Gordon Letwin

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Gordon Letwin (born July 2, 1952 in Indianapolis , Indiana ) is an American software developer and one of Microsoft's earliest employees . He was one of the two chief architects of the OS / 2 operating system and developed, among other things, its HPFS file system.

Life

Letwin grew up in Indianapolis as the son of actuary Fred Lewin and his wife. As a child he was rather closed to his parents himself and had little contact with his peers. His parents tried to get him into social activities, but Letwin preferred reading textbooks to other children's comics. After high school , which he said was a rather uncomfortable affair, he began studying physics at Purdue University , where he also met his future wife, Rose. However, he dropped out to work in the university's IT center, where he discovered his passion for programming computers.

After leaving the university, he first worked for the company Heathkit , for which he developed the HDOS operating system for the Heathkit H8 . He was later poached for Microsoft by Bill Gates . During his early days at Microsoft, he began to have doubts as to whether he was backing the right horse. When Gates found out, he offered Letwin a one percent equity stake in Microsoft, which eventually made him a millionaire.

In 1993 he left Microsoft to spend more time with his wife. Today he lives on a ranch in Arizona and runs the Wilburforce Foundation with his wife.

Act

Developed by Heathkit Letwin the operating system HDOS and BASIC - interpreter Benton Harbor BASIC . During his time at Microsoft he was, among other things, chief architect of OS / 2 and in this role worked with Ed Iacobucci , chief architect of IBM . In addition to various core components of the operating system, he developed the HPFS file system. In 2000, his net worth was estimated at about $ 20 million. Since leaving Microsoft, he has made substantial environmental contributions to the Wilburforce Foundation - a charity that he and his wife founded.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Wizard Of OS / 2. In: Seattle Times. March 27, 1988.
  2. ^ Software Reference Manual for HDOS Disk Operating System , Heathkit 1990
  3. ↑ a b 25 Years Ago At Microsoft. TIME Magazine, May 1, 2000, accessed December 16, 2008 .
  4. ↑ Matt Weinberger, Jessica Dawid: What happened to the people in Microsoft's legendary company photo from 1978? Gründerszene, October 25, 2016, accessed January 9, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Software Reference Manual for HDOS Disk Operating System. Heathkit, 1990.
  6. ↑ G. Pascal Zachary: Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft. Warner Books, 1994, ISBN 0-02-935671-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Letwin, Gordon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American software developer
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd July 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Indianapolis , Indiana