6/29/00 2:05 p.m.
The Nerds Play Hardball
Bill Gates's archenemy.

By Ben Domenech, NRO contributing editor

oor Bill Gates — he just can't get a break.

Maybe it's because his products are so popular (think of how many times you've heard coworkers bookend Gates's name with expletives when their computer freezes up), or maybe it's because he's so phenomenally wealthy (the Saturday Night Live parodies of Gates as a power-hungry teenager come to mind). With his goofy grin, thick glasses, and high-pitched voice, Gates has always had the unfortunate difficulty of looking and sounding like that geeky kid who got beat up a lot in high school. The image lends itself frighteningly easily to parody and caricature, and with the abundance of anti-Microsoft forces in the technology market, it's no surprise that Gates has fast become one of the most demonized figures of modern America.

If a clear nemesis for Gates exists, it is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Ellison is intelligent, urbane, and efficient, a cultured executive with a pronounced affinity for Asian culture and Samurai myths, and a sharply honed sense of humor. Gates, meanwhile, has never been able to shed the nerdy image that has surrounded him since his college days. Gates dresses casually, and — despite his workaholic lifestyle — seems to get greater motivation from the possibilities of programming and design than from the desire to increase his personal wealth. Ellison and Gates have repeatedly been in competition since 1977, when both men organized their respective companies, and later became millionaires within weeks of each other.

This personal rivalry has since translated into business-level opposition. When the Oracle Corporation admitted Tuesday that it had hired the services of Investigative Group International to root through the trash of groups allied with the Redmond-based software company, it was just the latest in a long stream of underhanded attacks. Ellison has led the assault on Gates and Microsoft, repeatedly calling for the corporation to be split into three separate companies. The Oracle CEO has been an vociferous proponent of the Justice Department lawsuit, and once compared Microsoft's legal defenses in the context of the case to the propaganda of Nazi Germany.

The corporate benefits for Oracle are already showing: when the initial antitrust verdict was released in April, Oracle's stock skyrocketed, and Ellison's net worth made him the richest man in the world — briefly.

Bill Gates has arguably done more than any other individual to contribute to the success of the tech economy, providing the foundation of a solid operating system and easy-to-use products for the technologically inept consumer. Gates's ambition has led to innovation and coherence in an often disorganized market. As for Larry Ellison, he's made his fortune because of his opposition to Gates; he's letting the DOJ do his dirty work now, and getting rich off the government with no strings attached. He's got every reason to be cocky.

So now they stand, characters writ large — Gates, the driven computer innovator, and Ellison, the cutthroat businessman — awaiting a verdict that, at least symbolically, represents the view of the populace. The future path of the technological world hinges, in substantial measure, on the result of this case. And in the end, which personality is condemned, and which endorsed, will say a lot about the America we live in.