Bill Gates Steve Jobs Unlocked
9-407-028
REV: MARCH 19, 2010
ANTHONY J. MAYO
MARK BENSON
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
When IBM wanted an operating system for its Personal Computer, it turned to Gates. When Apple needed software for its Macintosh, it gave Microsoft a test model to use in writing the programs. Gates helped with the design of Radio Shack's Model 100, the first truly portable computer… Thanks to that business (and more),
Gates… has become America's software tycoon.1
— 1984 Time article, “Bill Gates: A Hard-Core Technoid”
Jobs is, in a sense, the anti-Gates: a master of hardware, not software; a trailblazer, not a follower; a creator, not a cloner; an iconoclast, not a consolidator of industry standards.2
— 1998 Time article, “Steve Jobs: Apple’s Anti-Gates”
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born in 1955, midway through the unprecedented birth rate explosion in the United States after World War II. Both grew up on the West Coast, and their youth was shaped by the political and social stirrings of the 1960s. Like many in their generation, they were influenced by society’s emphasis on science and technology. Though both dropped out of college, both were avid students in the emerging fields of electronics and computers.
Family Backgrounds
William Henry “Bill” Gates III was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington to William
Henry Gates Jr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. Bill’s ancestors were among the first to settle in this part of the Pacific Northwest. His great grandfather, William Henry Gates Sr., migrated from Pennsylvania to Washington in search of fortunes westward, and upon hearing news of the discovery of gold in
Alaska, picked up his family and belongings and proceeded north to Nome.
Bill’s father served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and after his discharge, attended the
University of Washington through the financing available under the GI Bill.3 At college, Bill’s father met his future wife Mary, a sorority president from a prominent banking family in Southwest
REV: MARCH 19, 2010
ANTHONY J. MAYO
MARK BENSON
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
When IBM wanted an operating system for its Personal Computer, it turned to Gates. When Apple needed software for its Macintosh, it gave Microsoft a test model to use in writing the programs. Gates helped with the design of Radio Shack's Model 100, the first truly portable computer… Thanks to that business (and more),
Gates… has become America's software tycoon.1
— 1984 Time article, “Bill Gates: A Hard-Core Technoid”
Jobs is, in a sense, the anti-Gates: a master of hardware, not software; a trailblazer, not a follower; a creator, not a cloner; an iconoclast, not a consolidator of industry standards.2
— 1998 Time article, “Steve Jobs: Apple’s Anti-Gates”
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born in 1955, midway through the unprecedented birth rate explosion in the United States after World War II. Both grew up on the West Coast, and their youth was shaped by the political and social stirrings of the 1960s. Like many in their generation, they were influenced by society’s emphasis on science and technology. Though both dropped out of college, both were avid students in the emerging fields of electronics and computers.
Family Backgrounds
William Henry “Bill” Gates III was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington to William
Henry Gates Jr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. Bill’s ancestors were among the first to settle in this part of the Pacific Northwest. His great grandfather, William Henry Gates Sr., migrated from Pennsylvania to Washington in search of fortunes westward, and upon hearing news of the discovery of gold in
Alaska, picked up his family and belongings and proceeded north to Nome.
Bill’s father served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and after his discharge, attended the
University of Washington through the financing available under the GI Bill.3 At college, Bill’s father met his future wife Mary, a sorority president from a prominent banking family in Southwest