Celebrating 50 Years of Microsoft: A Nostalgic Look Back at MS-DOS 5.0

On this day in 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen launched a company called Micro-Soft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They weren’t strangers to each other. Earlier, they had teamed up in the Lakeside Programming group and co-founded a traffic analysis business named Traf-O-Data. But Micro-Soft, which eventually dropped the hyphen and moved to Redmond, Washington, would go on to change personal computing forever over the next few decades.

I won’t dive into the entire history of Microsoft. For that, there’s always Wikipedia or even Microsoft’s 50th-anniversary site with its nostalgic content and retro-themed wallpapers. However, this anniversary made me think about my first experience with Microsoft and the product that introduced me to the company.

For me, that product was MS-DOS 5.0. This version stands out in my memory because it powered our first computer—an old, yellowed hand-me-down we received from our church. It wasn’t an impressive machine; it was a clone of the original IBM PC 5150, which first hit the shelves in 1981. We got it in 1995 or 1996, but by then, it was already so outdated that it felt more like a museum piece than a tool for daily tasks.

Equipped with an Intel 8088, two floppy disk drives, and just over 500 KB of RAM, this computer lacked a hard drive. Every program I wanted to use or file I wanted to save was stored on floppy disks. Many of those disks were on their last legs, making the experience a lesson in patience. I chuckle at how far technology has come—today, we can pack terabytes of data into tiny USB drives, while back then I was juggling fragile, hefty disks.

The tech landscape has dramatically shifted since then. In 2021, Microsoft reported that over 1.4 billion devices ran Windows 10, showing how ingrained the company is in our daily lives. This evolution from DOS to modern operating systems highlights not just technological progress but also a cultural shift. Devices have gone from bulky, limited hardware to sleek, powerful machines that fit in our pockets.

User reactions and social media trends reflect this journey as well. Many people share nostalgic memories of their first computers and early software experiences online, creating a sense of community around these shared milestones. Just search for #FirstComputer on Twitter or Instagram, and you’ll see heartwarming stories and a dash of humor.