4 ms·
This surprised me. Microsoft was started in the mid-70s. I'm in my early 30s and wasn't aware software was getting used in business much until the late 70s/earl
by eldavido 10y ago
This surprised me. Microsoft was started in the mid-70s. I'm in my early 30s and wasn't aware software was getting used in business much until the late 70s/early 80s.
I guess there were mainframes and not minicomputers? Still, surprising a high school kid would get a coding job in the early 70s.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- scrame 10y agoBill Gates went to an affluent high school that was one of a handful to have a computer students could use, as well as a computer club, this was in the late 60s I believe.
- giarc 10y agoIn Paul Allen's (auto?)biography he mentions that it was a group of mothers from the school that paid for the computer (or maybe the teletype terminal). I might be getting details mixed up, it's been a while since I've read his book.
- abecedarius 10y agoAs I remember it it was a teletype. In the same autobio, somewhat later, Allen and Gates got to learn from Steve Russell (of Spacewar) at his local company which I think might've had its own DEC mini. It's been a long time for me too since I read it.
- dwightgunning 10y agoThis explanation is also given in Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.
- giarc 10y agoMaybe that's where I read it. I've been reading a bunch as of late so I might be getting them mixed up.
- coldtea 10y ago>I'm in my early 30s and wasn't aware software was getting used in business much until the late 70s/early 80s. Of course it was. E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/360_and_successors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/360_and_successors
- arethuza 10y agoThe opportunities for business use of computers was realised pretty early on - the first dedicated business computer was created in 1951: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer)