Bill Gates celebrated the 50th anniversary of Microsoft but shared that it was a moment of mixed emotions.
In a blog post released two days before the milestone, he expressed excitement about the occasion, but also described the feeling as bittersweet.
Gates said he enjoys looking back at Microsoft’s journey and imagining its future but it also feels strange and emotional to realize that the company he started with his friend, Paul Allen has been around for 50 years.
He and his friend Allen who died in 2018, both loved working with computers.
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Gates further wrote in his blog post, "The story of how Microsoft came to be begins with, of all things, a magazine.”
In January 1975, Popular Mechanics magazine featured the Altair 8800 on its cover.
Gates referred to it as an important and innovative computer kit, as it allowed people who were interested in computers and passionate about using them to access something that wasn’t easily available to them before.
He added, “When Paul and I saw that cover, we knew two things: the PC revolution was imminent, and we wanted to get in on the ground floor.”
Gates and his friend Allen understood that software was essential for people to use computers.
They contacted the company that made the Altair 8800 and claimed they had a version of the BASIC programming language that would work with the machine.
Interestingly, they hadn’t actually created that software yet but after working many sleepless nights, they finished it.
That software, which was written in code became the first product ever made by Microsoft.
Gates also shared a link where people could download the original source code of Microsoft’s first product, the BASIC software.
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