Microsoft

Microsoft was founded by a Harvard College Dropout Bill Gates says. Bill Gates was born William Henry Gates III, 28 October 1955. He was born into a family that was a success in business, living a comfortable upper middle class life in Seattle, Washington.

Early in his elementary school days, Bill Gates quickly shot to the head of the class, consistently outscoring his peers in most subjects, but especially in mathematics and science.His parents soon enrolled him in Lakeside Prep School, where the atmosphere was intellectual enough to stimulate the young Gates. This move to Lakeside would be historic, for it was here in spring 1968 that he was introduced to computers.

At that time, computers are still too large and costly for the school to buy one of its own. Over the next ten months or so, struck the school contracts with various companies which made it possible for students to use their computers. Bill Gates, his buddy Paul Allen and a handful of others quickly took to computing. Indeed, they began to skip classes, opting instead to stay in the computer room and write programs that read computer books and find out exactly how these machines worked. They soon learned to hack the system and changed, and rushed valuable files until they were banned from the computer. But soon it was Bill and his friends actually hired by the computer company to find errors and explore weaknesses in the system that kept causing the computers to crash. Instead of paying boys for their time, they were awarded something even better - unlimited computer time.

Gates has been quoted as saying that it was the time when he got into computers fulltime. "I think, and then I became hardcore. It was night and day," he said. The boys spent their time eating, drinking and breathing machines. They studied manuals, explored the system, and hounded the employees with questions until they had formed a base of knowledge which will ultimately lead to the formation of Microsoft.

The computer company that was rented group walked out of the market in 1970, and the boys were forced to find alternative sources for computer time. They were soon hired by Information Sciences Inc. to write a program for payroll. This time they actually earned money and enjoy unlimited computer time. It was during this period that the group notorious for their skill in computer programming. They were hired or entered into with various organizations to find mistakes and correct them. Each job helped Gates and his friends learn their skill and dive deeper and deeper into the world of programming.

In the autumn of 1973 left the Gates of Harvard University. He enrolled as a prelim student, but spent most of his time on campus Computer Center, programming away. He stayed in contact with Paul Allen and they continued to talk about future projects and the possibility of one day having their very own business. Allen even moved to Boston to be closer to Gates, so they could continue to work on projects. Allen continually urged Gates to quit school and work with him full time, and Gates was unsure of what he would do. This was soon to change.

A year later, Paul Allen the first microcomputer on the cover of a magazine. He bought the magazine and went immediately to show it to Gates. They realized that the time had come.Home PC business was about to explode and someone will supply software for machines. By stretching the truth somewhat, Gates arranged for a meeting with the Altair producers. He had called them to let them know that he had a program written for them. After the appointment was made, Gates and Allen stayed up for nights, feverishly writing the program he had promised. It worked perfectly at the meeting and everyone was impressed. They sold the program and saw that this was something they could do for real. Within a year, Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed.

Microsoft continued to write software for businesses, as well as the consumer market. In 1986 the company went public, Gates became a 31-year-old billionaire. The next year the first version of Windows was introduced, and in 1993 one million copies were sold each month.In 1995, Gates knew that the Internet was the next focus area, and during the Microsoft changed dramatically. The popular Internet Explorer browser soon became a bestseller. Today, Microsoft software is everywhere.