Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace (Hardcover)

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)

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Praise for Overdrive

Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace

"James Wallace offers many tales of . . . temper tantrums, antitrust tussles with the Justice Department, and general dirty tricks Microsoft has allegedly played on its competitors." –The New York Times Book Review

Praise for James Wallace′s

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

"A stupendous success story. This is the most informative book yet on Bill Gates and Microsoft." –the Washington Post

"Remarkable . . . This book will make you wonder why you didn′t buy Microsoft stock when it went public." –The Wall Street Journal

"An engaging, almost classic tale of a boy who finds power in gadgets and then won′t let go." –Los Angeles Times

From the Inside Flap
Overdrive He’s the wealthiest man in the world, happily married, the father of a young child. As Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, the juggernaut of the software industry, he dominates the corporate landscape like a colossus. His reputation for ruthlessly eliminating any and every obstacle in his path has been earned battle by battle, victory by victory, and, as the twenty–first century beckons, onetime wunderkind Bill Gates faces the future with fire, fierce determination—and fear. What could Bill Gates possibly have to fear? Fallibility. The renowned visionary missed the turnoff to the information superhighway—and let a gang of young upstarts at Netscape seize the biggest opportunity to hit the computing industry since the PC: the advent of the Internet. Suddenly, the mighty Microsoft empire seemed vulnerable, and Gates found himself in the unfamiliar—and uncomfortable—position of having to play catch–up. Launching one of the most dramatic corporate retoolings in history, Bill Gates shifted into overdrive. In this hard–hitting, controversial, and compelling account, acclaimed journalist James Wallace tells the inside story of Gates’s no–holds–barred struggle to keep Microsoft on top. Picking up where his bestselling Hard Drive left off, Wallace goes behind the scenes of Gates’s ongoing battles with Novell, Borland, Lotus, and other competitors. He sheds new light on the Justice Department’s antitrust investigation of Microsoft, from the reasons behind the transfer of the case from the FCC to Justice, to the astounding moment when, in the face of Gates’s ferocious resistance, Justice blinked. Here, too, is the story behind the mega–marketing blitz that led to the most eagerly anticipated event in the history of the software industry: the spectacular launch of Windows^® 95. Moving from the boardrooms of IBM and Time Warner to the cramped research and development labs of Microsoft, this is a fascinating chronicle of high–stakes corporate maneuvering—part chess game, part cloak–and–dagger intrigue. Based on candid interviews with friends, colleagues, and competitors, as well as both current and former Microsoft employees, Overdrive also offers penetrating insight into Bill Gates the man vs. the media myth. No longer the geeky boy wonder, the industry titan is, at forty, a world citizen who plays golf with the president and bridge with fellow billionaire Warren Buffett, and who hobnobs with the Hollywood elite. But does he still have what it takes to flatten the competition? Find out as one of the world’s most powerful and enigmatic personalities confronts the greatest challenge of his career.

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8 Reviews 5 star:  (1) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 3.4 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   2 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 1.0 out of 5 stars A horrible follow-up to Hard Drive, 14 Jun 1998 By A Customer I'm actually quite surprised at all the decent reviews of this book...I had to double-check that I had the right page on Amazon's site. Overdrive is an extremely poor quality follow-up to the excellent Hard Drive and has little to its merit. It is a disjointed, unfocused, biased, poorly written, and outright painful read. I agree with the comment that Jim Erickson's contribution must have been substantial; the evidence is overwhelming. I have read almost every book on Gates and Microsoft I could get my hands on, and this one qualifies without a shadow of doubt as the worst. Buyers of this book will walk away with some dollars less in their pocket and very little else...in fact, it's only been a couple of weeks since I read it and I already can't remember anything of substance whatsoever. Save your money for the original Hard Drive...a far superior work and still relevant. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 2.0 out of 5 stars Difficult Read, 8 Sep 1997 By A Customer This isn't a patch on Hard Drive. Whereas Hard Drive was one of the best reads I've had, Overdrive is neither objective or intesting. It seems apparent that Hard Drive benefited substantially from having Jim Erickson as one of the authors. Overdrive is written by James Wallace alone. And it shows. His biased negative opinion of Microsoft shows through. Wallace is also not a very good writer. For example, when writing about the actions undertaken by the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft, Wallace documents boring details about which lawyers were involved, what their backgrounds were, etc., and he stretches this section out until it is completely out of place in this book. This is a difficult read because of the bias and poor writing ability of Wallace. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Update on HardDrive, 1 Jul 1998 By A Customer This book filled the gap that was left after HardDrive left off. but of course, i would want an update to this book already, its been out just over a year, and its almost outdated. Just to show you how fast Microsoft moves Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 8 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating subject and a titanic struggle A fascinating subject, one really gets the feeling this is the cutting edge of technology, of enormous significance for the future. Read more Published on 19 Mar 1998 4.0 out of 5 stars See what happened to MS after 1993 A lot of book exist about the story of Microsoft from its start to about 1993-1994. Until now there wasn't one detailing the events after that year. Read more Published on 2 Sep 1997 4.0 out of 5 stars The Whole Story? I enjoyed reading Overdrive and while initialy reserving judgement on a book that uses journalistic sources rather than references, appreciated alot of the connivery... Read more Published on 13 Jun 1997 5.0 out of 5 stars Just What I've been Waiting For After reading Hard Drive, the prequel to OverDrive last summer, I was left with a huge gap from where the book left off, to where Microsoft is now. This book fills that gap. Read more Published on 10 Jun 1997 3.0 out of 5 stars This is not news When you're the richest man in the world, how much of an underdog can you possibly be? If you throw enough money at a problem, you can do things like send a man to the moon,... Read more Published on 14 May 1997 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 8 customer reviews...

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