Submitted by: Submitted by jerseyman46
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Date Submitted: 05/04/2016 09:41 AM
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
Today personal computers are very common in most households yet during the 1950s, there were only 250 computers in use throughout the world. Personal computers didn’t come on the scene until the early 1970’s with the release of the Altair 8800, which was labeled “the world’s first personal computer.” The Altair was a mostly used by hobbyists such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, both whom helped improved and advanced the world of personal computing.
Bill Gates had an early interest in software and at the age of thirteen began programming computers. During the early 1970’s while an undergraduate at Harvard, Bill wrote a version of the program language BASIC for the Altair microcomputer. In 1975 he paired with his childhood friend Paul Allen, together they started their company Microsoft to develop software for the newly emerging personal computer market. Microsoft became famous for their computer operating systems and killer business deals. IBM played a major role in the success of Microsoft by allowing them to retain the licensing rights to Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system which was installed on every one of IBMs new personal computers. To date, Microsoft’s flagship product is Microsoft Windows, an operating system that has made its way onto the vast majority of computers throughout the 1990s.
In 1975 Steve Jobs alongside his friend Steve Wozniak built a prototype computer in the garage of Jobs’ parents’ home. One year later they co-founded their company Apple Computer to sell their complete machines. In 1977, Apple is credited with launching the first successful mass-market computer, the Apple II which included the spreadsheet software VisiCalc. Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC and is shown the first working graphical user interface (GUI), this exposure made a great impact on Apple as they set out to produce a personal computer that would allow the user to interact with the computer using images rather than text commands. Apple...