If the beginning of a very large software company can be encapsulated in a reasonably lengthy book, Mr. Allen has done it. While it is obvious Mr. Allen is a great story - teller, and quite self - effacing with respect to himself in this text, it does somewhat appear his writing style is similar to that of Bill Gates' from other texts (you name the titles.) Despite this likeness of writing style, Mr. Allen takes the approach in his text that technical software knowledge and related business are what made Microsoft the company it is today instead of the way Mr. Gates portrays Microsoft as being pulled together and as having executives who were artful deal - makers, much as other small computer companies have been in the beginning since anyone can remember.
Most notable in the early - going of the plot of this text are Messrs. Allen and Gates as gifted school mates and their friendship that carried through to the college years when they made their plans for a business together. Both apparently were skilled programmers and knew as well about computer hardware in the day. Mr. Allen describes several seminal events in the growth of Microsoft as having depended upon engineers and other people in the provinces, including in locations like Albuquerque, New Mexico and various places in Washington state. Not only were Mr. Allen's stories about New Mexico interesting to read about, but as well were the arrangements Microsoft made early on with NCR and DEC - two viable computer companies at the time in a fiercely competitive market. That Microsoft had some practice before licensing its software for the P.C. in 1981 was due to these types of arrangements in the world of (competitive) hardware at that time.
People like Messrs. Allen and Gates became extremely well - known about the time people like me graduated from high - school studies, and at the time, due to computers and the increasing dominance of technology, more and more students dropped traditional studies to attend technology institutes and schools (probably chiefly as the result of the images of executives from Microsoft, and Apple, Sun and some other companies.) Around this, the dissemination of the invention of the GUI was extremely important for the computer world and made computing "easy" enough for most people to try to have a personal computer or computers. Mr. Allen also speaks in his text about Moore's Law, which originally proposed the speed of processors would double about every year; and then was changed to every two years - this brings to mind how memorably slow the old 4k and up computers were, and how many of them had their own systems, the fragmentation of operating systems and so forth, that made computers talking to each other very difficult. The adventure that Microsoft represented at this point was to standardize personal computer software, and later networking software, etc., and other applications in order that everyone from technical people and administrators to end - users could start talking the same tech. - language, regardless of the basis for the operating systems and applications, routines and so on.
Mr. Allen is unabashed in speaking about his personal life and belief system as integrated into things like modern computing, quantum physics, microworlds, biology and futurology. He also hints at why he purchased sports teams and their venues, and is still in that business. Mostly people like me know he wants to bring an industrial - strength message to anyone who hears about Microsoft that technology is imperfect, but it is a great equalizer, a great way to improve productivity, educate people, and allow many tech. - oriented people to have better lives. It appears the intention of the founders of his computer company had this in mind even when they began their adventures writing and trying to find the right code way back when.
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