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I Had Bill Gates' Baby (5/25/98)
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Stand back, folks, because Apple's not the only company starring in tawdry tell-all books these days. Barbarians Led By Bill Gates is a new book by former Microsoft developer Marlin Eller, who recounts the company's rise to power over the course of the thirteen years he worked there. It's shaping up to be a wonderful portrait of paranoia and slimeball business tactics. CNET has a few of the juicier details.
From the "fluke" of Windows 3.0's success to the "dumb luck" that led to Microsoft's divorce from IBM, this book appears to have something for everyone. For a sample of the slimy moves that led to Microsoft's success, consider the time that Microsoft had an employee covertly join a computer users' group the day before a competitor was scheduled to give a demo there; the Microsoft mole videotaped the whole presentation, then turned the tape over to Gates and company, who "dissected" the footage for a competitive upper hand. And Gates-haters worldwide will appreciate the anecdote about Eller, in front of Bill Gates, criticizing a broken portion of code as being a "brain-dead piece of $#!+" written by a "jerk--" not realizing that Gates had written that code himself...
Hmm, does this mean that, following the precedent Microsoft set by copying Apple's GUI, people who write about Microsoft are copying people who write about Apple? After all, the big books in the Apple world lately, Gil Amelio's On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple and Jim Carlton's Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania and Business Blunders, were both tell-alls about Apple's behind-closed-doors behavior and business practices, and now this new Microsoft book follows suit. Coincidence? It all depends on how paranoid you are...
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/25/98 episode: May 25, 1998: The recent Apple corporate tell-alls should make way-- here comes the Microsoft equivalent. Meanwhile, someone publicly refers to Microsoft's products by the Mac-specific phrase "insanely great," and Rhapsody for Intel appears to have died before it could reach v1.0...
Other scenes from that episode: 736: Insanely Ripped Off (5/25/98) Speaking of Microsoft "borrowing" from Apple, this latest example is too surreal to be missed. Granted, once again, it's not actually Microsoft doing the borrowing, but it's still too bizarre to ignore... 737: Rhapsody: Intel Outside (5/25/98) Following Rhapsody's WWDC de-emphasis as the Mac's future (in favor of Mac OS X), questions have arisen as to the fate of Rhapsody for Intel, Apple's next-generation server OS for standard x86-based iron...
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