Bill Gates Biography.

Who is Bill Gates? In February 2014, Gates announced that he would resign as President of Microsoft to focus on charity work at his foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Early life Born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington. Gates grew up in an upper middle class family with his older sister, Kristianne, and his younger sister, She was an athletic student and an extrovert at the Uni of washington Gates' family atmosphere was warm and up-close, and all three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Gates showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family sports games at his summer home in Puget Sound. He also enjoyed playing board games (risk was his favorite) and excelled in Monopoly. Bill Gates' education Gates was a voracious reader as a child, and spent many hours studying reference books like the encyclopedia. Around the age of 11 or 12, Gates' parents began to worry about his behavior. He was doing well in school, but sometimes he seemed bored and withdrawn, and his parents worried that he might become lonely. Although they strongly believed in public education, when Gates turned 13, his parents enrolled him in Seattle's exclusive Lakeside School. He flourished in almost all his subjects, excelling in math and science, but he also did very well in drama and English. While at Lakeside School, a Seattle computer company offered to provide computer time for students. The Mother's Club used proceeds from the sale of used school supplies to purchase a teletypewriter terminal for students to use. Gates was fascinated by what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working at the terminal. He wrote a BASIC computer language tic tac toe program that allowed users to play against the computer. Gates graduated from Lakeside in 1973. He took 1590 out of 1600 on the college SAT exam, a feat of intellectual achievement that he bragged about for several years when introducing himself to new people. Bill Gates and the Microsoft Foundation In 1975 Gates and Allen formed Micro-Soft, a mix of "microcomputer" and "software" (they left the script in a year) At first, not everything was easy. Although Microsoft's BASIC software program for the Altair computer gave the company a fee and royalties, it was not meeting its overhead costs. According to Gates' later account, only about 10 percent of people using BASIC on the Altair computer had actually paid for it. Microsoft's BASIC software was popular with computer hobbyists, who obtained pre-commercial copies and reproduced and distributed them for free. At this time, many personal computer enthusiasts were not there for the money. They felt that the ease of reproduction and distribution allowed them to share software with friends and fellow computer enthusiasts. Gates thought differently. He saw free software distribution as theft, especially when it came to software created to be sold. In essence, hacking software would discourage developers from investing time and money in creating quality software. Gates had a bitter relationship with MITS President Ed Roberts, which often resulted in screaming. Combative doors clashed with Roberts in software development and business management. Roberts considered Gates spoiled and unpleasant.