Microsoft turns 50: 4 employees recall their early years

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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