While trying to start the company, Allen and Gates had to make some sacrifices. Allen quit his jobs as a programmer in Boston and Gates left Harvard University, where he was a student. Together, they created Microsoft in order to produce software for the Altair 8800, a personal computer. Albuquerque was the perfect place to launch their company because it was home to the electronics firm MITS, the maker of the Altair 8800. As the company grew bigger and sales increased to more than $1 million, the business moved to Seattle where Gates and Allen grew up.
The company first went to IBM with its MS-DOS operating system for its first personal computer and after its debut in 1981, other companies started licensing MS-DOS. Then, in 1983, Allen decided to leave Microsoft after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Later, in 1985, Microsoft improved its operating system with the release of Windows, which had a graphical user interface including drop-down menus, scroll bars, and other features. In 1986, Microsoft went public at $21 a share and by the late 80s had become the world's biggest personal-computer software company.
Throughout the 90s, Microsoft kept improving its software and was growing even more popular with the growing amount of people purchasing personal computers for home and office use. In 1995, Windows 95 was created and 7 million copies of the product were sold in the first five weeks. Internet usage took off in the late 90s as Microsoft introduced its web browser, Internet Explorer.
Today, Microsoft still has a huge impact on our daily lives. For example, in 2001, Microsoft joined the video game market with the creation of the Xbox console. This console is something that many people use in their daily lives, to this day. Overall, Microsoft is one of the most successful companies in American history and has had a huge impact on many people's lives.
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This was a very informative blog! It's so interesting to read about the growth of a company whose products many of us use today. It's also very fascinating to see that advanced technology of Microsoft began all the way back in the late 70s. This got me thinking about what other technological products arose during the 70s, and I found that the hugely popular company Apple was founded in 1976. Similarly to Gates and Allen, Apple founder Steve Jobs and his partner Steve Wozniak began his company from a very humble background. He started the company from his garage, and slowly built it into the empire today. Apple products are some one of the most widely used technological products in the world. It's so interesting how these normal people were able to create something huge out of the little resources they had.
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