BILL GATES LOGS OFF FROM MICROSOFT TO LOG IN FOR CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

by Bhrata Ratna

• The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, is all set to step down as the Chairman of Microsoft on Friday.

• Mr Gates would always be remembered for his contribution in Microsoft and for spreading the IT revolution in the world.

• Mr Gates explained that Microsoft benefited because "most of our competitors were very poorly run”

• His future work includes finding new vaccines and financing projects in the developing world

Mr Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft and one of the world's richest men, at the age of 52, is stepping down from his world's largest software company for concentrating on charitable activities through his Foundation.

Mr Gates was born October 28, 1955, the second of three children in a prominent Seattle Lawyer Mr William Henry Gates Jr, was a partner at one of the city's most powerful law firms. His late mother, Mary, was an active charity fund-raiser and University of Washington regent.

He was introduced to computers at the exclusive Lakeside Preparatory School, where the teen prodigy began programming in BASIC computer language on a primitive ASR-33 Teletype unit.

During his two years at Harvard, Mr Gates devoted much of his time to programming marathons and all-night poker sessions before dropping out to work on software for the Altair, a clunky desktop computer that cost $400 in kit form. He spent much of his time finessing his programming skills as well as enjoying the occasional all-night poker session.

Both Mr Gates and Mr Paul Allen who was 2 years senior to him, wrote the BASIC programming language for the Altair 8800 microcomputer. Within three years, Bill and Paul earned their first million dollars via sales of BASIC and two other softwares.

Over 90% of the world’s desktops work on Microsoft Windows and almost all of the world’s word processing documents, spreadsheets, are created on Microsoft software.
That was the huge contribution and IT revolution by Mr Gates and his Microsoft.

Mr Gates explained that Microsoft benefited because "most of our competitors were very poorly run”. He was efficiently utilized the services of software engineers from India and other countries and marketed all products successfully all over the world.

Earlier, US Competition authorities threatened Microsoft with a break-up and subsequently fined by the European commission, Gates' reputation reached a nadir. A US judge described the company in 2000 as "untrustworthy". Later the case was settled when the newly elected Bush administration adopted a more laissez-faire approach.

After that, Gates had reinvented himself as a philanthropist. With the help of $30bn from Warren Buffett, his foundation funds healthcare, agricultural development and education in developing countries.

He announced this decision in June 2006 to step down as Microsoft chairman by July 2008 to focus more on Global Health & Development Program run by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has an endowment of $34.6 billion, with each year amount to over $1.5 billion at minimum, largely from Bill Gates’ own fortune.

Mr Gates has taken decision to leave his day job and concentrate on his charitable organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will remain as Microsoft's chairman and work on special technology projects, but according to Mr Gates, great wealth brings great responsibility and his future work will include finding new vaccines and financing projects in the developing world.

Even though Gates Saga and Era ends in Microsoft but one can hope that new era starts with his foundation in healthcare, education and agricultural development.