MS 25 Years Later
It suffices to say that Microsoft has come a long way since its inception in 1975. In those 25 years, the company has moved from a basement operation to its "campus" based in Redmond, Washington. It seems that everyone is talking about the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Redmond giant, and its ups, downs, and all arounds. The company has been called many things, including an official government ruling that it was a monopoly, but no one ever said that Bill Gates did not make the company successful.
There was a movie out once called "Pirates of Silicon Valley," that basically depicted the beginning of the personal computer and how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did battle over creating the GUI and the best operating system. A lot of things have happened since Xerox researchers in Palo Alto created the mouse and GUI, and both Steve and Bill stole it from them. Boy I bet execs at Xerox are kicking themselves now.
Microsoft has grown, and been through a plethora of legal battles and issues to get where it is today, all the while with Bill at the head. I saw him speak at a university two years ago. He flew in on a helicopter as my friends and I all joked that it would have been funny if it were him up there...it was. He spoke about a lot of things, but was never really boring, though it is plain to see that he probably wasn't the most popular kid in school (though he might be the most popular kid at his class reunions).
Bill Gates is a good businessman plain and simple. He worked hard to get where he is today, and yet people seem to dislike him. Sure, he may have billions of dollars, but name another person in the world who has donated $22 billion to charities around the world. He is doing his part, and that makes him a good person. I recently saw a magazine with charity donors across the top. Bill had beaten everyone a hundred times over with his charitable donations.
His company is working hard to innovate and create new things all the time. Microsoft is constantly aquiring new companies to create new features and programs to make computing more powerful and fun. From voice activation to networking to gaming, Microsoft does it all. So my question is how can some people be so angry at Microsoft for having bugs in the software, or being a little bit slow at times. Is it because they are so successful, or is it something else? Microsoft has done great things for the computing industry, and without MS I think we'd all be in a different place on the computing timeline today.
Who knows though, I could be completely wrong. My whole point is that in 25 years, Microsoft has built an entire industry up, and allowed humans to push the limits of the mind to new levels to create and advance technology and themselves.
What do you think of the way things have gone down for Microsoft, and where it is headed in the future with its new .NET strategy?