Bill Gates in 1983 Teen Beat Magazine

So normally I resist the temptation to post this sort of thing because it just seems like a cheap shot, but I just can't hold back on this one, so Bill, if you're reading this (ya right ;) I'm sorry, but I just have to share this one. And I hope in 2021 I'm a billionaire and people are posting my yearbook pictures to take cheap shots at me too! Anyway, We recently found pictures of a photo spread Mr. Gates did in 1983 for Teen Beat magazine. Enjoy.

Best Bill Gates quote from the 1980's

[amichalo]

My favorite is this quote [macobserver.com] from Bill Gates:

"To create a new standard takes something that's not just a little bit different. It takes something that's really new and captures people's imaginations. Macintosh meets that standard."
- Bill Gates, Chairman of the Board & CEO Microsoft Corporation

While you're at it, check out the real article [macobserver.com] CmdrTaco found this photo at. Much more informative and interesting read.

Image-Only Mirrors

[nuxx]

Hey everyone... I've mirrored just the images here, if anyone would like them:

billg-teenbeat1.jpg [nuxx.net]
billg-teenbeat2.jpg [nuxx.net]

Enjoy!

Re:What a Heartthrob!

[DenDave]

Anyone notice the Mac in the back?

Gates didn't age well but he didn't start off all that good either... dang what freak...

Before the Revolution

[Dixie Flatliner]

While I try to avoid the MSFT/Anti-MSFT field entirely, I can't help but have a great deal of respect for Gates circa 1983; I mean, in the photos there's this guy who's right on the brink of the greatest business success in the history of the world.

Actually... Bill was a billionaire by 1987

[SwedishChef]

"And I hope in 2021 I'm a billionaire and people are posting my yearbook pictures to take cheap shots at me too!"

You don't have until 2021; Bill Gates was a billionaire by 1987 - only 4 years from the day those pictures were taken. So... better get at it. Time's a-wasting.

Re:What a Heartthrob!

[sgant]

Yeah, I did notice that Mac...and in fact, if this was from a Tiger Beat from 1983, then they had a picture of the Mac before it was even released in 1984!

Though I doubt there were industry people scouring Tiger Beat to see what Apple was up to.

Re:What a Heartthrob!

[damiena]

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/sellswindows .php [albinoblacksheep.com]

Re:LOL Blue Screen even then

[fuzzix]

Notice the BSOD on one of the computers...

In 1983? More likely to be some of that lovely blue on blue text favoured by many IBM and DOS applications of the day. It was used a lot in text editors IIRC.

Actually, that looks like a Mac in the background - those pics may not be from 1983 at all but from... 1984! Yet another hideous slashdot innacuracy ;-)

Re:Mac in the Back

[east coast]

If Apple wanted to compete with MSFT, they could simply release OSX for the PC, and all of a sudden XP would have real competition.

Heh. Just like consumers are so likely to move to Linux.

I'm in no way disputing the worth or worthiness of the OS. I'm just saying that Joe Sixpack is not going to leave the Windows liferaft unless he's pushed into the drink at gun point. I have conversations EVERYDAY that go like:

Joe: I'm having a problem with my PC.

Me: Ok. What do you have going on?

Joe: My MicroSoft something is giving me an error message.

Me: What's the error message? What application?

Joe: Something about a fault. I was running MicroSoft.

It is that pathetic. These people don't know, they don't want to know. They want it to work. All of the hype about Linux/OSX falls on deaf ears when you get to the core consumer because they're having a hard enough of a time as it is searching for pr0n and reading e-mails. They don't want to complicate their lives further. And frankly, in the circles of the general public, being a geek is still not cool. They just let you think that to fix their PCs. They don't want to be bothered with such high end technical talk such as "What OS do you run?"

More photos here

[JavaRob]

Here's a mirror, another blog [monkeymethods.org].

AND... for the real freaks out there who need more than 2 photos, here are two other pics (one [fireinthevalley.com], two [emh.co.kr]) from the same day (well, he's wearing the same clothes, anyway; I guess that doesn't mean much), a classic early MS photo [museumofhoaxes.com] (NOT a hoax, despite the domain name), and Billy G's mugshot [mugshots.org].

Bill's Mac

[WebCowboy]

Ask yourself how Bill could get a Mac in 1983

Well, from the start Microsoft was a primary developer for applications software on the Mac platform. When the Mac was introduced, MS was not the behemoth it is today, but it WAS the king of systems software and languages already, so it was natural to turn to MS to develop a BASIC for the Mac (Applesoft BASIC on the II+ was a derivative/extension of the same MS-BASIC used on the Commodore PET). Furthermore, MS was trying to break through in the applications arena and it's flagship application was MS Multiplan (precursor to Excel and initially a distant also-ran to Lotus 123 and VisiCALC). Apple also needed some software ready for when the Mac came out and was too busy on the system to develop a lot of useful applications so it needed 3rd party assistance from MS and others.

Given MS and Apple wanted to at least try to have BASIC and Mutiplan ready for the MACs release, MS had to have prototype specimens before it was released--and in fact it did receive its first Apple Mac in late 1982. So, yes Bill could did get Macs by 1983.

BTW, the first MS products for the Mac weren't unlike any other MS product--they sucked but were somewhat useable nonetheless (Jobs complained that MS "didn't get it" in regards to GUI design, and "had no taste" and on both points it could be said that Multiplan supports his observations). MS became by far the larget 3rd party software vendor of Macintosh progams largely the way it came to dominate in BASIC on early micros--first mover advantage.

Re:More photos here

[stratjakt]

On April 29th, 1975, at the age of 19, Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) was arrested by the Albuquerque Police department (arrest record #52090). The charges were speeding and driving without a license. It was the first of three arrests in the late seventies by Albuquerque Police.

I got it from the google cache here. [64.233.179.104], since the original page is gone.

Re:LOL Blue Screen even then

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually there was X windows, which descended from other graphical user interfaces. Xerox's Alto, developed at their Palo Alto Research Center --PARC seems to have been the first (1978), followed by the Xerox Star GUI circa 1981 (take a look over at http://www.thocp.net/hardware/xerox_star.htm), which featured a complete desktop with icons, menus, mouse input, and windowed applications. Microsoft was (is) a Johnny-come-lately, Vanneuver Bush published contributing documents to GUI design --in 1945 (just after world war 2), and Doug Englebart did an amazing proof-of-concept demonstration that shocked and amazed the computer establishment --in 1969. The comment as stated 'there was no Windows' as the previous poster stated, obviously should have been 'there was no Windows --on *my* computer'. However, the statement was partially correct. There was no BSOD on any of the prior systems, just Microsoft's.

Nothing unusual about that...

[geekwench]

Most "heartthrobs" are, in fact, older than the demographic of the teen magazine that they're displayed in. Johnny Depp? Or, more recently, Orlando Bloom? Same deal.

Still, he wasn't all that bad looking in those photos. Nerdy, sure, but then we already knew that about him.

Lordy, lordy, though; what unhappy changes time hath wrough.