Bill Gates Celebrates Microsoft’s 50th Anniversary With Its Original Source Code
Microsoft might not exist today if it weren’t for the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. Featuring the computer kit Altair 8800 on its front page, the tech hobbyist magazine fell into the hands of Bill Gates and the late Paul Allen, two childhood friends that were quickly inspired to create a software program for the computer.
“At the time, personal computers were practically non-existent,” recalled Gates in a blog post celebrating five decades of Microsoft. The subsequent code written by the duo would go on to form the first-ever product for Microsoft, laying the groundwork for a procession of pioneering software releases in the following years that revolutionized technology and personal computing. “It’s amazing to think about the same piece of code led to a half century of innovation from Microsoft,” said Gates.
Microsoft, which turns 50 years old today (April 5), started off with a lie. In 1975, the 20-year-old Gates and 22-year-old Allen approached MITS, the electronics company behind Altair 8800, and pretended to have created software for the computer. “There was just one problem: We didn’t,” noted Gates.
For the next two months, the young programmers worked furiously to write the code they had already claimed to make. Drawing from BASIC, a programming language invented by Dartmouth professors in the ’60s, they stayed up day and night to create an interpreter compatible with the Altair 8800 that would allow users to interact with the computer.
After a successful demonstration to Ed Roberts, the president of MITS, Gates and Allen secured a license for the software and turned it into the first-ever product of Microsoft. Their company was initially named Micro-Soft, a combination of the words “microprocessor” and “software,” although the hyphen was later dropped.
“Before there was Office or Windows 96 or Xbox or AI, there was the original source code—and I still get a kick out of seeing it, even all these years later,” said Gates in his blog post, which offers an option to download a 157-page PDF of the code. “The code remains the coolest code I’ve ever written to this day,” added Gates.
The rest is history. Microsoft’s subsequent releases included tech breakthroughs like Office, Windows 95 and Xbox, with the company now boasting a market cap of $2.7 trillion. Microsoft’s success has also boosted the personal fortune of Gates, who stepped away from the company in 2008 to pursue philanthropy, to a staggering $105 billion.
“I’d say Microsoft is as interesting today as it was at any time in history,” noted Gates in a video accompanying his blog post. Still, reaching the 50-year mark is “bittersweet,” according to the billionaire. “It’s also hard to believe that such a significant piece of my life has been around for a half-century.”