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Wednesday, November 27, 1996

TECHNOLOGY:

Bill Gates promotes revised book, Internet endeavorsBy Phil Hong

Daily Bruin Contributor

William H. Gates III, the CEO of Microsoft, will be making an appearance in Ackerman Grand Ballroom today at noon to discuss the world's digital future and promote a polished paperback edition of his best-selling book, "The Road Ahead."

Gates' rise to prominence began with a milestone decision in 1975 to not finish his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, opting instead to form Microsoft, a software company that he co-founded with his close friend, Paul G. Allen.

The world's largest software company began with a small program written for a primitive computer that used an early-model Intel microprocessor.

Gates and Allen then began writing programs for traffic meters, later dropping out of school to devote all of their energy to the newly-founded company.

Microsoft's big break in the technology industry happened in 1981, when IBM licensed its revolutionary Disk Operating System (DOS) to the company as an integral unit of the world's first mass-marketed personal computer.

Much has changed since the company's founding. Microsoft headquarters has moved from Gates' college dorm room to a state-of-the-art corporate campus based in Redmond, Wash. The text-based MS-DOS has been virtually replaced by Microsoft-produced graphical user interfaces, such as Windows 3.1, 95 and NT.

And now, Gates is one of the richest individuals in the nation, whose collective fortune is estimated at $15 billion ­ most of which is tied up as stock in Microsoft.

But while Microsoft has held a virtual monopoly on computer software since the early 1980s, the vast corporation was caught off-guard in 1995 just after releasing its much-touted Windows 95 operating system.

The technology industry was indeed blown away in 1995, but not by Gates' operating system. Instead, industry-wide acclaim was reserved for a small company based in Shoreline, Calif., whose product allowed users to browse a massive network of images, information and interactivity in a realm largely ignored by Microsoft ­ the Internet.

That company was called Netscape, and the product was called Navigator, a web browser now used by 70 to 90 percent of web surfers worldwide.

Touted as "the little company that could," Netscape has established firm relationships with Sun Microsystems, by being the first to endorse Sun's Java technology. Many champion the dynamic duo as capable of dismantling Gates' multi-billion dollar conglomerate.

Netscape and Sun Microsystems awoke the sleeping giant, who had previously exhibited very little interest in the Internet. Gates hopes that Microsoft's Internet endeavors such as Internet Explorer, the Microsoft Network and Microsoft's joint venture with NBC (MS-NBC) can make up for the oversight.

Since Microsoft's business strategy had shifted to focus more on the Internet, Gates decided that a new testament of his self-proclaimed prophecy, "The Road Ahead," was in order.

"The rise of the Internet provoked me to reinvent my company, and the book needed the same re-evaluation," he explained.

The revised edition of "The Road Ahead'' is such a thorough overhaul that Gates promotes it as practically new.

"I really enjoyed the opportunity to go back and make improvements to the book and to describe why the near future is coming at us more quickly ­ and somewhat differently ­ than I described in the first edition," he said.

With the revised version, Gates will be giving teachers and students a reason to be thankful this holiday season. Proceeds from the sale of the "The Road Ahead" will be donated to the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education and The Road Ahead Program.

The program will help community-based institutions such as libraries, museums, and Boys and Girls Clubs, access and use information technologies to enhance learning.