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Re:What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old by bluedino on Wednesday April 18, 2018 @09:33AM (#16867224)
In 1968, the mothers of students in the school held a fundraiser so that they could purchase computer time on a mainframe DEC PDP-10, owned by General Electric. Both of the boys were very good with computers and programming. Gates and Allen contributed to the majority of use of all of the allowed computer time because they both enjoyed it so much. Because of how much time they had been using up on the computer, Lakeside made an agreement with Computer Center Corporation (CCC) so they could continue to provide computer time to their students.

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However by 1970, CCC had gone bankrupt, which meant that the boys had to find another place to continue to work with computers. Luckily, Allen’s father worked at the University of Washington, so they gained access to computers there.

Re:What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old by bluedevil2k on Wednesday April 18, 2018 @10:15AM (#16867543)
But what about all the other kids who didn't use the time? They had the same privilege and wealth and never created a software empire. Or, maybe, there were hundreds/thousands of kids around the country that had access at that time and Gates/Allen were some of the few that had the inner drive and competitive spirit to excel at it.