Paul Allen

– Paul Allen sitting at the teletype connected to the school computer, with a very young Bill Gates standing next to him. Source: Celebrate 50 Years of Microsoft Yesterday, despite the celebrations, I was a bit perfidious toward Microsoft. It must be said, though, that the celebratory piece written by Bill Gates for the 50th anniversary of his creature is beautiful. The text reveals nothing new, it’s all stuff well known to those who know a little about personal computing history, but the graphic realization is spectacular. Thanks to Bill for this beautiful gift!

Whether you Like it or not, Microsoft is the world’s largest software maker that, through methods both fair and questionable, has managed to get its products installed on the vast majority of computers on the planet. Today, Microsoft turns 50, and it feels like just yesterday when its two founders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, assured Ed Roberts that they had a BASIC interpreter ready for his Altair 8800, the first truly personal computer, despite having never seen the Altair or the 8080 processor that powered it.