[NJTechDiv] Microsoft is 48 years old today. Here's a quick look back at its creation

[Mario Brusco]

Microsoft is 48 years old today. Here's a quick look back at its creation
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-is-48-years-old-today-heres-a-quick-look-back-at-its-creation/

by John Callaham, Apr 4, 2023.

In 1975, two men formed a new tech company in a rather unlikely 
location. One founder was just 19 years old and had dropped out of 
Harvard University. The other founder actually convinced his friend to 
drop out of Harvard, just as he left Washington State University. The 
two men moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and started their new business.

Those two men were Bill Gates and the late Paul Allen. On April 4, 1975, 
they officially formed Micro-Soft. Neither one likely had any idea that 
their company would become one of the biggest and most influential 
companies ever created.

Today is, of course, the 48th birthday of Microsoft.
The company is not celebrating the event with a lot of fanfare, but it 
is noting the day on its official Twitter account with a retro-style logo.

Here are a few more interesting tidbits about the founding of Microsoft.

The proto-Microsoft: Traf-O-Data

Before the launch of Microsoft, Gates and Allen, along with another 
person, Paul Gilbert, founded a company called Traf-O-Data in Seattle, 
Washington.
Gates and Allen developed software for the company, and Gilbert built a 
computer for it.
In a 1993 interview,
Gates talked about the idea behind the company:

block quote
Traf-O-Data was taking road volume data and converting it into reports 
where you have actually just a 16-channel paper tape on the side of the 
road. The
pressure sensitive hose that you drive over has a counter in there 
clicking out a count every five, ten, or fifteen minutes. Those have to 
be processed
for the State Road Departments, to give out money for repairs, and 
decide how to do traffic lights, etc. Anyway, it was data that needed to 
be processed.
So, we got involved in that.
block quote end

Gates said in the same interview that they "made a little bit of money 
and had some fun with it." However, that business came to a fairly quick 
end after
the state of Washington started processing this traffic data for free 
for the state's cities.

Why was Microsoft founded?

Both Gates and Allen learned about the world's first microcomputer,
the Altair 8800,
in late 1974 by reading an article about it in Popular Electronics 
magazine. It was made by a company called Micro Instrumentation and 
Telemetry Systems
(MITS) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gates and Allen thought they could 
create a version of BASIC that would work on the Altair 8800. They moved 
to Albuquerque
in 1975 to officially form Micro-Soft.

Where did the name come from?

The name Microsoft was Allen's idea, as he thought it was a good mashup 
of "microcomputer" and "software".

Where was the company founded?

Gates and Allen formed Microsoft in a room at the Sundowner Hotel, off 
the legendary Route 66. The Sundowner Hotel is still there, although it
was converted to low-cost apartments in 2014.

Later in 1975, Gates and Allen moved the business to a
proper office building in Albuquerque.
In 2006, a plaque was put in place to commemorate that location, 
although it's been
ripped off from its stone base at least once.

Why did Microsoft leave Albuquerque?

In short, Albuquerque was not the best location for recruiting people to 
join a growing tech company, so Gates and Allen decided to go back close 
to their
hometown in Redmond, Washington, in 1979.

Happy 48th birthday, Microsoft! You have certainly come a very long way 
from Traf-O-Data and that room at the Sundowner Hotel. Here's to many 
more celebrations,
including your milestone 50th anniversary in two years' time.