Table Of ContentNATIONAL BESTSE
JAMES WALLACE SJIM ERIGKSON
"Adisquietingbutcaptivatingportraitofacomplexpersonality.HardDrivespinsa
fascinating yarn ofthe extremes ofadmiration and hatred that such single-
mindednesscaninspire." —SanFrancisco Chronicle
Praise for HARD DRIVE byJamesWallace andJim Erickson
"Astupendoussuccess story. Thisisthe mostinformativebookyet
onBillGatesandMicrosoft." —WashingtonPost
"Remarkable....[HardDrive] will almostcertainlyleaveyouwistful.
No, notwishing thatyou worked forMicrosoft, which sounds like
whatyoumight experience ifyou combined Marine bootcamp, a
fraternity party, and, a trip to the zoo. The book will make you
wonderwhyyoudidn'tbuyMicrosoftstockwhenitwentpublic."
—Wall StreetJournal
"Wallace andErickson display anadmirable sense ofjournalistic
detachmentanddetail, plumbingthedepthsofGates's experience
toseewhatmakes himtick. Everyone from Gates ondown tohis
ex-Scoutmasterseemstohavechattedwiththe authors."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"This well-written book deserves an audience beyond the com
puterliterate. Packedwith anecdotes, HardDrivehelps showthat
from thebeginning ofhis career totoday, Gates has always been
somethingmore thana98-poundmegalomaniac."
—DetroitFreePress
"An engaging, almost classic tale ofaboywho finds poweringad
gets andthenwon'tletgo." —LosAngeles Times
"An exciting tale, toldinracy style, with plenty ofdetail andwell
researched quotations, all focused ontheenigmaticpersonalityof
Bill Gates." —London FinancialTimes
"Abitingbiographyandcomputerindustryexpose."
—Publishers Weekly
"Captivatingreading,moreenthrallingthananythriller''—Nature
HARD
DRIVE
Bill Gates
and the
Making
of the
Microsoft
Empire
JimEri
£(cid:127) HarperBusiness
ADivisionofWarperCoWmsPublishers
Tomymotherandfather;andtoLindaJoyceBuzbee,
becauseapromiseis, afterall, apromise.
James
Tomymother,father, andtoNancy.
Jim
Ahardcovereditionofthisbookwaspublishedin1992byJohnWiley&Sons, Inc. Itis
herereprintedbyarrangementwithJohnWiley&Sons,Inc.
harddrive. Copyright©1992byJamesWallace andJim Erickson. Allrightsreserved.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.Nopartofthisbookmaybeusedorreproduced
inanymannerwhatsoeverwithoutwrittenpermissionexceptinthecaseofbriefquota
tions embodiedincriticalarticles and reviews. Forinformation address HarperCollins
Publishers,Inc.,10East53rdStreet,NewYork,NY10022.
HarperCollinsbooksmaybepurchasedforeducational,business,orsalespromotionaluse.
Forinformationpleasewrite:SpecialMarketsDepartment,HarperCollinsPublishers,Inc.,
10East53rdStreet,NewYork,NY10022.
FirstHarperBusinesseditionpublished1993.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Wallace,James. 1947-
Harddrive:BillGatesandthemakingoftheMicrosoftempire/JamesWallace,Jim
Erickson.—1stHarperBusinessed.
p. cm.
Reprint.Originallypublished:NewYork:Wiley,1992.
Includesindex.
ISBN0-88730-629-2(pbk.)
1.Gates,Bill,1956- .2.MicrosoftCorporation—History.3.Businessmen—United
States—Biography.4.Computersoftwareindustry—UnitedStates—History.
I.Erickson,Jim.II.Title
[HD9696.C62G3378 1993]
338.4'70053'092—dc20 92-54845
96 97 98 VRRDH 10
Acknowledgments
This is not a book about computers or the dazzling tech-
nology that sparked one ofthe world's great revolutions
lessthan two decades ago.Rather, it is astory about people, a
remarkable collection ofindividuals led by one man, BillGates,
whose drive, genius, vision, and entrepreneurial spirit created
one ofthe greatsuccessstoriesinthe historyofAmericanbusi
ness.We wanted to write abook that would appeal asmuch to
those who know nothing about computers asit would to those
who regardthese machinesasthe most important thing in their
lives. We hope we have done that.
The book grew out ofa series ofstories on Gates and Mi
crosoft published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper in
Mayof1991. The subsequent project, abook-length profile of
Gates, took the better part ofa year to complete and was un
dertaken withoutthe help orcooperationofMicrosoft.Even so,
more than 150 people, many ofthem pastandcurrent employ
ees and executives ofMicrosoft, were interviewed. We are in
debted to everyone who helped us tell this story, regardless of
how much ofwhat they told us found its way into the book.
We would like to begin by thanking J.D. Alexander, exec
utive editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who not only al
lowed usthe time to research andwrite this bookbut alsogave
his support and generously allowed some ofthe paper's pho
tographs ofGates to be reprinted in the book.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Others at the paper we would like to thank are Lytton
Smith, whohelpedwiththeresearch, andall the peopleinsys
tems, who provided technical assistance.
Wearedeeplygratefultoourpublisher,JohnWiley &Sons,
who saw the possibilities of such abook andgave us the op
portunity to do it.
No one deserves more credit, or thanks, than our editor,
RogerScholl, whose patience, editorial guidance, hard work,
andencouragementwereinvaluable. Anyonewhowritesabook
should be sofortunate to have such an understanding editor.
Thisbookwouldnothavebeen possiblewithout the tireless
eflForts ofseveralothers atJohnWiley&Sons, including Marcia
Samuels,production manager, andElizabeth Doble, director of
production. Our appreciation goes to all those at Impressions
in Madison, Wisconsin, whospentmanyhourscopyediting.
Finally, special thanks to many good friends who saw us
through the months this project took, and who continuously
offeredtheir support—in particular, to Mary Williams, Angelo
Bruscas, Ceceilia Dominique, and Dick Clever.
In additionto interviews, our researchwasbasedon anum
ber ofbooks, national magazines, newspapers, andtradepub
lications. The books includedFire inthe Valley by Paul Frei-
bergerandMichael Swaine; HackersbyStevenLevy;BlueMagic
by James Chposky andTedLeonsis; The Making ofMicrosoftby
Daniel Ichbiah andSusan Knepper; andProgrammers at Work
by Susan Lammers. The newspapers uponwhichwe basedour
research included the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times,
New York Times, WallStreetJournal, Washington Post, LATimes
andSanJoseMercuryNews. NationalmagazinesincludedForbes,
Fortune, Money,Time,Newsweek,and BusinessWeek,aswell as
the trade publicationsPCWeek andInfoWorld.
For those curiousabout suchthings, this book waswritten
on a Leading Edge compatible PC with an 8088 chip and
XyWrite word processing program.
JamesWallace and Jim Erickson
Seattle, February 1992
Contents
Prologue 1
1
The Early Years 5
2
"It's Going to Happen" 53
3
The Microkids 85
4
Hitching a Ride with Big Blue
139
5
Growing Pains 207
6
King of the Hill 319
Index 421
HARD
DRIVE
PROLOGUE
The Winds
of Fortune
W illiamGatesIII, chairman of the largestcomputer soft
ware company onearth, stood nervously atthe front of
the ballroomofthe 308-foot cruise yacht New Yorker. He was
about to unveil Microsoft's fifth and latest version ofthe most
popular piece of software evercreated, acomputer operating
system known asMS-DOS.
It wasto be the biggestlaunch of a software product in
computer industry history. More than 500 people had turned
outonahumidTuesdayeveninginNewYorkCityinthesummer
of 1991toboardthe yacht—playfully dubbed "DOS Boat9'-to
listento Gates andhiscorporate sidekick, Microsoft operating
systems chiefSteve Ballmer, make an impassioned sales pitch
for MS-DOS 5.0. Bothindustryanalysts andthe presshadgath
ered for the gala event, which promised free food, music by
jazzmasterDaveBrubeck, andafive-hour cruiseontheHudson
River andaroundthe New York City harbor. Computer hard
ware and software executives had flown in from around the
countryto getaglimpse ofGates andtolistentothe industry's
HARDDRIVE
enfant terrible andbiggest star announce where he,and Micro
soft, were headed.
At 35, Gates was atthe pinnacle of his young career. In
1990Microsoft, thecompanyheandchildhoodfriendPaulAllen
had founded barely sixteen years before, hadbecome the first
software company to sellmorethan abilliondollars worth of
productsinasingle year. Gateswastheundisputedmastermind
of that success, abrilliant technocrat, ruthless salesman, and
manipulative—some saiddevious—businessman. His company's
astounding ascension had justafew years earliermade himthe
youngest billionaire inthehistory ofAmerica. By1992 his net
worth stood at more than $4 billion, making him the second
richest maninthe country.
His word had become the closest thing to gospel in the
godless computer industry. A month earlier in Atlanta, at an
industry trade show known asComdex where Gates was the
keynote speaker, people lined up for twocityblocks to hear
himspeak onthe future oftheindustry. Executives inbusiness
suits spilled outinto theaisles arid sat cross-legged onthe floor
when the seats were filled. But on this June evening inthe Big
Apple, asGates movedstifflytothemicrophones atthepodium
ontheNew Yorker, powerfulandopposing forces were gathered
across the Hudson, inArmonk, New York, headquarters ofIn
ternational Business Machines.
Gates straightened his 5-foot-l1-inch frame and began his
pitch, acondensed version ofthehistory ofMS-DOS. *
"In the last ten years, DOS hasbecome the foundation of
the PC industry and has sold more than ten times any other
software package," Gates intoned in his oddly high-pitched
voice, whichcrackedoccasionallylikeanervousteenager's, de
spitethe extensive speechlessons he hadtaken months before.
Microsoft's operatingsystem,he went on,wasnow installedon
more than 60 million personal computers, which represented
about 75 percent of all the personal computers in the world.
He predictedthat another 18million copies of DOSwouldbe
