The Plot to Get Bill Gates: An Irreverent Investigation of the World's Richest Man... and the People Who Hate Him

by Gary Rivlin

To understand the magnitude of Bill Gates, one must first understand the people who hate him, most of whom suffer from an acute case of "Bill Envy."

The Plot to Get Bill Gates is the true, hilarious story of a loosely knit cabal of Silicon Valley's wealthiest and most successful leaders and their quest to defeat the richest man in the world. These leaders are known within Microsoft as Captain Ahab's Club for their self-destructive fixation with harpooning the Great White Whale of Redmond, all two hundred pounds and $50 billion of him. Acclaimed journalist Gary Rivlin tells their tale as a high-tech variation on Moby-Dick, and by taking us deep inside the world of Gates and his enemies, he vividly reveals their consuming obsession.

Lead players in The Plot are Lawrence Ellison of Oracle, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems, Ray Noorda of Novell, Marc Andreessen and James Barksdale of Netscape, Philippe Kahn of Borland, and Gary Kildall (the unsung programmer who could have been Gates), with special guest appearances by venture capitalist John Doerr, consumer activist Ralph Nader, zealous attorney Gary Reback, and the Fraternal Order of Antitrust Lawyers. The author describes each man's ill-fated attempt at besting Gates, who seems to become bigger, hungrier, and more dangerous after each attack.

Rivlin also conducts an in-depth investigation of Gates himself, examining each crucial step in the ascension of the slope-shouldered billionaire with bad hair and unearthing the most telling details to explain why Gates is so rich and we aren't. (The short monomania.) Rivlin concludes with an illuminating analysis of Microsoft's latest upgrade of its CEO, Gates 3.1, which seems to be operating with fewer bugs than previous incarnations.

Gary Rivlin's reporting is irreverent and intellectually independent, free of the romanticized portraits and techno-hype perpetuated by many in the media. As an award-winning political reporter, he brings a fresh perspective to the avaricious, bloodthirsty behavior of these new icons. The result is a savagely funny morality play about big business at the century's end.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology, Computers

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Vaiibhav Nigam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally, a book that helps a non-techie like me make sense of all these names and companies I've been reading about for all these years. A fun book, entertaining and a real education to boot. And Bill Gates--what a piece of work he is! Greed and more greed--as the author shows, though Gates claims it's not about the money, it most certainly is. A pretty ruthless lot of people, driven by ego and too much testerone.
A funny and clever book that wove together an impressive array of tales and character sketches. I'm not usually a non-fiction fan, but I'd recommend this book to anyone who want to be an entrepreneur and want to run a company.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insight to the the rise of the computer/software age. Probably appreciated more by those of us you can remember using Wordstar on a 527k computer,

[Long Tùng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Có thể xem như một cuốn sách về lịch sử ngành máy tính.
Đa chiều.
Không chỉ về Bill, mà còn về Scott, Larry, Marc...

[Mark J Schmit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, informative and very interesting for the layman to see how the new tech economy is really working ...the Chapter " Bill Gates is Satan" is a.must read...Gary Rivlin, outstanding author...

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just read bits of it, kind of curious about him and Microsoft.

[Laurie Monahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved it. The history of ibm/windows/microsoft/apple and a lot about bill gates and steve jobs.