Bill Gates by Jeanne M. Lesinski (2006, Paperback, Revised)

I picked up this book with the idea of wanting to hear Bill Gates' side of the digital divide. He's been accused regularly of steeling software code and using that to compete with the people he stole from. Antivirus software, browser software, etc... But I realized that I wasn't going to get what I wanted when I reached page 48, only to find that the entire idea was encompassed in a single paragraph which starts like this:

"As such a powerful company, Microsoft has been accused of 'borrowing' ideas for programs from much smaller companies in ways that are, while not necessarily illegal, at least perceived as unfair."

For those who don't know, this is a large slap in the face to the entire software community. Before Bill Gates, no one even thought of "leasing" the rights to a program and limiting the amount of hardware it was installed on. He pioneered the financial system of modern day software. To turn around and steal from others is a total hypocrisy.

In addition to the overwhelming bias in the book, it is also impersonal. Bill Gates was not interviewed and the "facts" in this book can be found on Wikipedia or anywhere else. I also think that the story is incomplete. Jeanne chose a rather large span of time, focusing too much on events that I thought were minimal for a simple 100 page book.

I would not suggest this book to anybody of any experience level. If you already have background knowledge, this book will conflict with that. If you do not, this book will confuse you and will create ideas that will conflict with the rest of the world's retelling of the story.