The plot to get Bill Gates

Books about Microsoft's founder and chairman can usually be divided into two categories: one the fearless exposÚ of odious business practices and lack of personality; the other detailing his incredible breadth of vision and hopes for mankind's future. Not surprisingly, the positive camp so far comprises only two books, namely Gates' own The Road Ahead and Business @ the Speed of Thought (reviewed issue 59, p200).

Gary Rivlin's The Plot to Get Bill Gates doesn't actually fall in with the Gates-baiting crowd, either. Despite the cover tag, An Irreverent Investigation of the World's Richest Man? and the People Who Hate Him, it's a well-balanced and carefully researched look at how Gates has reached his present high perch and why so many people spend so much time trying to knock him off it.

What comes through is that Gates may not be the world's most rounded individual, but neither is he the Great Satan described by the anti-Microsoft fraternity. Although Rivlin isn't entirely enamoured with the way Microsoft does its business, he places its tactics in the context of an aggressive industry driven by a combination of high technology, brash youth and hardcore capitalism.

The book charts Microsoft's rise to power, and Rivlin isn't afraid to dispute the many myths that have been built up. A lot of the text is anecdotal or from earlier sources, but Rivlin ties together the fruits of his research with a smart overview that's sharp and slightly cynical. Whatever you think of Gates by the end of the book, you can't help but feel that his detractors are more motivated by envy or peevishness than an altruistic desire to make the PC market a better place for everyone. If the book's image of Gates isn't always complimentary, its portraits of Sun's Scott McNealy and Oracle's Larry Ellison are hardly generous.

Serious PC experts might quibble over the odd point, but the only major fault is the title. The 'plot' comes across as a set of feeble attempts to knock Microsoft off its pedestal, made by a loosely-aligned group of individuals with little in common but a seething dislike for Gates and his company. In fact, the biggest threat to Microsoft's hegemony comes from the US Government and while Rivlin goes into that in a certain amount of depth, it's a shame this book has arrived with the biggest dramas yet to come.

Author: Stuart Andrews