|
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire (平装)
by James Wallace, Jim Erickson
| Category:
Corporate history, Biography, Business, Technology |
| Market price: ¥ 208.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Even though this book is a little outdated, it's still a great read with compelling insight into Gates's young and adult life and his building of the Microsoft Empire. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
|
| |
AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
|
|
J. Robinson, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Should I Buy This Book?
The story is starting to get a bit dated but the book still has 95% of the Gates story warts and all. He is one of the most compelling and admired and maybe feared business leaders today.
Unlike Jack Welch, another great leader and manager, he started from zero or near zero in a new field and (largely) owned the company. I remember seeing the personal computers for sale in the 70's - just pre Microsoft - that did not come with anything other than a very rudimentary software. He was one of the first people to recognize the dollar value of the software and to charge for its use in the hobby market. Since then he has dominated the market. Now there is a computer in virtually every office and home using his (expensive high margin) software. Now he has the resources to buy anything he wants, or to support any charity or university, or buy a sizeable portion of the stock in almost any company that he wishes. And of course he has no debt. He used no risky leverage or tricks. He took the software and generated billions of dollars in cash and securities on hand. It is quite the story.
This is a relatively short book and an easy read. Frankly it is a must read for anyone running their own business and or in the Tech field. Gates is the statistical anomaly who sits at the very pinnacle. He is perched even above Warren Buffet the financial guru who is at least 20 years older than Gates. But Gates was astute enough to buy DOS for $50,000. and then had the business smarts and drive to market and sell the product. He was a hands on manager working long hours and a technical leader. He was (is) as smart or smarter than anyone else in the field. He did not invent any major new invention but he had the practical ability to take the product to market and make it work, make it better, and build a winning business. He hired great people and built a team that literally crushed the opposition including IBM and all foreign competitors in that area. It is only now two decades later that people are (seriously) starting to consider alternatives such as Linux, and these still have a lot of catch up to do.
Still a great book and a great yarn. A must buy 5 stars. |
|
|
Kirkus Reviews, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Two Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters take on - and fumble - the fascinating tale of how an archetypal nerd built a multibillion-dollar enterprise that sets the standards for PC/work- station software. In Accidental Empires (1991), Robert X. Cringely tells more in brief about William Henry Gates III (cofounder of Microsoft) and his game plan than the authors manage to do in an entire book. Wallace and Erickson do make a competent job of chronicling the dramatic rise of a quirky Harvard dropout whose technical/commercial genius coexists uneasily with an impatient, demanding, and ultracompetitive personality. They follow Gates from privileged youth at a Seattle prep school through his creation (at 19) with Paul Allen of the first computer language for PCs and beyond, to the establishment of Microsoft, which eventually made them billionaires. Along the way, the single-minded Gates, now 36, helped develop the computer operating system DOS, forged a since - ruptured alliance with IBM, and evidently became willing to do whatever it takes to keep Microsoft atop the programming heap. Among other consequences of his intimidating management style are lost friendships - and a potentially ruinous lawsuit, in which Apple seeks billions in damages for copyright infringement. But by focusing on Gates's less admirable idiosyncrasies and on anecdotal trivia, the authors miss much of the point of his empire-building ends and means. Nor, absent wider-angle perspectives on the fragmented software industry, do they convey with any real impact how Gates intends to parlay essentially mediocre technology into a perdurably dominant market position. While the authors supply many of the pieces missing from the public record, they don't quite have the whole story. A full account of Gates and his empire probably awaits someone like Cringely, with a firmer grasp on where PCs are taking the Global Village. |
|
|
An American reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
This book portrays an intensely driven person. He was born with talent and wealth, yet he did not rely on either of these to just get by. He pushed his talents to their limits. While still in grade school, he would pull all nighters programming. The picture of him sleeping on a table in the schools computer lab reminds me of Edison sleeping on the bench top in his lab. We have all benefited from the increase in productivity that computers have brought to many types of work, and credit is due to Bill Gates and others like him that worked very hard to improve the quality of computing. This book reveals the intensity with which he works, and made me feel happy about his success. |
|
|
An American Reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
A history of how the PC software industry grew up, this book was read while a team of software marketing executives were driving to Comdex. It was so good we traded off until it was done - and then we worried about our recent contract with Microsoft! Hard Drive is a history of how the PC software industry grew up. It uses a dynamic no-holds bar style. If there is a lesson about alliances to be learned, it's in here. It rates #3 on the "Chanimal" top ten list. |
|
|
An American reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
I had heard a lot about this book and I finally got around to reading it a while back and have to say that it was time well spent. Not only the book is a well versed discussion of how to succeed through hard drive, it is also a reflection and warning on how ambition, when unchecked, and an unbalanced life can turn into greed, complete paranoia and life driven by fear rather than the excitement of accomplishment. The book tries to be balanced and shows the evolution of a boy genius to a driven shrewd industry leader to a completely paranoid ego maniac. Not having any opinions of Gates when I started to read the book, besides the fact that he was a successful and driven person worthy of examination, I could not help but to admire him in his youth for his dedication and drive. By the middle of the book when Microsoft finally establishes itself in Bellevue, one sees the transformation of a workaholic and challenge driven person, to a paranoid almost parasitic individual, who surrounds himself with technologically unaccomplished little demons - such as Steve Ballmer and Mike Maples - who will do his dirty job for him and will fetch/steal and confiscate other people's hard earned technologies such as C-U-SeeMe, Go, Inuit, Borland technologies and even DOS etc. Paul Alan by this point is out of the picture suffering from cancer (probably from the guilt of being part of it all) and shunned by his old partner Bill. When one reads the account of Microsoft's attitude toward Lotus (putting bugs in DOS allegedly to break Lotus 123), one understands why Chairman Bill -- like Chairman Mao - is being credited for transforming/destroying a culture, and according the founder of Lotus creating a kingdom of the dead. By this time pity turns into complete dislike. Following Microsoft's recent attitude toward Java/Netscape/Inuit/3COM one is left but to wonder 1). where the heck has the justice department been up to now! and 2). Will Xanadu be Citizen's Gates last place in history. |
|
|
J. Roffetto, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Although this book was written at a time when the authors found it necessary to explain what 'electronic mail, or e-mail' was, the insight into Bill Gates' life, methods and extraordinary success is timeless. It is hard to imagine much in this book is out of date, other than the estimate of Gates' wealth at the time ($4b). This is a well-written book and a fast read. |
|
|
Charles, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Bill Gates is by far the most successful man of our time and probably of all time. This book explains gates earlier life in depth. Who was Bill Gates before the billions? This is all explained in this book. Gates' incredibly driven personality was always present even in his earlier years. Gates is today undoubtedly the most feared man in the industry and thought of by many as the most powerful man in the world.
This book shows both sides of the man behind it all. Enemies and Allies alike are all shown in this book. He fought wars with Apple and IBM and had peace with people like his friend and partner in success Paul Allen and his mother. Is Gates really the "ruthless" billionaire as many consider him to be or a giving loving and gentle man as few people know? Well he's a little of both and the great insight that can be gained by many can be found here in this book.
I previously read a book about Bill Gates by Jonathan Gatlin and this book is far less in-depth and much more for a quick read. Hard Drive is a book I highly recommend to those of you who are interested in knowing all about Gates. A little out date, this book was released before the release of Microsoft Windows 95 which in many ways brought Bill Gates up in power almost twice as much. At the time this book was written he was the richest in America. Presently he is the richest in the world. I recommend going out and buying the sequel to this book Overdrive which I am about to do. Very good book overall. Go out and get your self a copy today.
|
|
|
Andrea, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Hard Drive is an excellent look into Bill Gates early and adult life. It depicts him as a curious young boy who finds a calling to computers, and with his competitiveness, reaches to the top of the software world. With Gates' brilliant business sense, he was able to license out much of his software to companies, and therefore made more money than his competitors, who did not take the same approach as Gates.
For a great book about the business world, with computers tied in, this is it. |
|
|
An American reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
I fine myself re-reading this novel from time to time. It's that good. From the time Bill Gates recited passages from the bible to win a dinner at Seattle Space Needle to becoming the riches man in world has led many people including myself to "emulate" this figure's work ethics if not his flaws. In some small way, we can be just as successful as a billionaire as long as we stay away from the "Darkside". It's how Microsoft got the contracts to support the Altair; the flourishing program language business; they're plan for oversea expansion with Kay Nishi; what they did with the money that rolled in and yes, Bill's hygiene problem.(LOL) This is how it happen - not how Pirates of SV wrongfully portrayed events for the sake of entertainment. |
|
|
An American reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
I have enjoyed reading this book very much. I definitely recommend this book. This was my first book on Bill Gates and the history of Microsoft, yet I believe this book to be the best on the matter. No wonder, it is rated five stars. The authors were not biased one way or the other. The fact that the authors had plainly presented Bill's life and his characters as they were helped me even more to get to know him better. Not only did I learn of Bill Gates and Microsoft, but also I was intrigued to read about how other technology companies had dealt with Microsoft success. I hope this kindles your interest in this book. |
|
|
|
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
