Paul Allen Rips Bill Gates In Autobiography 249
itwbennett writes "Bill Gates was guilty of 'mercenary opportunism' when he schemed with Steve Ballmer to dilute Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's equity in the company while Allen was recovering from Hodgkin's disease, according to Allen. In his upcoming autobiography, 'Idea Man,' which is excerpted in Vanity Fair, Allen paints a portrait of Gates as brilliant, focused, driven ... and ruthless. According to Allen, Gates in the early days twice sought larger equity in the company on the grounds that he 'did more.' Allen says he acquiesced each time, both because he understood his partner's reasoning and to avoid major conflict."
Paul's the Good Guy? (Score:4, Informative)
Is Paul the good guy in this scenario? Nope. Not even close.
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:5, Informative)
According to Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Allen's portrayal of Gates "in the book is already making waves within the tight circle of early Microsoft alumni, with several people who know both men privately expressing confusion about Mr. Allen's motivations for criticizing his old business partner and questioning the accuracy of Mr. Allen's interpretation of certain events
Re:Oh poor Paul (Score:5, Informative)
He has been involved with philanthropy in the U.S. Pacific Northwest for 20 years, largely through his Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, handing out more than $1 billion in grants and funding for local projects.[1] [reuters.com]
Last year he pledged his remaining wealth (USD13.5B) to charity.
Allen has been a philanthropist since Gates was at the height of his douchebaggery. You ... you're just an ass.
Re:Yep - He did it to Steve Jobs (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Yep - He did it to Steve Jobs (Score:5, Informative)
My understanding [bott.org] of the history [mackido.com] goes like this:
The Mac was not an exact copy of the Star. The Xerox Star system however was far from complete. It didn't have drag-and-drop, windows could not overlap, etc. Apple did use the idea of menus, using a mouse as a pointer, etc.
Part of the deal worked out with Xerox was that Apple was shown Smalltalk. However, Xerox built the Star using another own language called Mesa. Even if Apple got the source code and an emulator, it would be useless as the Mac OS was written in assembly.