7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7appetite for finding new ways to make computers and
electronics more useful through software.
All of these qualities were evident in Gates’s nimble
response to the sudden public interest in the Internet.
Beginning in 1995 and 1996, Gates feverishly refocused
Microsoft on the development of consumer and enterprise
software solutions for the Internet, developed the Windows
CE operating system platform for networking non-
computer devices such as home televisions and personal
digital assistants, created the Microsoft Network to com-
pete with America Online and other Internet providers,
and, through Gates’s company Corbis, acquired the huge
Bettmann photo archives and other collections for use in
electronic distribution.
In addition to his work at Microsoft, Gates was also
known for his charitable work. With his wife, Melinda, he
launched the William H. Gates Foundation (renamed the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999) in 1994 to fund
global health programs as well as projects in the Pacific
Northwest. During the latter part of the 1990s, the couple
also funded North American libraries through the Gates
Library Foundation (renamed Gates Learning Foundation
in 1999) and raised money for minority study grants
through the Gates Millennium Scholars program. In June
2006 Warren Buffett announced an ongoing gift to the
foundation, which would allow its assets to total roughly
$60 billion in the next 20 years. At the beginning of the
21st century, the foundation continued to focus on global
health and global development, as well as community
and education causes in the United States. After a short
transition period, Gates relinquished day-to-day over-
sight of Microsoft in June 2008—although he remained
chairman of the board—in order to devote more time to
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.