盖兹(1955年～)

Gates, Bill，原名William Henry Gates III。

美国电脑程式设计师和企业家。出生於华盛顿州西雅图，高中时代曾协助组建了一个电脑程式设计人员小组，把学校的薪资系统电脑化，并创办了一家公司向当地政府出售交通量计算系统。十九岁时从哈佛大学辍学，与艾伦（Paul G. Allen, 1954～）合夥成立微软公司。当1980年微软授权IBM公司在其第一批个人电脑（personal computer）上使用MS-DOS（微软磁碟作业系统）时，盖兹在刚萌芽的微电脑业中开始发挥支配的力量。之後，他也开始发展应用软体，如试算表、文书处理程式，到了1980年代末，微软已是这种软体和作业系统的主要供应商。1990年开发出「视窗3.0」（Windows 3.0），很快成为全世界最普及的作业系统。盖兹在三十一岁就成为亿万富翁，现今是世界上最富有的人。1999年他和妻子成立一个美国最大的慈善基金会。

English version：

1955年～

Gates, Bill

U.S. computer programmer and businessman. Gates was born in Seattle, Wash. As a teenager, he helped form a group of computer programmers who computerized their high school's payroll system and founded a company that sold traffic-counting systems to local governments. At 19 he dropped out of Harvard University and cofounded Microsoft Corp. with Paul G. Allen (born 1954). Microsoft began its domination of the fledgling microcomputer industry when Gates licensed the operating system MS-DOS to IBM in 1980 for use in IBM's first personal computer. He then began developing application software such as spreadsheets and word-processing programs, and by the late 1980s Microsoft was one of the leading suppliers of such software as well as operating systems. In 1990 it introduced Windows 3.0, which quickly became the most popular operating system worldwide. A billionaire at 31, Gates is today the wealthiest private person in the world. In 1999 he and his wife created the largest charitable foundation in the United States.