Bill Gates Last Day...A Look Back at the Beginning

Back in 1984, (not the George Orwelian one)right out of college I took a job selling PC's, although back then they were pretty much just word processors. A single disk drive, capable of running 640k diskettes would set you back about $4000. IBM was the King and MS-DOS was the new operating system of choice. My "Office" had "Windows", but not a computers.

My father had taken a job a year earlier with a company that bought Heathkit. It was a division of Zenith Electronics, and they called it Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) . ZDS was one of the original manufacturers of what was then known as "PC Clones." It was a tough industry to crack because IBM simply stated that if corporate America didn't buy IBM PC's they wouldn't be responsible for anything that went wrong with IBM Main Frames, System 36's etc.

My father quickly rose through the ranks and became President of Zenith Data Systems. Rather than fall victim to IBM's edict (and stronghold on the market) under my father's leadership, Zenith went the route of pitching their PC clones to the Federal Government. (What better way to sidestep IBM's stronghold than to go to an organization IBM couldn't control?) (Pictured below, on the right, is a Z-161 Portable Computer. Only 22 pounds I think it was, for the guy on the go!)

Anyway, ZDS won several significant and lucrative contracts with the Department of Defense (including the Army, Navy & Air Force,) the IRS, the Post Office, and landed both the CIA and the FBI with their high security "Tempest" program. Had they not been a "division" of Zenith Electronics, ZDS would have, (instead of Ron Canion's Compaq) become known as the fastest company to go from $0 to $1 Billion in annual sales.

Based on these large contracts (1 was for $242 million with the Air Force for their Z-100 line) Microsoft was brought in and became a strategic partner.

Throughout his tenure as President of ZDS, my father met with Bill Gates frequently. Microsoft and Zenith Data Systems worked very closely together for many years and my dad fondly recalls the experiences to this day. I remember several stories he shared regarding both Bill Gates and Bill's close friend, Steve Ballmer. My father tells me he formed great business relationships with both, but worked more closely, and therefore evenutally formed a closer bond with Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's current CEO.

Mr. Ballmer remains, while today is Bill Gates last day. Having said that, I thought I'd pay tribute to Bill Gates final day at Microsoft with the aforementioed story in this, the HomeATM Blog.

Here's the latest article I found with a "Bill Gates" Microsoft Google news search, the picture is from 1985, a period closer toward the time I first became familiar with the man, who today steps down...

Friday 27th June 2008 will go down in history as the day Bill Gates officially left behind his Microsoft day job.

As Bill wiped away the tears at the Redmond HQ, here's a look back at some magic Microsoft moments and mistakes...Can it really be 33 years ago that a 17 year old Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen? Can it really be true that, having literally changed the face of computing and becoming the world's richest man for many consecutive years, Gates has finally stepped down from the day to day business of running the company? The answer, of course, is yes on both counts.

Speaking before employees at the Microsoft headquarters within the magnificent campus in Redmond, Seattle, Gates is reported to have wiped away the tears as he spoke with great emotion about his feelings for the company."There won't be a day in my life when I won't be thinking about Microsoft, the great things that we're doing and wanting to help" Gates said.Naturally he got a standing ovation.

Equally naturally, the ever emotional and exuberant Steve Ballmer gave one of his famously animated speeches. The Microsoft CEO applauded 'Bill the leader' and admitted that "there's no way to say thanks to Bill."Of course, the truth is that Bill has billions of thanks in the bank. Indeed, he is standing down so as to be able to concentrate on his charitable work and in what could be a remake of Brewster's Millions he will do his very best to give away most of his fortune before he dies.What's more, Gates remains the majority individual shareholder at Microsoft as well as Chairman of the board. He has not exactly got on his horse and disappeared into the sunset here. In fact, he will be spending a day a week working with Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie at Microsoft.

Oh...If you're interested, I recommend taking a look at this self-depracating and very humorous YouTube video highlighting Bill Gates last days at Microsoft.

Bill Gates' Last Days - CES 2008 (HQ/Sound Fixed)