Gordon Letwin

Gordon Letwin ( born July 2, 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American software developer and one of the first employees of Microsoft. His creations include the NTFS file system and was chief architect for OS / 2

Life

Letwin grew up as the son of the Actuary Fred Levin and his wife in Indianapolis. As a child he was to his parents rather closed and had little contact with peers. His parents tried to get him to social activities, but rather Letwin read reference books like other kids comics. After high school, which was a rather unpleasant affair by his own admission, he began studying physics at Purdue University, where he met his future wife, Rose. However, he broke off his studies to work in the IT center of the university, where he discovered his passion for programming computers.

After leaving the university, he worked briefly for the company Heathkit, where he was recruited by Bill Gates for Microsoft. During his early years at Microsoft, he was doubt whether he had backed the right horse. As Gates learned of this, he offered Letwin at 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 can.

Work

In Heathkit Letwin developed the operating system HDOS and the BASIC Interpreter Benton Harbor BASIC. During his time at Microsoft, he served as the chief architect of OS / 2, and worked in this capacity with Ed Iacobucci, the chief architect of IBM. In addition to various core components of the operating system he developed the NTFS file system. In 2000 his wealth was estimated at about 20 million U.S. $. Since leaving Microsoft, he donated considerable amounts of environmental issues to the Wilburforce Foundation - a Wohltätigskeitsorganisation, which was founded by him and his wife.