BKBALBBG.RVW   990314

"Barbarians Led by Bill Gates", Jennifer Edstrom/Marlin Eller, 1998,
0-8050-5754-4, C$34.95
%A   Jennifer Edstrom
%A   Marlin Eller
%C   115 West 18th Street, New York, NY   10011-4195
%D   1998
%G   0-8050-5754-4
%I   Henry Holt
%O   C$34.95 212-886-9378 fax: 212-633-0748 http://www.hholt.com
%P   256 p.
%T   "Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside"

One of the points made in the book is that the promotion of Bill Gates
as spokesgeek for Microsoft was no mere accident, but a deliberate
marketing decision.  A measure of the success of this choice is the
comment one person made while I was reviewing this book, "What the
heck kind of title is `Barbarians Led'?"  The mistake is justifiable
on at least two points.  First, the typography of the front cover
could be clearer that Gates is not the author.  Second, the arrogance
attendant on that marketing ploy could well decide to have Gates
"write" another "book" about how he is the new Genghis Con (yes, I
know) leading the great unwashed (that's you and me, folks) to pillage
the twenty first century.

The book starts with a quote from Gates in which he decries those
texts that have been written about Microsoft so far because they don't
capture the fun, luck, and skill.  Well, he hasn't much to complain
about with this one.  It's fun.  Maybe the kind of fun attendant upon
dropping a rock into the middle of a school of fish and watching them
take off radially in all directions, but fun nonetheless.  And
certainly luck.  Skill doesn't quite enter into it: the production of
various snippets of code tends to remind me of the Flanders and Swann
revue entitled "And Then We Wrote ..."

In his section of the acknowledgements, Eller notes that this is not
to be taken as a balanced account of the history of Microsoft.  True,
he wrote it to correct what he saw as the imbalances of other books,
and it isn't an analytical critique but an attempt to capture the
impression from the inside.  Still it has the ring of truth.  For any
who have been paying attention to the announcements of DOS, OS/2,
Windows, Windows Everywhere, Bob, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows
2000, ooops-sorry-Windows-9x-gets-one-more-shot, the lack of strategic
direction insisted on by the text will bring reactions of "I knew it
all along."

That the book is not a business analysis is patent.  Along the way
there are implications that Microsoft completely missed the boat on
the Internet, and not just predictions but assumptions of the deaths
of Lotus, WordPerfect, Novell, and others.  The Martin Eller character
in the book is right just a few too many times for reality (and
reading between the lines do we find just a glimpse of someone who
finds it hard to get along with people?)  Details of work are lacking,
and it seems to be just one "death march" after another.  The lack of
specifics and explanation makes it another kind of insider's book:
those without a knowledge of code "internals" will not understand the
significance of many passages in the book, although these probably
won't cause much confusion.

Still, the book is fun, and easy, to read.  What points it seems to
try to make don't get much validation, but that is the authors'
problem, not the readers'.  Those who have been involved in the
business will note much of it with wry grins: everybody has problems,
even the biggest publicly traded company, and the richest man, in the
world.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999   BKBALBBG.RVW   990314