6.4.2011

Microsoft’s Odd Couple

“OK,” the Altair [microcomputer, based on Intel's 8080 Chip] spit back. Getting this far told me that 5 percent of our BASIC was definitely working. […]

I typed in the command: PRINT 2+2.

The machine’s response was instantaneous: 4. That was a magical moment. Ed [Roberts] exclaimed, “Oh my God, it printed ‘4’!” He’d gone into debt and bet everything on a full-functioning micro-computer, and now it looked as though his vision would come true.

[…] Once back at the hotel, I called Bill [Gates], who was thrilled with the news. We were in business now, for real; in Harvard parlance, we were golden. I hardly needed a plane to fly back to Boston.

Paul Allen erzählt über die entscheidenden Tage (wir schreiben das Jahr 1974) in der Gründungsgeschichte von Microsoft – das ist richtig gut geschrieben und wirklich lesenswert (via Felix Schwenzel).

(Falls man Paul Allen skeptisch begegnet, wenn er recht deutlich mit dem Bild bricht, das man immer noch von Bill Gates zu haben scheint, sollte man den Bericht von Joel Spolsky lesen: der haut genau in die gleiche Kerbe und untermauert Paul Allens Sicht der Dinge, aus einer etwas anderen Perspektive.)

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