Bill Gates’ True Legacy
Recently it was announced that in a few years Bill Gates would be stepping down and relinquishing much of his power and responsibility at Microsoft. Much has been made of this announcement. I have seen numerous articles recounting Gate’s life as a businessman and force in the industry. Some focus on his early years, some debate his legally and morally questionable business practices. He has been called the greatest business man ever and the man who pushed a nascent industry into mainstream adoption. Loved and hated by many, his stepping down can be seen as the end of an era. (with many implications, both good and bad, for Microsoft) And of course, much has been made of his legacy.
But what will history remember as the true Gates’ legacy? His business acumen? The effect (both good and bad) Microsoft had on the computer industry? Or maybe the way Microsoft maintained its dominance for more than a decade in an industry in constant flux?
I think that the most lasting effect of Bill Gates’ little company will be the manner in which software is designed. Because before Microsoft produced Windows there was Unix. And the designers of Unix have a completely different design philosophy than the coders in Redmond. Unix favored small, dependable components that could be combined together to make things that actually worked when they needed to. And before Gates & friends made it big there was this underlying notion that when programmers produced code, the code would be fairly bug free. And the program itself would actually work.
But then Windows 95 came out and was widely adopted. And soon after that non-technical consumers began to get used to the amazingly stupid idea that software was supposed to be riddled with bugs and that expecting a company to produce an OS that worked on its first try (no patches please) was just too much to ask. That is the true Bill Gates’ legacy, lowering consumers’ expectations as to just what software should be.
Software (and especially an operating system) should be hard to use. It should be unintuitive. It should crash often. It should require numerous patches before it becomes stable, because asking all those programmers to actually debug their code before releasing it is ridiculous! After all, writing good code is just too hard! That is the true legacy of Bill Gates, getting consumers the world over accustomed to buying and using bad software.
And it really is an amazing accomplishment when you think about it. After all, when you buy a car, you expect it to work, right? You don’t buy it and then take it back to the dealership in 6 months for your “Ford Service Pack 3” right? You buy a TV, DVD player, PlayStation, microwave oven or dish washer expecting it to work. You buy Windows expecting it to fail. Doesn’t that seem odd to anyone but me?
That is what history will remember, a tradition of shoddy software. And unfortunately this trend has so much inertia that it will be decades before consumers realize anything better is possible.
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“That is the true Bill Gates’ legacy, lowering consumers’ expectations as to just what software should be.”
Although, I do agree that this was a derivative result of such a massive success that Windows 95 was, I do not agree that it is Bill’s legacy. He started flooding the PC market with buggy codes in MS Basic and MS DOS. Compared these to those offered by then Digital Research’s DR-DOS. DR-DOS was a superior product but luck and timing was not on their side. IBM chose instead a little company out of Redmond perhaps credit Bill’s business dealing prowess? I have had conversations with my CTO regarding Bill’s early days and he confirms how good he really was and how convincing he was. The nerdy looks and manners did lend very much to his credibility as a genius businessman. One you can trust and make a good business partner.
Thus, in my opinion, that has to be one of Bill’s legacies. Without his business dealing abilities in the early days, he would not have gotten the IBM deal. And we can only speculate if he did fail and DR-DOS became the standard. No Win 95, NT, XP, and Vista. How life would be so different.
Without Bill’s early success as a businessman, we would have more choices than we have now: Commodore may still be lingering around with their Amiga 10000, Atari’s Tramiel still copying every feature of the Amiga and having success in the UK and Germany. Apple owns the US consumer market. Then you have Digital Research staking claim at the corporate pastures with *Nix variants not very far behind.
So, Bill’s real legacy was to legitimate MS-DOS and later Windows as the “de facto” standard to “unify” the then-warring PC factions into a homogenous singularity called the PC standard. Yes, the Macintosh is alive and well but relegated as a very small minority. Same goes to the *Nix variants to a niche in the server back-end.
Bill should be proclaimed the man who standardized the PC as we know and use throughout our lives. Even the Macintosh has adopted everything from the PC hardware and software design. I as a fervent Mac user have a due gratuity to Bill Gates for lowering PC prices to a commodity level that I can afford to have several Macs and PCs as a result.
We should all be thankful for his legacy.
You didn’t buy anything run by software lately, eh? *Everything* gets software updates these days.
Yeah, it’s awesome that MacOS never needs any patches, and every version always just works on the first try. Pfft.
“Even the Macintosh has adopted everything from the PC hardware and software design.”
WTF? I beg to differ - Apple has lead the industry with many of the “standard” hardware features PCs now use - from the floppy drive to the hard disk to the first PCs to feature more than a MB of RAM, to the USB drive. The basic design they use has opened the way for industry to get away from the beige box ugliness, again, they lead the way for that, too!
Sorry, but you are way off base on that one!
“I beg to differ - Apple has lead the industry with many of the “standard” hardware features PCs now use - from the floppy drive to the hard disk to the first PCs to feature more than a MB of RAM, to the USB drive. The basic design they use has opened the way for industry to get away from the beige box ugliness, again, they lead the way for that, too!”
Sure I applaud Apple for introducing the 3.5” FDD to legitimizing the USB protocol. But these are not the result of then-infamous Apple N.I.H. (Not Invented Here) syndrome, is it? Where’s ADB? Where is NuBus? HyperCard? AppleTalk? OpenDoc? These are just a collection of N.I.H. inventions that didn’t make it as big as their PC counterparts now used in modern day Macs - PCI, TCP/IP, Ethernet, USB, Intel technologies, and on now used on ALL Macs. Of the most familiar N.I.H. inventions, Firewire is the only legitimate contender as a PC standard and that was only possible when Apple submitted it to the IEEE for considerations.
PC hardware is not by Microsoft’s designs. Those are left to the hw vendors to decide. The “beige box” persisted because people liked them that way. Microsoft and Intel only publish specifications much like your local zoning laws. A house gets built from a builder’s designs that complies to those laws. So, don’t point the fingers to Bill Gates for our crude selection of stylist PCs that fit your every decor.
What we are discussing here is Bill’s legacy to the PC marketplace and I would certainly eager to hear your very opinion on this matter. So, lay it on the table, rahrens.
Nope nope nope… all wrong. Bill’s true legacy is that by dominating the PC market, he forced companies like Apple to strive and produce quality products (OS X, ergonomically designed computers, etc) and excellent customer service. I hope he and Microsoft stays forever as to not give Jobs and Apple some slack… I don’t want them to become bossy and treat customers like shit.
“ergonomically designed computers”?!? What the heck is that? If you mean “ergonomically designed computer equipment”, you do know that Microsoft makes some pretty darned good ergonomic keyboards and mice, right? =)
Yeah, it’s awesome that MacOS never needs any patches, and every version always just works on the first try. Pfft.
Yes, garth, but James’s point is that Apple got that from Gates. Otherwise, they’d totally be releasing perfect software every time.
Damn you, Gates!
And let us not forget his contribution to the world’s poverty and education. The guy gave over a billion dollars of his own money - yes, his own money, deservedly so - because he wants to change something other billionaires ignore, deny that they exists, or don’t care altogether.
Bill himself regretfully admitted, “With wealth comes great responsibility”. And he is true to his words and I commend him for that.
If you haven’t heard, the man is leaving M$ <sniffles> to administer his Foundation with Mrs. Gates. Now, Mac afficionados like myself would have to look at someone else to dunk every wrong move - and there will be plenty of that. Thanks to Mr. Balmer’s pathetic leadership and visions.
“With wealth comes great responsibility”.
I believe it was Spider-man who said that.
I wrote:
“Yeah, it’s awesome that MacOS never needs any patches, and every version always just works on the first try. Pfft.”
Beeblebrox replied:
“Yes, garth, but James’s point is that Apple got that from Gates. Otherwise, they’d totally be releasing perfect software every time.”
Oh, come on! Clearly you don’t know anything about software development. So the blame for Apple’s buggy software is solely on Gates and company, and not on Apple? Please. Microsoft is to blame for lots of things, but lousy software from OTHER companies surely isn’t one of them.
Unfortunately I think that most people (non-computer people that is) will always see Gates as linked with the invention of the personal computer. I took a history of technology class in my last semester of college this past year - we got the personal computer and they didn’t even mention Jobs and Woz. There was a brief mention of the Altair - then it was straight to pictures of a young Bill Gates and early Microsoft. In business classes Microsoft is constantly used as an example of a “great, innovative new idea.”
I mean, I agree with some other posts that Gates did play an important role and he should be remember as an amazing business man. But that’s all he is - he didn’t invent the PC or anything at all for that matter. He was great at bringing other people’s innovative ideas to a wide market - no matter how poorly he implemented them.
“Unfortunately I think that most people (non-computer people that is) will always see Gates as linked with the invention of the personal computer. I took a history of technology class in my last semester of college this past year - we got the personal computer and they didn’t even mention Jobs and Woz.”-B.M.
I regret to inform you that you attended a Bill Gate’s-funded private college Ben. Otherwise, microcomputer history as laid-out in detail at most public universities and community colleges pay homage to Xerox, IBM, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) Altair, Apple I and II, and early pioneers to the Personal Computer age.
So, while the mind is young and flexible, please review the “proper” microcomputer history at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcomputer is good start).
Bill’s business model became successful only with IBM’s nurturing hands. M$ was a product of IBM’s misfortunes and unlucky hands - they thought dealing with a college dropout with a tiny company was the right way for then-Big Blue (if not for he reasons of COST). Little did they realize this nerdy wiz had a lot more business-acumen than they had imagined.
“I mean, I agree with some other posts that Gates did play an important role and he should be remember as an amazing business man. But that’s all he is - he didn’t invent the PC or anything at all for that matter. He was great at bringing other people’s innovative ideas to a wide market - no matter how poorly he implemented them.”-BM
I’m glad you understand that that’s all the Man really is. A very ordinary person who made his fortunes from others’ miscalculations and underestimations. Perhaps we give that credit where credit is due. He held an ace of spades (given by IBM) and dealt everyone a losing proposition.