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Bill Gates Honors Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen: He 'Changed My Life' (people.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the lost-but-never-forgotten dept.

In an article published to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Bill Gates reflected on Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's life and the impact Allen had on him. Paul Allen passed away last Monday from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 65. People Magazine reports: "I met Paul Allen when I was in 7th grade, and it changed my life, Gates wrote in the Journal. "I looked up to him right away. He was two years ahead of me in school, really tall, and proved to be a genius with computers... Eventually, we were spending just about all our free time messing around with any machine we could get our hands on." The two would often sneak off during late hours to use the computers at the University of Washington, something Gates said he wouldn't have had the nerve to do without Allen by his side.

Back then, Allen was able to foresee how powerful and essential computers would one day become. When Allen came across an issue of Popular Electronics that featured a powerful computer that was going to be released, he convinced Gates to join him in placing all of their focus into getting in on the computer industry before it took off without them. "That moment marked the end of my college career and the beginning of our new company, Microsoft," Gates recalled, adding that Allen's talents largely helped to make Microsoft successful at its inception. "As the first person I ever partnered with, Paul set a standard that few other people could meet. He had a wide-ranging mind and a special talent for explaining complicated subjects in a simple way." In closing, Gates wrote: "Paul was cooler than I was. He was really into Jimi Hendrix, and I remember him playing 'Are You Experienced?' for me. I wasn't experienced at much of anything back then, and Paul wanted to share this amazing music with me. That's the kind of person he was. He loved life and the people around him, and it showed."

23 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Pay Walled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Anyone got the full article.

  2. All the nice words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    from the man that wanted to kick him out of the company he co-created. Very nice indeed. Not.

    1. Re:All the nice words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's what I was thinking. Read this to see what Bill's true feelings towards Paul Allen was.

    2. Re:All the nice words by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not incredibly surprising.

      Socially, we have an inherent predilection to speak kindly of the recently deceased.

      Sociopathically, liking someone has never really been much of an obstacle for those most likely to rise to the top of billion dollar corporations.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:All the nice words by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I think I have the title for a new book: When egos collide, the Microsoft story.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:All the nice words by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Socially, we have an inherent predilection to speak kindly of the recently deceased.

      You know, some people were such awful human beings that they deserve to have their ashes used to make a public urinal. Just sayin.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    5. Re:All the nice words by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      "Good ole Larry! He was far from perfect, but kind to his dog... and even at the last, he was into recycling."

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    6. Re:All the nice words by Iwastheone · · Score: 1

      I think marrying Melinda has made Bill more human than he ever would have been otherwise. She's changed him for the better.

  3. Amazing. by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

    Amazing what a few determined pot heads can do. And now hes let some business fuck fuck up what was at one time one of the greatest technology companies that existed. Now look at what it has turned into.

    1. Re:Amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That can be said about computers and technology, software or society in general.

      It's simply nostalgia and false recollection that overlooks all the muck we had to trudge through to get where we are today.

      Things change and not always for the better. They call it life. Keep on marching.

    2. Re:Amazing. by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That happened to a great many tech companies. HP, for instance. At some point these companies become institutionalized internally; they no longer serve to bring about the vision and dreams of the founders, and the company becomes a goal unto itself. That always reminds me of the movie Tron, the founder of ENCOM lamenting to the CEO: "Sometimes I wish I was back in that garage...". Here's hoping that we'll never hear the same sentiment from guys like Elon Musk.

      Perhaps the problem with these generic MBA "business fucks" is that they lack a grand vision, other than increasing profit and growing the company. They want to conquer the world rather than change it.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    3. Re:Amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Amazing what a few determined pot heads can do. And now hes let some business fuck fuck up what was at one time one of the greatest technology companies that existed. Now look at what it has turned into.

      Microsoft barely even matters anymore, except in the "we still sell stuff to people hooked on our existing products" kind of way.

      It happens to all companies. It will happen to Apple (they are already showing the same signs). It will happen to Google.

      It's how Sears went from a powerful retail machine to my kids asking me what Sears is.

    4. Re:Amazing. by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It also helps when you have rich parents and your Mother is on the board of IBM. Give me a break.

  4. Paul Allen: Bill Gates tried to rip me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-rip-me-off/

    Bill Gates (and later with Steve Ballmer) repeatedly tried to screw Paul Allen out of his shares of Microsoft stock. That is the true story of Bill Gates, not all this love-fest BS now that Allen is gone.

    1. Re:Paul Allen: Bill Gates tried to rip me off by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      single handedly responsible for the destruction of ~80% of the world's corals reefs by parking his various yachts over them and letting the anchors drift around

      The world has about 500,000 square miles of coral reefs. I doubt that his boat anchor destroyed 400,000 of them.

    2. Re:Paul Allen: Bill Gates tried to rip me off by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

      He did, feel free to search since you should be able to access google.com

    3. Re:Paul Allen: Bill Gates tried to rip me off by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      Apparently not the world's coral reef, but 80% of areef in the Cayman islands.
      https://www.seattletimes.com/n...

      Although, looking at the yacht, I kinds despise the guy now. People driving around in yachts like this are lecturing us on climate change , so...yeah, good riddance.

  5. The True Story by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The True Story is that Gates and Allen hated each other and Allen was a patent troll after he left Microsoft. But yeah, what a lovefest.

  6. does he look like a bitch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    so why'd you try to fuck him like a bitch, Bill?

    https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-rip-me-off/

  7. Allen had a Crystal Ball or Something ? by nukenerd · · Score: 2

    FTFA :

    Allen was able to foresee how powerful and essential computers would one day become.

    When was this : 1974/5 ? I was there, and every thinking person under the age of 25 foresaw it too.

  8. I doubt it by Xoc-S · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was at a Microsoft Christmas party in about 1990 (+/- a year). Bill Gates and Paul Allen were there talking to each other. Their body language was that they were old friends, not mortal enemies. This would have been seven years or so after the date mentioned in the cnet article. So, even if the article was true, which I doubt, then they had patched up their differences by then.

    1. Re:I doubt it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Being amicable with each other in public means nothing. If you see the D conference interview with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, they act like old buddies too, but we all know the real history behind them.

      The article is based on the book written by Paul Allen himself. I'm much more inclined to believe him over Bill Gates.

  9. A very classy letter, here's the link by davide+marney · · Score: 2

    https://www.gatesnotes.com/Abo...

    Really, a very nice memorial.

    --
    "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday