Bill Gates v Steve Jobs

Bill Gates heads the biggest software, services and Internet technologies company in the world. Steve Jobs predicted the personal computer revolution and made it happen. So who is the most powerful in the world of computing?

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Did you know....

1. Bill Gates had sold his first programme by the age of 17. His school paid him $4,200 for a programme on time-tabling.

2. He dropped out of Harvard to concentrate on his business.

3. Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975 and served as Chief Executive Officer until 2000.

4. The secret of Microsoft's wealth was to license its software so that earnings rose in proportion to the number of users.

BILL GATES Aged 48 Chief Software Architect at Microsoft Wealth estimated at $40bn

5. He is currently working on the next generation of Microsoft software for internet platform and services.

6. He has donated many billions of dollars to charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

7. A spoof internet report that he had been shot dead knocked $3bn off the Korean stock market.

8. His fortune was recently put at $40bn down from $100bn during the dot.com boom.

9. Around 90% of the world's computers run on Microsoft's Windows software leading to complaints of anti-competitive tactics.

10. E-mails from [e-mail] sent to thousands of people this summer were fakes and carried a computer virus.

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1. Steve Jobs was born in 1955 in the area now known as Silicon Valley.

2. Adopted in his infancy, as an adult he traced his biological sister, the novelist Mona Simpson.

3. He ran his first business from a garage with his friend Steve Wozniak.

4. He built his business on delivering a user-friendly personal computer for ordinary people.

5. He named the Apple Corporation after his favourite fruit.

STEVE JOBS Aged 48 Chief executive of Apple and Pixar film animation studio Wealth estimated at $2bn

6. Forced out of Apple in the mid 80s, he was brought back a decade later to salvage its fortunes.

7. Apple became the largest internet music business earlier this year, selling 10 million tunes in four months.

8. He built up the Pixar computer animation studio which has made films including Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life and the Toy Story films

9. The philosophy of one of the characters in "A Bug's Life" mirrors Jobs' own motivation to "make a difference".

10. He is a vegetarian, as is his wife Laurene whom he married in 1991.

World's Most Powerful: Bill Gates or Steve Jobs
Thursday 4 December 2003 at 2150 GMT on BBC Two

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