Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years

Re:Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years by phendrenad2 on Thursday April 03, 2025 @11:40PM (#43578100)

There are so few books on early Microsoft, and they're all so fascinating. One I like is Microsoft: First Generation. One I think is humorous, but not that informative, is Barbarians Led by Bill Gates.

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Re:Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years by ozarker on Friday April 04, 2025 @12:23AM (#43578306)

I read Hard Drive by James Wallace and Jim Erickson a couple years ago. It was written between Windows 3.1 and 95. Super interesting to read Microsoft history from the perspective of that time period. I loved it.

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Re:Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years by kristopolous on Friday April 04, 2025 @12:46AM (#43578411)

try Computer Wars: How the West Can Win in a Post-IBM World. By Charles H. Ferguson from 1993. The author is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ferguson_(filmmaker) this one

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Re:Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years by piokoch on Friday April 04, 2025 @04:55AM (#43579784)

Maybe after all the whole story is not that fascinating?

Bill was coming from the wealthy family, his mum was IBM VP and gave his son a contract to sell operating system, even though there were better alternatives on the market. Ye good ol' story about corporate corruption that gave us such amazing products like Internet Explorer 6, Windows 98 Millenium Edition or Windows Vista.

We could've lived in a so much better World if we didn't have to deal for years with crappy Microsoft operating system and other MS products.

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Re:Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years by canucker2016 on Friday April 04, 2025 @08:06AM (#43581044)

Bill Gates's mom and the chairman of IBM were on the executive committee of the same charity, the United Way.

from https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/obituaries/mary-gates-64-...

     She was later appointed to the board of the United Way of America; in 1983, she became the first woman to lead it. Right Time, Right Place

    Her tenure on the national board's executive committee is believed to have helped Microsoft, based in Seattle, at a crucial time. In 1980, she discussed with John R. Opel, a fellow committee member who was the chairman of the International Business Machines Corporation, the business that I.B.M. was doing with Microsoft.

    Mr. Opel, by some accounts, mentioned Mrs. Gates to other I.B.M. executives. A few weeks later, I.B.M. took a chance by hiring Microsoft, then a small software firm, to develop an operating system for its first personal computer.

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Re:Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years by grork on Friday April 04, 2025 @11:04AM (#43583494)

Hard Drive, ostensibly about Bill Gates, was a great read when I was a kid. I recommend ‘Microserfs’ from Douglas Coupland as a fictional (but grounded) homage to the work in the 90s.

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Re:Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years by ahartmetz on Friday April 04, 2025 @12:23PM (#43584657)

Microserfs is pretty fun, though the details are fictional. What stuck in my mind is that they spent so much effort clawing their way to the top, and when they were there, they didn't know what to do anymore and lost their way. Microsoft was a mess for 15 years or so.

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