Barbarians Led by Bill Gates (Hardcover)

by Jennifer Edstrom (Author), Marlin Eller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
How has Microsoft been able to crush its competition every step of the way? The company's own version of history ascribes it to something like "really great technical innovation." Barbarians Led by Bill Gates presents a harsher and messier history, sharply questioning Microsoft's ethics and corporate wisdom while underscoring its fierce will to compete.

The authors present a history of Microsoft from the early '80s to the present, covering the big projects, both successes and failures, that defined the company's direction. It's a difficult story to tell, filled with complex technology and a large cast of characters who are rarely in the public eye.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to emerge is how many Microsoft ventures were mismanaged and how many opportunities were missed. The best-known of these is Microsoft's near-catastrophic failure to see the arrival and success of the Internet. The book also details the unplanned success of Windows 3.0, the demise of Pen Windows (which annihilated GO Corp. and its promising Penpoint operating system but little else), and the compromised design and slow success of Windows 95. A final chapter tackles the Netscape-Microsoft Web-browser war and Microsoft's head-on collision with the Justice Department.

Both authors are, in different ways, Microsoft insiders. Jennifer Edstrom is the daughter of Pam Edstrom, Gates's long-time PR chief and spin doctor. Marlin Eller is a 13-year veteran Microsoft developer who has worked on DOS, early versions of Windows, and pen computing. Both stand open to the charge of having an ax to grind, and the reader senses a lot of personal animosity at work. Yet anyone who has followed Microsoft for any length of time will recognize most of the war stories from other sources, and most of the new information presented has the ring, at least, of probability. Indeed, the value of this book is not so much in presenting new information as in marshaling it to paint a portrait of a company that has largely escaped this sort of scrutiny. --Thomas Mace

From The Washington Post
The two of them haven't produced any big insights here, but they do deliver some highly entertaining anecdotes about Microsoft's messy process of advance, retreat, reorganize, debug, then advance in a different direction.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; Lst ed. edition (August 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805057544
• ISBN-13: 978-0805057546
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,412,986 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, very biased "insider view", May 8, 2000

By	Gadgester "No Time, No Money" (Mother Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft From The Inside: How The World's Richest Corporation Wields Its Power (Paperback)

It's always good to have an "insider's view" book. At the same time, when this guy is an ex-employee, you should always ask yourself: why did he leave, and what does he have to gain from writing a book like this?

The authors are evidently very anti-Microsoft, yet at the same time their stories come across not so much as how stupid Microsoft is, but how mismanaged and lucky Gates & Company have been, which is closer to the truth than many people think. Some other books describe Gates and his employees as evil, but this book would characterize them as rather incompetent. It offers a detailed look into how Microsoft committed so many business goofs and yet every time it would come out the winner. After reading it you may even feel sorry for Bill Gates for having to fight so many enemies on so many fronts, some internal.

A book worth reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious Book, May 26, 1998

By	[e-mail] - See all my reviews

Really cool description about how Microsoft(MS) does biz. Author tracks MSs story right from the beginning of time when MS was trading as a penny stock. He pretty humorously points out a lot of flaws (who doesn't) in MSs biz model and how luck favored MS all the time.. and how MS is becoming corrpupt slowly... may be due to its success

The acronyms that prevail in MSs biz environment has been very funnily described. I could not control my laughter when he says that the marketing people are better equipped in sucking upto IBM.

Looks like the author ended up working in the unsuccessful pen computing project and ended up losing his importance and power in MS. This has been reflected through out the book but for a few chapters. So, the moral of the story is: "If you are in IT field watch out what you are doing, you better bet on the right horse" Kinda hard to do, but atleast you should put an effort.

Overall, it is a really funny book on technology and has been published at the right time. Overall its a great book and would make a good coffee table book as long as MS/DOJ was goes on..

Uncle Bill should read this...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for computer industry history buffs!, July 5, 2001

By	Jennifer Fretwell (Allison Park, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is easily read in one or two sittings. Highly readable, not dry or boring at all, even though the authors do have an axe to grind. Anyone who has an interest in the history of the computer industry will find it very entertaining. If you liked "Fire in the Valley," as I did, this is a supplement to that book with a focus on Gates and Microsoft. At the price of $4.99 (as of 7-05-2001) you can't beat it for some light summer reading!