Architects: Paul Allen - Software Architect, Microsoft (1971-1983) The beginning This is a story if it had not really happened no one would believe it.
sounds like a legend, and in fact is absolutely no doubt that much of what was about to tell the tone of the legendary and despite the fact that the character,
Paul Allen, as one of the 10 richest men in the world, is of course, and is, of course, something very concrete.
... and, in case we forget, there are his $ 30 billion of assets estimated to date to remind us.
Another thing that we always keep in mind, in telling the story of Paul Allen, the only real number two in the Microsoft of all time, and its first Software Architect, is the fact that he and Bill Gates have been friends forever, and have shared their passion for computers since they were two young teenagers
.
IT is their common passion and a passion that is all too evident from the photo below, a very rare image of 1968 when Bill was 13 years (Gates was born in 1955) and Paul has 15 (Allen, 1953) .
remarkable aspects and that shines through all things, and attitude and is well known to those working in the field of software development
(
pair programming, pair programming, there they are ... even Bill & Paul worked With this method there !!!), Paul to the keyboard and writes the code.
And in fact the first true Software Architect, of what, at the time of the foundation, called Micro-Soft was Paul Allen.
The only person, besides the mother (who has played a key role in the creation of that colossus which is now Microsoft) which is said that Gates has never trusted in his life.
Paul Allen, perhaps the only true and only friend of Bill Gates, and his first
Architect! Allen has played a key role in climbing to the success of Microsoft and has never created problems of leadership
to Gates.
Issues
leadership, Incidentally, that are deeply felt in the world of computing, for the particular type of personality "aggressive" and that they must always and necessarily good
programmers. Allen has always accepted the
Gates' leadership, that despite being larger than age two years, compared to Bill.
For Allen, after all, perhaps only interested in the technical-creative and in fact between Allen and Gates, there was probably the same kind of symbiosis technical and commercial skills and
raiders in the negotiations that there was for another couple of computing history, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple).
Gates, Allen and Micro-Soft Allen is the one who when found, along with Gates, the Micro-Soft, and they were both in their early twenties, he accepted without a murmur the diktat
Gates. Bill in fact, on the advice of his mother, he changed just before transcribing formal acts before the notaries, the percentage distribution of the shares.
The initial shares of Micro-Soft was 50% and 50% Allen Gates. When the mother of
Gates (which it was intended for business and was an influential member of many powerful groups in urban areas in Seattle, their residence) saw the allocation made by his son ordered him to change it ...
He told Bill that there is no company in the 50% ... Said, still with his son, reproaching him hard to understand nothing, which would sooner or later there comes a time, as part of corporate life, to decide something extremely important ... and in that case should be clear who had the last word and who's not.
knew Bill and I come back from Paul saying that he, Bill Gates, decided that the quotas had to be changed, 51% reserved for himself, Gates, and 49% for Paul.
Take it or leave it ... they looked into his eyes while Paul took his decision ... very few people in the world can stand the look of Bil Gates ... and Paul agreed.
It was the beginning of something that is now, in fact, legend.
not retrace the whole, only some key aspects, also to better understand the role of an Architect, which was and is Allen, and how this role is often decisive.
A good technical choice of a good architect can save a serious situation and seemingly hopeless.
A bad choice, or even worse, the lack of a Software Architect and the situation becomes
critical real technical breakdown.
Microsoft DOS Allen is the person who directed Gates, after the same had concluded the deal with IBM, the choice of buying the
code - basis of what later will become the
DOS. They bought the code-base
by a programmer who had designed and produced, with no commercial success, something similar to what we needed them, a clone of the C / PM Gary Kildall (Digital Research).
bought it for $ 40,000!
Allen was to extend it, working like crazy on the terminals of the university, and it was he above all who made a real technical miracle when, in the morning when he was leaving for the IBM to deliver the product (and we only went Allen also because they were saving money on air tickets) they realized, too late, Gates and Allen, who had forgotten to write the sequence of
bootstrap . Working on college
terminals (they had saved on this!) The bootstrap
it was accomplishing
central mainframe. But the DOS had to be autorun!
If they were simply forgotten ...!
Allen then made a real masterpiece of engineering. Gates was already thinking of delaying maneuvers and phone calls to IBM, but they were already on the third court, the clerk would have almost certainly lost most of their lives.
Allen then took the decision, the decision of a life, Gates told not to worry, that he would write the sequence of bootstrap
... and it did so ... damn ... alone in the plane with a pencil and paper and in 3 hours!
Gates looked after, incredulous, but Allen was convinced he could do it ... and Paul wrote on the plane, on sheets remedied at the last moment, incredibly memory, the code sequence
bootstrap! arrived for testing at the site IBM transcribed calmly, while the technicians were scanning the skeptics, the code in the IBM PC prototype that he made available and all worked without errors ... miraculously!
do not become the case in one of the ten richest men in the world!
disease And the story goes on until to 1983 ... Microsoft is already a powerhouse in the ICT sector in the United States and around the world and under the leadership of Gates moves with a ruthlessness that is indicative of how aggressive they intend to overwhelm the market.
are, in fact, already at that time, complaints for questionable marketing approaches used by Microsoft (but still typical of many ICT environments!) According to the method
FUD Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt - " fear, uncertainty and doubt "- that is basically to spread news, mostly false, or technical inability to serious technical problems of software to prevent their competitors to gain or defend market.
In 1983 something unexpected happens, something you do not expect something ... but it reminds us that all men are men ....
Paul Allen is seriously ill ... and ... a cancer, Hodgkin's disease
.
lasts two years the fight against the disease by Allen. Meanwhile, Gates is close friend and tells him not to worry ... he'll see that the company ... are the two hardest years for Gates and Allen ... years in which the Allen
sfanga in his fight for life ... and Gates commercial triumphs against all opponents.
After two years as Gates is very happy to take back its Architect, who is back after winning his fight against the disease.
But Allen, who owned 49% is already rich beyond imagination, his friend from an unexpected answer ... tells you no longer want to work!
that, having faced death, he learned the value of life and now wants to enjoy it, want to spend all the money earned, he has his passions (music, basketball, football, women, travel ...) and did not care no more work !
... and then pray to get rid of Bill and economically to let him go! For
Gates is a heavy blow, thinking at first that his old friend is mad and takes time, because 49% of the outstanding Microsoft is not a transaction so economically feasible in the short.
But then time passes and Gates understands that his friend is serious, who really pulled the plug, then switch to plan B orchestrated by Gates ... that is the final part of our history as we will see ...
Meanwhile, in the last 20 years, Allen has made and is making all their whims ... buy basketball teams (the
Portland Trailblazers) and a football, the Seattle Seahawks
.
Build and founded a museum of the total cost of 500 mil. dollars devoted to one of his idols, Jimi Hendrix, significant funding, among other things, the search for extraterrestrial life (23 mil.
dollars to Seti Institute Carl Sagan) and a mysterious ICT companies,
Transmeta, which is also a legend as its founder and then we'll see why ...
The accident record Moreover
Allen is very discreet person who does not like to talk about himself and it shows, about 10 years ago when, despite himself, stumbled into a legal mess. One of his secretary, the complaint for rape, is the time when it seems easy to get in the States (see Mike Tyson case) substantial damages with complaints like that.
But Allen is a public man and you think it will go, with its bevy of the best lawyers, all the way, without bargaining as it has always
possible in the American system of Common Law. I am convinced all the American media and global morbidly begin to follow the story.
You arrive at the date of the preliminary hearing where, according to American practice, the judge asks the parties to possibly end the game with an amount of compensation for all, is the practice, but Paul Allen is a public man, refuse to believe all, no doubt to protect his good name. The defense secretary
shoot, without conviction, a pro-forma figure ... ... .5 million dollars is just a pro forma. It expects the obvious
NO defenders of Paul Allen, the best of America.
And at this point something happens that is rarely seen and you will see in the judicial offices, Paul Allen's lawyers opened a briefcase, pulled out a check, fill out the figure and hands it to the judge who, incredulous, reads the amount! !
Fifteen million dollars!
We think of an error, but Allen's lawyers clarify.
They have had a clear mandate by their client's Paul Allen, had to pay 3 times the amount required by any other party to close, finally, the question there. Why
their client would not have had time to devote to each other! And he had better things to do ...
And certainly looking at his mega yacht (the largest in the world) to do things better than a court case it has!
the undersigned extender followed the story of this post, 10 years ago, on news websites and newspapers as Corriere and Repubblica who devoted ... and I remember it well ... really more of a reportage
from the hearing in which described what happens.
One, very nice, even by one of the best Italian journalist, Vittorio Zucconi wrote really well.
In the news today, and it is quite disturbing, there is no trace anywhere. Try to find
... Allen is a very discreet and also search engines are ...
Allen, transmit and Linux brings us to ...
Transmeta society more important than Paul Allen continues, despite having officially left Microsoft, to keep one foot in the ICT world.
For years, before announcing to the public to produce low-power microprocessors is listed on Nasdaq, remains an impenetrable secret Transmeta around which accumulate
rumors and mysteries.
It 's the company where he works, but looks a bit' cases of life, and since 1997, Linus Torvalds.
Yes, just that Linus Torvalds, the Architect (another one!) Of Linux to be clear, hired by former colleague Architect Paul Allen to a contract of millions of dollars.
Transmeta is said to be the company which programmers and technicians of the highest level separating them mostly to Microsoft's competitors.
E 'society that allows, for years a
home page which is a masterpiece of anti-marketing.
E 'the company, as its main financier Allen does not like being talked about on the web ...
Among the legends that run through the maze of the network, there is one truly amazing ... probably the most amazing of all ... and this speaks volumes about the fact that the information contained on the Web and Web knows what they really are.
... however, was said, the most paradoxical legend circulating on the net is that anyone who writes to Paul Allen, his accident record, Transmeta, Linus Torvalds worked for Transmeta, which ... will receive a phone call from some mysterious emissary ... it will pay three times any amount to get rid of the news, or it will take, if technical ICT in Transmeta weight in gold!
And this is really unbelievable ...
Oops ... sorry for interrupting this post now ... but I will ring the phone ...
