Like HF, Bill Gates has truly made a historic impact on the high tech industry and his philanthropy work is already making an incredible difference.
Good for him.
Having said that, Microsoft has missed the internet boat big time and the Windows OS a mess. That must really hurt.
Bill Gates' legacy: A modern day Henry Ford
Summary
Bill Gates is arguably the individual who has had the biggest impact on the world of technology and his departure from Microsoft on 27 June will mark the end of an era.
Topics
Bill Gates is arguably the individual who has had the biggest impact on the world of technology and his departure from Microsoft on 27 June will mark the end of an era. Video: (Left) Bill Gates' hits and misses
During his career Gates has made Microsoft into one of the biggest companies in the world with products that have long been ubiquitous for computer users.
But the company has also suffered from accusations of anti-competitive behavior with well-publicized battles with US regulators and the European Union.
So what is Bill Gates' legacy as he departs from the mega-corporation he built from scratch and how will his time as Microsoft figurehead be remembered?
Rob Horwitz, co-founder of analyst firm, Directions on Microsoft, compares Gates to car manufacturing pioneer Henry Ford.
He said: "Gates took an arcane technology that was accessible to few and figured out how to re-engineer, extend, package and market it so that it was relevant and affordable to the masses."He added: "Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile, and Gates didn't invent the computer but the brilliance of both was in figuring out how to make their respective products ubiquitous."
ZDNet bloggers on Bill Gates
- Mary Jo Foley: How many people does it take to fill Bill Gates' shoes?
- Dana Blankenhorn: The Andrew Carnegie of our second gilded age
- Phil Wainewright: Is Bill Gates a secret cloud convert?
- Micheal Krigsman: Bill Gates' Web experience: Byzantine, idiotic logic
Mary-Jo Foley, Microsoft expert and blogger on silicon.com sister site ZDNet.com, says Gates has created legacies in both technology and philanthropy.
She said: "On the tech front, I'd say Gates will be remembered for making good on his goal of helping popularize personal computing. Microsoft did end up enabling consumer and business users to deploy--almost--a PC on every desk."
She added: "He helped create a partner ecosystem, via which a number of hardware, software and service vendors built entire businesses around Microsoft software."
But Foley also noted that Gates played a major role in putting numerous companies out of business through Microsoft's aggressive competition.
"Some of these companies claim Microsoft stole their ideas; others collapsed from being squeezed out of the market by Goliath [Microsoft]," Foley said.
In terms of what Gates will be remembered for, Foley said many will recall him as a "hard-charging competitor who was in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the personal computing boom."
On the other hand, she said others may remember a "ruthless competitor who got away with a lot of illegal monopolistic behavior."
But she concluded: "I think both sides will remember Gates as a nerd who made good--and ultimately did a lot of good with the billions he made through his Foundation work."
Forrester analyst George F Colony says the ruthless way in which Microsoft achieved its dominant position under Gates wasn't as detrimental as others would argue.
Writing on his blog Colony refers to the behavior employed by Gates as "constructive monopolist" due to the benefits it created for technology users by creating a set of standards.
Like Directions on Microsoft's Hurwitz, Colony compares Gates to another famous figure, Thomas Edison. He said both created good technologies and "worked to get them accepted by more users than their competitors."
"Gates has been a business innovator, not a technology innovator. [He] had the vision to see this future and he possessed the competitive drive to force his technologies into monopoly positions in the marketplace," Colony added.
Colony also suggests part of the reason Microsoft has failed to convincingly combat Google--and why Steve Jobs has been able to resurrect his career so spectacularly--is that Gates has been focusing much more on his philanthropic activities in recent years than the company he founded.
Colony summed up Gates' single most important legacy as: "The ability, through monopolistic business practices, to make Microsoft's products global, de facto standards for business and consumers."
David Mitchell, senior analyst with Ovum, said Gates' legacy centers on technology produced before the modern "Vista generation" of the company.
"He helped to create a generation of people in the industry that focus on usability and making computing a simpler experience that ordinary people can manage," Mitchell said.
He added: "He was one of the people responsible for the democratization of computing, taking it from the hands of technical elite into the mainstream of business and the home."
Talkback Most Recent of 30 Talkback(s)
-
Prognosticator25th Jun 2008 -
The parallel is perfect
Henry Ford built an empire around a new technology. And then
had his clock cleaned by General Motors because he failed to
realize that consumers like style too.
frgough25th Jun 2008 -
RE: Bill Gates' legacy: A modern day Henry Ford
Bill Gates contributed to writing a very simple OS (DOS 1.0). About 100k of code.
IBM brought the PC to the masses.
Apple popularized the windows-like GUI.
Everytime a developer came up with a neat utility, Microsoft incororated it in their package for free.
Gates was very slow to embrace the internet and TCP/IP core and networking in the OS.
The personal computer revolution is an industry success.
pdog25th Jun 2008 -
Carnegie may be a better comparison
Given the size of Gates' NGO and its good works around the world
willkoky25th Jun 2008 -
Friends, Microsoft fans, country men....
Lend me your ears, for I have come to praise BillG. BillG is the single most important person in the history of the world. I am not just talking IT here, I am talking the entire world. BillG enabled us to move into a world of connected devices. Microsoft invented the Internet and most of the communications protocols that we use today. Suites like TCP/IP would not be around today if BillG did not decide to include it with NT 4.0. Word processing, spreadsheets, gaming, mobile phones, the list goes on and on. My rep invited me to watch the Bil Gates Roast at Microsoft. Although I am not guaranteed a seat at the roast itself, I know I don't need one. BillG's aura is enough to fill up the entire campus. My rep and I will toast to BillG several times as I deploy Windows 7 pre-alpha builds on my home network this weekend.
Mike Cox25th Jun 2008 -
8.9!!!!
nt
TtfnJohn27th Jun 2008 -
Vomit
Henry Ford was an inventor. Bill G is a hack who didn't
care if his company broke the law, who stole other
people's technology in a bad faith execution of a good
faith clause in a contract and who's entire "innovation"
portfolio was a drive to "addict" people to his products,
squashing real innovation and competition.
No one in their right mind thinks that Microsoft products
are great or that Microsoft is a great company.
Where I am proud of Bill G is his newfound philanthropy
after proving his uselessness as Chief of Software or
whatever it was.
The real geniuses are the two guys that invented and
marketed the PC. More than thirty years later, markets
move on rumours or if the one that's still working gets a
cough, or worse.
You asked what I thought.
mlindl25th Jun 2008 -
Henry Ford broke the law
but I guess that was OK, as it was Henry Ford, and not Bill Gates.
The real geniuses are the two guys that invented and marketed the PC
IBM invented it, Bill gates "marketed" it.
Nobody wanted the blasted thing untill Windows allowed the novice to be able to use it.
GuidingLight25th Jun 2008 -
Bite your tongue!
Henry Ford invented mass production (not the assembly line).
Bill Gates invented . . . nothing.
HF paid his employees MORE than the going rate.
BG . . . nope!
HF was a bigot.
BG probably isn't.
HF was a philanthropist.
BG is a philanthropist.
HF never had a monopoly.
BG did.
HF made friends with Edison, Firestone and other great INVENTORS.
BG bought up small companies and incorporated their work - calling it innovation.
HF's company has lasted over 100 years.
BG's company probably wont.
HF's company has a $20bil capitalization.
BG's company makes that much profit in less than a year.
Just for fun:
http://www.performantsystems.com/GM.html
Roger Ramjet26th Jun 2008 -
Then here is a question
BG bought up small companies and incorporated their work - calling it innovation
Apple took different existing technologies, incorporated them in one product and called it "innovation", why not here?GuidingLight25th Jun 2008 -
Here we go again
Apple's genius isn't WHAT they do, it's HOW they do it.
It's not a hard concept, but some people still refuse to get it.
MP3 players existed before the iPod. And they all sucked.
Operating Systems existed before MacOS. And they all sucked.
Smart phones existed before the iPhone. And they all sucked.
Ford existed before GM, and their cars sucked. That's why GM
came along and wiped the floor with Ford.frgough25th Jun 2008 -
many Apple products suck too
yes, starting with the iPod, which is very unreliable (frequently breaks after 1 or 2 years). By the way, don't they have to pay Creative to license their technology?
You say other OSs sucked before Mac OS? You must be dreaming really. UNIX existed way before and I quite frankly don't see how it sucks. In fact in any OS textbook you find more material about MULTICS, UNIX, etc. that of "Mac OS". What do you mean by that? Pre OS X? OS X? Pre OS X sucked, and badly, it was totally unstable and unreliable (bomb icon anyone?). OS X is a decent OS, but far from perfect or in many cases innovative. Perhaps you meant UIs instead of OSs? That at least is debatable, but OSs? no way!
Also, smart phones pre IPhone don't suck at all. At least Palm Treo and Blackberry are very good phones.
Finally, regarding Ford and GM, if MS is Ford, who is GM? Apple? come on, that sound ridiculous really, or at least I do not see what are the parallels.
P.S. You forgot: "video game consoles existed before the Pippin, and none sucked as badly"
markbn25th Jun 2008 -
???
Bill Gates did create millions of jobs due to the Windows ecosystem. He didn't invent the technology but he did accelerated the technology world to an point it just have gotten so fast that no one cannot keep up. I doubt no one will. In this industry...you have conquer and destroy anyone that threaten your bread and butter because if you don't, you will end up getting crushed. Ask Henry Ford about not protecting an good lead will do to you (Third place in the auto industry, on the verge of being bankrupt). Microsoft slapped on the wrist for slowing down Netscape as an cloud os. At least that brought Microsoft another twenty years of profits.
1g2j25th Jun 2008 -
Eli Whitney invented the assembly line
And did it long before Henry Ford was born.
Look it up.
John L. Ries26th Jun 2008 -
Yes, Bill Gates has had a remarkable career
As I've said before, a job very well done!
P. Douglas25th Jun 2008
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
