The early years
Gates, born on October 28, 1955, had a passion for computers right from his school days. He made money from software even while at school!
Bill Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen studied together in high school. In Lakeside Prep School, they had the first tryst with computers. Both of them had a great interest for computers and programming. They would spend hours in front of the computer.
The turning point in their lives was when they came across an article about the Altair 8000, a small computer. Gates and Allen approached the manufacturer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) to launch a programming language for the computer even when they did not have the program ready.
However, in a span of eight weeks before the demonstration, Gates and Allen developed the interpreter. The interpreter worked at the demonstration and MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC. It was a great achievement for young Gates.
Image: Pictures of Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates (L) and Paul Allen, from the early 1970's, were on display at the Microsoft Visitor Centre in Redmond, Washington. | Photograph: Ron Wurzer/Getty Images
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