Essay, Research Paper: Bill Gates

Bill Gates
Bill Gates has proven himself to be the wealthiest man alive. He initiated the monster computer software business called Microsoft and has produced the most widely used computer software programs to date. Bill Gates is a transgressive person meaning he has both helped society progressively and regressively.
Bill Gates has progressively helped our society by introducing the basic operating system DOS in 1983. This basic operating system consisted of a single prompt, which allowed the user to complete tasks by typing in the right command line. When the press asked Gates what it took to create the Dos operating system, he replied, Well, to create a new standard, it takes something that s not just a little bit different. It takes something that s really new and really captures people s imagination. (Microsoft Conference on Dos, 1984) When people saw the operating system, they were awestruck. Over ten million copies of Dos where sold during the first two years of sales. Society benefited from this operating system. By using it to run programs easily and efficiently, the Dos network allowed a whole new frontier of micro-management for businesses. Transactions could be saved to hard drives and easily located for later use. The average home computer user would have to take computer courses to learn the basic operations of the interfaces, which were available at the time. Dos offers a short instruction manual and also a set of easily understood operations.
After Microsoft had gained control of the market with the Dos operating system, Bill Gates and his company Microsoft started on a new program that again would change the market. This alteration would not be in the home computer region, but the programming industry. The program was called the OS/2.
I believe Os/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time. As the successor to Dos, which has over 10,000,000 system in use, it creates opportunities for everyone involved in Pc s. (Bill Gates, Os/2 Programmer s guide).
The program was a simple interface which made creating programs efficient and easy. Low-level programmers could write unthinkable programs in a fraction of the time it would take a team of programmers to complete programs. With this technology, programs that would help our society where brought to our reach faster.
After setting up these two major projects, Bill Gates and Microsoft released windows 1.0. This version of Microsoft s operating system was the first of many steps in the evolution of Microsoft being the monopoly it is today. The windows operating system allowed non-computer lingual people to manipulate a computer with ease. The progressive program allowed families to use their home computers to educate and entertain themselves. The major flaw with the windows operating system was that Bill gates and Microsoft produced windows with the basic drop-down menu. Macintosh had already copyrighted this, later; they brought Microsoft to court over the matter and won their settlement. With Microsoft windows being run on most PC s, Bill Gates and Microsoft began work for upgrades.
Through the evolution of technology, Microsoft has made four new version of the windows operating system, each one bettering the last. The interface has gotten more and more user-friendly. With the most recent version, windows 2000, you can actually learn all of the operations through the program s tutorial. This self-education application allows easy understanding and use for the users. The Internet has attracted many people to buy a computer and with the windows operating system, users will have no problem adapting to the computer environment.
One of the more recent programs that Microsoft has initiated is the Internet explorer. This program has progressively helped many businesses start web pages and has also allowed families get connected to the Internet. While the Internet explorer does help our society progressively, at the same time, it regressively helped the workers of Netscape Navigator. Microsoft included the Internet explorer free with every windows operating system package, starting from Windows 95 and up. Microsoft single handedly took control of the Internet browsing business. This made Netscape, the makers of Netscape navigator; make cutbacks in regards to their employees. Netscape brought Microsoft to court and won. Although the courts decision was guilty, it has not affected direct sales of their product.
Bill Gates has also affected our society in regressive or negative ways. Over the course of Bill Gate s working career with Microsoft, he has accumulated a wealth of $119.704 billion dollars. The U.S, population is only 274,231,556 as of Thursday, February 10, 2000. This means that each person has contributed $436.507 dollars toward his wealth, whether or not they are buying Microsoft products or not. While many people do not even own a computer, they have contributed to Microsoft through taxes and other means of financial
Microsoft in itself is a regressive business when looked at through the eyes of a computer software business. Bill Gates almost ruined Macintosh Computer, but decided that it would be better to own them, rather then end the business. He now has turned them into an even larger corporation then before. The next generation of interesting software will be made on a Macintosh, not on an IBM PC. (Bill Gates, 1996) Bill Gates meant that he believes that the Macintosh will be the computer for tomorrow, not an IBM PC. By owning a large chunk of the Computer software industry, Microsoft has become a national monopoly. Most small time businesses cannot offer competition to a corporation such as Microsoft.
Finally, Bill Gates has had a transgressive hold on society ever since the Microsoft Corporation began. He has helped our society by making the operating systems made by Microsoft and the other programs offered, available to us. Through the operating systems: stocks have risen, people are becoming open to the world through the Internet, and important medical research can be accomplished as well as hundreds of other useful task.