Title: The plot to get Bill Gates
Description: "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." "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 slop-shouldered billionaire with bad hair and unearthing the most telling details to explain why Gates is so rich and we aren't. (The short answer: 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."--Jacket.
Subjects: Competition, Computer software industry, Microsoft Corporation
Places: United States
People: Bill Gates (1955-), Steve Jobs (1955-2011), Philippe Kahn, James L. Barksdale, Larry Ellison, Scott McNealy, Janet Reno, Thomas Penfield Jackson, Joel I. Klein, Gary L. Reback, Ralph Nader, John E. Doerr, Linus Torvalds (1969-)