The Birth of Microsoft: How a Microcomputer Sparked a Tech Revolution (1975)

On this day the company was registered by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

How it happened

In January 1975 the company MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) released a new microcomputer called the Altair 8800. The machine quickly became extremely popular thanks to its low price — only $400. It had no monitor and no keyboard. Programs were entered using switches on the front panel, and the results were displayed through blinking indicator lights. Despite this, the computer attracted enormous interest.

After seeing information about the Altair, Bill Gates and Paul Allen decided to write an interpreter for the popular BASIC programming language and sell it to the manufacturer. They did not even have an Altair themselves, so they built the software using an emulator.

They called MITS and told them that they already had a BASIC interpreter ready for the Altair 8800. The company invited Bill Gates and Paul Allen to demonstrate it.

During the presentation, the interpreter started on the first attempt and worked exactly as expected. The demonstration impressed the managers at MITS.

As a result, MITS signed a contract for software development with a company called Micro-Soft — yes, the name originally included a hyphen.

Why it mattered

Today, Microsoft is one of the largest technology companies in history. But in the mid-1970s, it was also one of the first companies focused primarily on software rather than hardware. This allowed the team to concentrate on building tools that could run on many different machines. Hardware manufacturers, knowing Microsoft had deep expertise in software, often preferred to work with them instead of developing everything internally.

Happy birthday, Microsoft!

See also Altair BASIC 2.0: Microsoft’s First Commercial Software Product (1975).