1980s: Bill Gates and Microsoft created software for every personal computer on the market, including Apple II.Īfter MITS was sold, Gates moved Microsoft to Bellevue, Washington, near his hometown of Seattle, a choice that would make the Pacific Northwest a center of the computer software industry. The following year, they started their own company, Microsoft. Along with Paul Allen, he moved to New Mexico at the end of 1975 to produce software for MITS. With irresistible business opportunities beckoning, Gates left Harvard at the beginning of his junior year to make the leap into the world of business. On the strength of this programming feat, they secured a software development contract with MITS. They adapted the computer language BASIC to run on the new device, although they had never actually seen one. No one had yet developed software for the Altair, and the young programmers saw a unique opportunity. Gates and Allen saw this as the beginning of a new industry. The pair were galvanized by a cover story in Popular Electronics, promoting the Altair 8800, an inexpensive microcomputer produced by a company called MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Paul Allen soon moved to Boston to work for Honeywell and continue their collaboration. Meanwhile, Gates continued to excel in his studies and followed his parents’ wishes by going to Harvard. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured the new Altair 8800, and alerted Bill Gates and Paul Allen that the era of the personal computer was beginning. Gates and Paul Allen closely followed events in the computer industry and foresaw that the development of microprocessors would lead to the creation of compact affordable, personal computer that would someday supplant the bulky mainframe systems used in business and industry. Although they were all precociously gifted programmers, it became clear that Gates had a unique talent for business as well, and he quickly emerged as the leader of the group. Soon Gates and his friends were working part-time and summers, writing computer programs for large businesses around the Seattle area. He and a small group of friends, including his future business partner Paul Allen, took every opportunity to explore the possibilities of the new technology, teaching themselves the basics of computer programming. The school acquired a computer terminal, and young Bill Gates was immediately fascinated. When he was 13, his parents believed he was not being challenged in his public school and enrolled him in the private and highly demanding Lakeside School. He was a notably gifted student who did well in all subjects but showed a special aptitude for mathematics. His father was a successful attorney, and it was expected that young Bill would follow in his father’s footsteps.
Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington, the second of three children, in between an older and a younger sister.
0 kommentar(er)
