Going home is about decompressing
In the early development of Microsoft, the help of the Gates family played a crucial role. The first opportunity Gates encountered after founding Microsoft was to cooperate with IBM, which was inseparable from the role of his mother Mary.
Mary was a volunteer with the United Charities of America and later became the association's first female leader. On the board of directors of the United Charity Federation, she met John Opel, then president of IBM. Through Mary's introduction, Opel learned about the existence of Microsoft.
Microsoft was trying to sell MS-DOS to IBM at the time, hoping that IBM's computers would come with this working platform when they left the factory. Gates' professionalism impressed IBM. But when IBM offered to buy the MS-DOS patents, Gates refused. After that, many computer manufacturers adopted MS-DOS as the operating system for their products, and Microsoft's value increased significantly.
In 1978, Bill Gates decided to move the company back to Seattle, where his family was located, because no elite talent was willing to work in the desert of Albuquerque, and he also wanted to be able to communicate with his family at any time. "Every Sunday I go home to talk to my parents about the challenges I face, get some advice, and go home to relieve stress." The elder Gates uses his experience in guiding small and medium-sized enterprises to provide help to Microsoft, his lawyer said Microsoft provides legal support. The elder Gates and his wife also introduced Warren Buffett to their son through friends.
Microsoft has gradually become the backbone of the American IT industry. Some people advised Bill Gates to go public, but he was worried that this capital move would distract engineers. Gates Sr. discussed with his son the many shortcomings of going public and how to minimize the risks. Gates Sr. has provided services to many public companies, which is what he is good at.
In 1986, 11 years after its establishment, Microsoft finally went public. The stock price increased sixfold in just one year, and Gates became a billionaire.
On Bill Gates's 50th birthday, Gates Sr. wrote him a letter. At the end of the letter, Gates Sr. said: It feels really great to be your father, it's simply... incredible!
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