Customer Reviews

The Microsoft File : The Secret Case Against Bill Gates

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

The Microsoft File is a great read and an incredible work of investigative journalism. Published originally a few months before the Microsoft trial began, it turned out to be prophetic and revealed a goldmine of information that had been kept secret from the public. Rohm collected internal Microsoft documents including email from Bill Gates himself, to document her account of Microsoft's predatory activities over the past decade. Bravo ! Rohm is the Ida Tarbell of the information age. Her book is the current day version of Tarbell's masterpiece "The History of Standard Oil." Not to be missed.

This book covers the time frame from 1989 to 1998, focusing on the activities of Microsoft, its competitors and the government's antitrust effort over that period of time. The investigator of Microsoft and Bill Gates would do well to include this volume on their list, though it must be seen in conjunction with other works such as HARD DRIVE and OVERDRIVE, to get a complete picture. This book has much to recommend it. The stories behind the government efforts and frustrations in bringing Microsoft and its boss to task for its monopolistic and predatory practices are thoroughly presented. The basic patterns that Microsoft has used to gain its apparent stranglehold on both operating systems and software applications are well documented. The strengths of the book are in the story telling, the detailing of events ... sometimes to the point of "being there". The author's forte and the real value of the book, in my opinion, lies in the strength of the story telling. Ms. Goldman Rohm's ability to bring colour and texture to the events that she records lifts potentially flat information to memorable vitality. Her "characters" (and there are oodles of them in this Microsoft saga) are usually given shape through telling physical description, record of signature behaviours, and nick names (D'Artagnan). The environment in which events occur is given flavour and detail. To a degree that one would not expect in such a work, qualities of a good novel or play are used ... happily, as there are so many characters and so many events. Two helpful features of the work are: the list of main players found at the beginning of the work, listed according to "team" (ie. FTC, Microsoft, etc.) and position AND the italicized synopsis and hilite package found at the beginning of each chapter. Even with these features and the imaginative chapter titles (ie. Chapter 1: Double Bill> referring to Bill Gates and Bill Neukom), this reader still had his problems keeping it all together. The material is multitudinous and chaotic as reality tends to be. I personally could have done with a chart of major events, dates, and characters. Ms. Goldman Rohm has done a commendable job of making the people and events real and memorable. I personally thank her for her poetry and Ray Noorda's.

This book purports to tell the reader how the world's leading software company REALLY became so big and dominant, and indeed we find that the reality is rather different from the PR myth. And yes, based largely on unnamed sources as it is, I find this book far more believable than any official Microsoft version of events, or any MS denouncement of the author's reporting for that matter. (Hey, think about it: no publisher would put out a book with THIS many serious charges against "the richest man in the world" and his company, if they weren't confident of the author's work!) Clearly exhaustively researched, the book provides detailed and engaging accounts of numerous business deals in which MS was a factor or an active player. So, we get to see just how underhanded MS and its top executives could be at times, often stabbing supposed business partners (Go and IBM, among others) squarely in the back. There are tons of fascinating relevations and new perspectives on a variety of events: the Apple stock purchase; the 'AARD' code in Windows 3.1; the FTC and Justice Department antitrust activities with regard to MS (or lack thereof); shifting a major computer manufacturer (Germany's Vobis) from DR-DOS to MS-DOS...the list goes on. The key to the book's success at accomplishing its stated purpose is the abundance of MS memos, email, and other documentation somehow dug up by Rohm, that tell "the real story" behind so much of what MS has done and is doing. In particular, we see Gates and other top executives making it clear that their goal is to dominate every market and freeze out all competition, NOT to "innovate" and make the best products as they like to claim publicly. I doubt "make Gates look like trash" was a goal for the author, but the picture of Gates that emerges sure isn't a pretty one. He's revealed as ruthless and ridiculously paranoid about anyone else who might actually market a competing product. Is the mighty MS afraid that others could very well make better products? Maybe that's the real reason they are so obsessed with stamping out competition, and continue their efforts to lock everyone into an all-Microsoft, all-the-time, world. There's plenty more interesting stuff where this came from...if the bits I mentioned sound the least bit intriguing, grab a copy of the book, I bet you won't regret it.

Before I read this obviously well researched book I was among those who thought that our government was "picking on" Mr. Gates and Microsoft. But my feelings on this matter have completely turned around after reading Ms. Goldman Rohm's written case against Microsoft. The true facts concerning such practices as intimidating PC manufacturers, using drastic price reductions to force competing companies to fail and other abominable ways of trying to corner the market are well documented in this fine book. The arrogance of Mr. Gates and his upper management comes through loud and clear. This book is easy to read and very hard to put down once it's started.

The Microsoft File, presents us with an interesting and timely account of the Department of Justice's current antitrust case against Microsoft. Wendy Rohm translated an intensely complex issue into an interesting and coherent chronicle. Covering the antics of Microsoft's attempts to maintain its monopoly in the computer industry on several continents is a challenging task and Rohm has successfully merged Gates' actions in America, Europe, Asia and Australia in her narrative. The book is an colorful amalgamation of facts and anecdotes about Gates, his legal staff, and other key players in the computer industry. What makes the book a non-stop read is her depiction of the personalities of the major players thus providing a fine blend of significant technical information and character portrayals of the key players in the computer industry who had a hand in establishing Microsoft's dominant position. Bill Neukom, Gates' chief counsel , who has masterminded Microsoft's legal victories from the outset, is a particularly intriguing character. There's a fellow who knows a good thing when he sees it and sticks to it. One quibble with the book is the lack of a glossary of the numerous acronyms and abbreviations which are frequently used. I kept wishing I could go to the back of the book and see what OEM, DOJ, DR-DOS, FTC , NT represent without having to skip back through the pages wherein they were originally defined.

It's not that there isn't some actual useful information in this book -- that's all the stuff Microsoft is objecting to. It's just that this is two or three drafts short of being a readable book.

Occasional actual facts of interest float through an undigested amalgam of incidents, halfbaked theorizing about the computer business and imagined trains-of-thought, plus glib stories of Bill the Party Animal. The editing is bad. Within eight lines an IBM attorney is referred to as "Tony Clapes" and then as "Klapse" (p. 45) and I still don't know which is correct. The writing varies from sloppy to astonishingly awful: "Akers looked as if he thought Cannavino had been eating LSD." (p. 25) *Who* thought Akers looked that way? We never learn. It's purely the imagination of the author.

Bill Gates careens through his day to day life, but you'll be hard pressed to find a narrative thread for more than three paragraphs here.

It's too bad. Someone needs to write the definitive business history of Microsoft and stuff the potboiler notion in the recycle bin where it belongs.

Much of what this book contains one already suspects, but to see it all in print and supported by references gives one hope that all is not lost, and that one day we can move beyond Microsoft.

This book defines an era through the dark glass of corporate life and the the computer industry. It's a fascinating and disturbing story. We follow the dangerous and oddly sad Bill Gates through the money fever of the late eighties to the present--standing on the brink of his own trial and our millenium. Rohm records this journey with an objective and dispassionate eye. Rohm's technique is wonderfully filmic--a series of quick cuts that catches the simultaneity of global events in the computer industry. The structure is dense, detailed, and multi-layered--a documentary style.It is an alarming story of our time. A courageous and important book.

I agree with the other reviewers that the author's writing style is tedious and pretentious. It takes a real Gates hater to get through this book. I loved it.

Microsoft's public relations armies must have come out in swarms to disparage this incredible, factual book that was the first to expose scores of predatory practices Microsoft engaged in to lock up the market. (If you read some of the statements Microsoft made in public about it, you will not believe it! Compare the review in The Nation, versus the Wall St. Journal, which is against the very existence of antitrust law to begin with!) This book came out before the antitrust trial began and turned out to be prophetic, given Judge Jackson's recent ruling. A must read ! Also see Rohm's book "Under the Radar." This book was highly controversial for one reason: it's GREAT, and exposes the ugly practices of a very dishonest band of senior executives--not a pretty picture for those who prefer to see Bill Gates as a hero.