Wallace, James. Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. 307 pages.
This book picks up where a 1992 book by James Wallace (with co-author
Jim Erickson), titled Hard Drive, left off. Neither book benefitted from
any cooperation with Microsoft Corporation, although some employees and
executives gave off-the-record interviews. This is the story of nerdy
Bill Gates, the world's richest man, and his relentless quest to monopolize.
At first it was microcomputer software. Now that this has succeeded, Gates
is leveraging this position into a takeover of cyberspace. Microsoft is not
known for its innovation (they almost missed the Internet), but rather for
its ability to borrow, purchase, or steal the innovations of others and
market the hell out of them. It forces competitors out of business by
dumping products on the market, announcing nonexistent upgrades, generating
phony error messages, and strong-arming computer manufacturers who might
otherwise prefer to bundle non-Microsoft products with their machines.
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have been
investigating Microsoft for years, but Gates and his lawyers are more
powerful than mere bureaucrats and legislators. And it helps considerably
that Microsoft is the darling of Wall Street. With a climate of deregulation
producing such fantastic riches, it's clear that a crash will be required
before the trustbusters can do what the taxpayers expect of them.
ISBN 0-471-18041-6
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