Summary

The chapter opens with a brief summary of Bill Gates’ life up until the launch of the Macintosh. Gates dropped out of Harvard to start the software company Microsoft. Gates knew Jobs, as Microsoft had been developing software for the Apple II. Jobs wanted Microsoft to write programs for the Macintosh, and they eventually developed a deal where new Microsoft programs such as Word and Excel would come bundled with the Macintosh (as well as develop a version of floating point BASIC for Mac). With this deal, Microsoft would make money on each copy of the programs shipped with the machines. During this time, Jobs and Gates also became relatively friendly, even though each one thought he was smarter than the other.

Due to delays, Microsoft’s programs were not able to ship with the Mac. This actually ended up helping...