Book to dish Microsoft dirt

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

What do we know about this?
=====

Book to dish Microsoft dirt
By Jeff Pelline
April 23, 1998, 4:40 p.m. PT
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C21440%2C00.html?sas.mail

A purported insider's book about Microsoft, written by the daughter of a 
PR
guru for the software giant, will hit bookstores next month, according  to
publisher Henry Holt and Company.

  Dubbed Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside, the book
claims to offer the "real facts behind the headlines" of Microsoft. It is
written by Jennifer Edstrom, who is the daughter of Pam Edstrom, a public
relations executive who has represented Microsoft; and Marlin Eller, whom 
the
publisher says is one of the lead developers on the original Windows 
software.

  It is the latest example of a high-tech insider's book, a highly 
specialized
genre that is becoming more popular as the industry grows. Another 
example:
Ousted Apple chief executive Gil Amelio's On the Firing Line: My 500 Days 
at
Apple.

  For Microsoft, Barbarians Led by Bill Gates comes amid an ongoing 
antitrust
investigation launched by federal and state regulators.

  "I watched my mother create the Bill Gates myth in the early '80s, and 
I've
watched her spin the Microsoft image ever since," Jennifer Edstrom said 
in  a
statement. "But Marlin and I have gotten to the people who actually 
designed
the software and wrote the code...and they have quite a different story to
tell."

  Some topics the book promises to explore: "How interrelated--or
unrelated--are Windows 95 and Internet Explorer?", and How did Microsoft 
"miss
the Internet boat, letting Netscape  capture the lead in Web browsers, 
then
bounce back to nearly sink their  burgeoning competitor?"

  The book's publisher says the story of "life inside the belly of the 
beast
would be more like a "Dilbert" cartoon if it weren't  for the very serious
reality of Gates's persistent and uncanny ability to come from behind to 
crush
whoever's on top."

  "We haven't seen the book, so we really can't comment," said Marianne
Allison, executive vice president of Waggener Edstrom, one of the PR firms
that represents Microsoft. "There are a lot of books about Microsoft, 
past,
present, and future."


   Mitch Stone
   Editor, Boycott Microsoft
   http://www.vcnet.com/bms 
 +---
   Half the lies they tell me aren't true. --- Yogi Berra