How Microsoft Came into Being: The History of Microsoft Company
The history of Microsoft is interesting. It starts with two friends who were computer addicts. Bill Gates and Paul Allen were programming enthusiasts and close friends. The history of Microsoft says the initial idea to own a software entity was conceived of by Allens who then contacted Gates. Together they started with a small firm that initially created small applications for local clients.
When studying BASIC, a simple programming language that taught programming to students, Gates realized the potential of the language to run on the kind of computers at that time (with very low memory and slow processors). This was around 1975 when the MITS Altair was released. Both Gates and Allen worked hard on BASIC to make it compatible with MITS Altair, and they were not only successful but also were able to sell the product to MITS, which gladly accepted the software for use on the Altair.
Thus, it was Altair BASIC (and its pirated versions) that gave the much required boost to the combined venture of Allen and Gates. As the sales (both domestic and international) rocketed for Altair Basic, their then unnamed firm was registered under the name of Micro-soft in 1976 (with the hyphen) in New Mexico.
Note: Micro-soft was initially a partnership agreement until 1977 whereafter it was re-registered as a company under the name Microsoft Corporation. Gates was the President while Allen was appointed Vice President of the company. Allen later left the post of VP but still sits on the Board of Directors.
The above just the history of Microsoft in making. The next section takes a look at how Micro-soft captured almost all the major PC manufacturers.
When studying BASIC, a simple programming language that taught programming to students, Gates realized the potential of the language to run on the kind of computers at that time (with very low memory and slow processors). This was around 1975 when the MITS Altair was released. Both Gates and Allen worked hard on BASIC to make it compatible with MITS Altair, and they were not only successful but also were able to sell the product to MITS, which gladly accepted the software for use on the Altair.
Thus, it was Altair BASIC (and its pirated versions) that gave the much required boost to the combined venture of Allen and Gates. As the sales (both domestic and international) rocketed for Altair Basic, their then unnamed firm was registered under the name of Micro-soft in 1976 (with the hyphen) in New Mexico.
Note: Micro-soft was initially a partnership agreement until 1977 whereafter it was re-registered as a company under the name Microsoft Corporation. Gates was the President while Allen was appointed Vice President of the company. Allen later left the post of VP but still sits on the Board of Directors.
The above just the history of Microsoft in making. The next section takes a look at how Micro-soft captured almost all the major PC manufacturers.
Capturing the Worldwide PC Market and the Role of MS DOS
Although the Altair BASIC was a stepping stone for Micro-soft, Gates went ahead to add several enhancements to the product and registered it with his own firm. The MS BASIC was much easier compared to Altair BASIC, and, very soon, it was recognized by companies such as GE, CitiBank, and many others who started using MS BASIC instead of Altair Basic. MS BASIC is still used to educate people who are new to programming. Besides BASIC, Micro-soft created FORTRAN and COBOL, two more high level programming languages that are still used for mathematical applications.
By the time FORTRAN and BASIC were being used by several institutions, plenty of PC manufacturers entered the microcomputer market with development in IC technology. Among them was Apple, now a competitor of Microsoft (MS). Apple also sold over a million computers that carried MS BASIC. As different machines had different configurations, Micro-soft created an Assembler that offered greater control over programming.
With the ever increasing demand, Microsoft Corporation opened its first international office at Japan in the year 1978. The Japanese office was under collaboration with the ASCII Corporation of Japan that took care of sales while the New Mexico office was primarily used to create and enhance further software.
The company shot high when it released its second operating system, MS DOS. The first was based on UNIX and was called Xenix. However, there were not many takers for the Xenix OS. Later Microsoft disassociated itself with UNIX and came up with MS DOS (Disk Operating System). The name was attributed to the three and half inch floppy disks that could contain the entire operating system. Most PCs carried 16 bit processors by 1980. MS DOS was a command line interface that required only five files to boot and carry out basic file operations on any computer. Besides, the company created several other commands (small applications) for more sophisticated tasks such as UNDELETE to retrieve deleted data. All these commands were an extension to MS DOS.
The potential of MS DOS was soon recognized by IBM, one of the leading PC manufacturers who awarded a contract to Microsoft for using MS DOS on all its machines. This bought about a major change in the history of computing as well as the history of Microsoft. In the early 1980s, Microsoft had its own version of home PCs carrying MSX DOS, where MSX was the name of PC developed by MS. Very soon, the operating system captured almost all major computer vendors who started shipping their machines with DOS preloaded on the system.
By the end of 1982, Microsoft was again renamed to Microsoft, Inc, operating from Washington with over 220 employees worldwide. It captured a major chunk of the international market with over fifty PC vendors marketing its products, mainly the MS DOS and several programming languages. As the general public was still considering Microsoft as the BASIC software and operating system designer, Gates had other plans that would revolutionize the way people used computers
By the time FORTRAN and BASIC were being used by several institutions, plenty of PC manufacturers entered the microcomputer market with development in IC technology. Among them was Apple, now a competitor of Microsoft (MS). Apple also sold over a million computers that carried MS BASIC. As different machines had different configurations, Micro-soft created an Assembler that offered greater control over programming.
With the ever increasing demand, Microsoft Corporation opened its first international office at Japan in the year 1978. The Japanese office was under collaboration with the ASCII Corporation of Japan that took care of sales while the New Mexico office was primarily used to create and enhance further software.
The company shot high when it released its second operating system, MS DOS. The first was based on UNIX and was called Xenix. However, there were not many takers for the Xenix OS. Later Microsoft disassociated itself with UNIX and came up with MS DOS (Disk Operating System). The name was attributed to the three and half inch floppy disks that could contain the entire operating system. Most PCs carried 16 bit processors by 1980. MS DOS was a command line interface that required only five files to boot and carry out basic file operations on any computer. Besides, the company created several other commands (small applications) for more sophisticated tasks such as UNDELETE to retrieve deleted data. All these commands were an extension to MS DOS.The potential of MS DOS was soon recognized by IBM, one of the leading PC manufacturers who awarded a contract to Microsoft for using MS DOS on all its machines. This bought about a major change in the history of computing as well as the history of Microsoft. In the early 1980s, Microsoft had its own version of home PCs carrying MSX DOS, where MSX was the name of PC developed by MS. Very soon, the operating system captured almost all major computer vendors who started shipping their machines with DOS preloaded on the system.
By the end of 1982, Microsoft was again renamed to Microsoft, Inc, operating from Washington with over 220 employees worldwide. It captured a major chunk of the international market with over fifty PC vendors marketing its products, mainly the MS DOS and several programming languages. As the general public was still considering Microsoft as the BASIC software and operating system designer, Gates had other plans that would revolutionize the way people used computers
Vijaya Sankar N,(II BSC CS)
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