Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, is nostalgic about the early days of computing. Fifty years ago, he and his friend Paul Allen created a code that changed technology forever. This month marks half a century since Microsoft was established, a journey that all started with a simple idea.
Back in 1975, Gates was a Harvard freshman when he read an article about the Altair 8800, a small computer that Intel had helped develop. He and Allen reached out to the company, promising they could write software that would make the computer operational. The catch? They didn’t even have the code ready at that point.
They used an existing programming language called BASIC, created in 1964 at Dartmouth College. With just months to work on it and no prototype of the Altair, they had a tough challenge ahead. After working tirelessly for two months, Gates completed the code, which became the first operating system for the Altair. Gates reflected that this was the most exciting code he ever wrote, and it laid the groundwork for Microsoft’s software like Word, Excel, and Windows.
Gates sees this early code as a pivotal moment that brought personal computing into homes. “That was the revolution,” he remarked in a video accompanying his blog post. This nostalgia seems to be a theme for Gates as he approaches his 70th birthday this October.
This year, he also released a memoir that looks back on his childhood and his complicated relationship with Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs. Microsoft has flourished since Gates stepped down as CEO, now valued at around $2.8 trillion under Satya Nadella’s leadership.
Interestingly, a recent survey found that 82% of Americans believe technology has significantly improved their lives. As Gates himself noted, “It’s crazy that the dream came true” after all these years. This sentiment highlights both the personal and societal impact of their early work.
For a deeper dive into the history of computing, you might want to check out this report on the evolution of technology: History of Computing.
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