April 4, 1975: Bill Gates, Paul Allen Form a Little Partnership

An interesting article, thank you.

But I did note some facts were omitted.

IBM computers before 1983 were pre-installed with PC-DOS, as the agreement between Microsoft and IBM specified.

Quote:

<""It would be wonderful if I can inspire others, who are struggling to realize their dreams, to say 'if this country kid could do it, let me keep slogging away'." - Douglas Engelbart

Douglas Engelbart changed the way computers worked, from specialized machinery that only a trained scientist could use, to a user-friendly tool that almost anyone can use. He invented or contributed to several interactive, user-friendly devices: the computer mouse, windows, computer video teleconferencing, hypermedia, groupware, email, the Internet and more.

In 1964, the first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface (GUI), 'windows'. Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels (computer mouse U.S. Patent # 3,541,541) in 1970, describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system." "It was nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end," Engelbart revealed about his invention. His version of windows was not considered patentable (no software patents were issued at that time), but Douglas Engelbart has over 45 other patents to his name......">

And more....at: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081898.htm

Of course at the time Bill Gates signed the deal with IBM to produce an Operating System, he didn't even have one, but that did not stop him, and he "liberated" the idea from others.

PC-DOS and MS-DOS computer operating systems (Tim Patterson) Link no longer available; original article could be previously found at nevadainventors.org.

When the PC-DOS has been successfully on-sold to IBM, it was re-written and called MS-DOS, so that it could be sold in large quantities, by the newly registered Microsoft organisation.

IBM never realised that a trick like that could be pulled on them, and they eventually decided to make the Personal Computer Specifications openly available to all, hoping they would sell hardware items.

Of course that did not last long, because others manufactured pattern parts, which would fit quite OK, and that is how the PC has some 94% of the World's Personal Computer market at the present time.

Branding + Clever Marketing is what it was all about, and Bill Gates realised quite early, that the profit lay not in Hardware, but Software.

Hardware: Each item must be carefully made, and is not easily reproduced - each item requires the same effort + materials input, at a lowering cost per unit, as manufactured numbers increase.

Software: Each item must be carefully made, and is easily reproducible, at a minimal cost, requiring small effort, and only very basic materials. If the Software is downloaded, it does not cost the supplier much, except a small cost for the bandwidth of the download.

I well remember my first genuine IBM Computer, cost NZ$11,000+ at the time, which just a few years later, became an expensive doorstop.

Kind Regards....