The Making of Microsoft

Today over 60 million people use Microsoft's products on their personal computers. With best-selling items in every category of software — from operating systems to spreadsheets and word processors to the record-breaking Windows — Microsoft decisions directly influence the entire software industry and therefore, almost everyone who uses computers.

In 1986, Bill Gates took his company public and in the process became a billionaire at the age of 30. Since then, Microsoft has become one of the highest grossing over-the-counter stocks on Wall Street and millions of investors religiously track its daily activity.

The Making of Microsoft reveals the inside story of one of the most spectacularly successful American companies of the microcomputer revolution. It is a well-researched book that draws on first-hand interviews of the company's earliest employees and of Bill Gates himself.

• Part 1: Child Prodigy Turns Programmer
1. William Henry Gates, III
2. The Birth of a Passion
• Computer Center Corporation
• Piracy and Punishment
• A Year-long Respite
• Saving the Lakeside Class Schedule
• Traf-O-Data
• TRW Calls
• At Harvard
• Part 2: BASIC Beginnings
3. Altair BASIC
• The MITS Altair: The First Microcomputer
• Seizing the Altair Opportunity
• BASIC Passes the Test
• Microsoft Is Born
4. Microsoft's First Year
• Piracy Problems
• World Altair Computer Convention
• Continuing the Crusade Against Piracy
• Microsoft Takes Shape
5. Life at Microsoft
• Miriam Lubow Discovers Software
• Bon O'Rear and the Microsoft Culture
6. The Microcomputer Market Blossoms
• Successful Pioneers: Apple, Tandy, and Commodore
• Operating Systems and Languages Abound
• CP/M Becomes the Standard
7. Kazuhiko Nishi Brings Microsoft to Japan
• A Japanese Entrepreneur
• NEC Builds a Microcomputer
• One of the First Portable Microcomputers
• Gates and Nishi Go Their Separate Ways
8. Going Home
• The 8086
• Softcard for the Apple II
• A New Team Member
• Part 3: The IBM PC and DOS
9. Project Chess
• Big Blue Approaches Microsoft
• The Second Meeting
• Kildall's Missed opportunity
• Microsoft Seizes the Chance
• Microsoft Bags the Contract
• Development Begins
• Heat and Hardware Problems
• The DOS Is Ready
10. The MS-DOS Crusade
• The PC's Impact
• MS-DOS vs. CP/M
• IBM PC-Compatibles
• Part 4: First Applications: Multiplan and Word
11. The Emergence of the Electronic Spreadsheet
• A Young Chairman
• VisiCalc: The First Electronic Spreadsheet
• Electronic Spreadsheets Are a Hit
• The Electronic Paper Project
• Menus in Multiplan
• Release of Multiplan
• The Arrival of Lotus 1-2-3
• The Demise of VisiCalc
• Objective: Europe
• Bernard Vergnes and Multiplan's European Success
• For Export Only
12. Microsoft Word
• The Club of Five
• Jon Shirley Leads Microsoft to Maturity
• WordStar: The First Successful Word Processing Program
• Microsoft Challenges WordStar
• A New Name and a New Marketing Strategy
• Word: Pros and Cons
• Word 1.1
• Word 2.0
• WordPerfect Takes First Place
• Vive la France
• Word 3.0
• Microsoft Is Number Two
• Word for the Mac: Getting It Right
• Word 3.0 for the Mac
• Part 5: Microsoft Excels on the Macintosh
13. The Macintosh: A Friendlier Computer
• The Origins of Graphical User Interfaces
• The Stars of Xerox PARC
• Jobs Discovers the Graphical User Interface
• The Development of the Macintosh
• Multiplan for the Mac
• The Apple Lisa
• Friction Regarding MACBASIC
• Launching the Macintosh
14. The World's Greatest Spreadsheet
• Ideas for Odyssey
• Where to Begin
• A New Direction: Excel for the Mac
• Apple Endorses Jazz
• Jobs Doubts Excel's Potential
• Jazz Is Late
• The Excel Introduction
• Promoting Excel
• Excel Beats Jazz
• Microsoft Triumphs in the Mac World
• Part 6: Windows
15. Long-Awaited Windows
• Designing the Interface Manager
• Windows Announced
• An Infamous Delay
• A Weak Response from Competitors
• More Delays
• The Reorganization
• Windows Paint and Write
• Windows Becomes Top Priority
• The Party
• Recognition
• … And Rejection
• A Record Setter
• The Apple Lawsuit
16. Excel in Windows
• Windows and Presentation Manager
• Assault on the Spreadsheet Market
• Developing Excel for the PC
• Microsoft Surpasses Lotus
• Release of Windows Excel
• Reception
• Part 7: Forging Into the Future
17. The Youngest Billionaire in the World
• Going Public
• A Billionaire on Paper
18. Microsoft Culture Today
• The Redmond "Campus"
• The Business Philosophy
19. Works: A Product for Beginning Users
• Integrated Software
• Designing Works
• The Works Tutorial
• Works Is Released
20. Vision for the Future
• The Big Day
• Long-Awaited Windows 3.0
• A Big Seller
• Windows vs. OS/2?
• The Microsoft-IBM relationship
• Into the Future: Information at Your Fingertips
• Afterword
• Appendix A: Versions of DOS
• Appendix B: Key Dates in Microsoft's History

Qualified lies and idolising. Why do I buy shit like this?