Bill Gates

Bill Gates is a business genius who realized that designing and selling software is more profitable than hardware. I.B.M. believed that making computers would always be the main source of profit, and that software was secondary. Bill Gates' company, Microsoft, designed the Disc Operating System (MS-DOS) that I.B.M. then used to run the computers they sold. I.B.M. let Gates keep licensing control of the software, and Gates parlayed that advantage into a near-monopoly on computer software. Once the majority of computers needed MS-DOS to run, all applications had to be designed to run on that software. Then Gates proceeded to buy out any company that developed a successful piece of business software, such as the Excel spreadsheet, and engineered it to depend on other parts of the Miscrosoft package. Once the majority of business adopted the Microsoft package of operating system and software, everyone else had to buy the seme software to communicate with them, because Gatespurposefully designed all his software to be incompatible with other operating systems and other software. During the Clinton administration it was finally recognized that Microsoft was engaging in monopolistic and anti-competitive practices, such as designing Windows to only run the Internet Explorer software and not the very successful browser Netscape, which subsequently went out of business. Gates actually bailed out Apple with a sizeable investment so that it could not be claimed he had driven all competition out of business. Once the Bush administration took office the Justic Department backed off the suit against Microsoft, and they were let off with a slap on the wrist and a promise to be more careful in the future. The European Union has not been so kind, and has levied enormous fines Micrsoft for their illegal business practices. To distract attention from all this Gates has formed the largest philanthropic enterprise in the world, the Gates Foundation, capable of exerting considerable influence on the direction of scientific research and government policy all over the world.