Latest news with #AltairBasic
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Check out Microsoft's original source code from 50 years ago that Bill Gates calls 'the coolest code' he's ever written
Bill Gates is taking a look back at the code that started it all. The Microsoft cofounder this week published the code that became the first product of the company. Take a look at Microsoft's origins as the company turns 50 this month. Microsoft is turning 50 this year, and Bill Gates is looking back at how the company got its start. The Microsoft cofounder published a blog post on Wednesday about the code that would become the company's first product, which was the Altair Basic, an interpreter that translated code into instructions that the Altair 8800 microcomputer could read. "That code remains the coolest code I've ever written to this day," Gates wrote. "It's amazing to think about how this one piece of code led to a half-century of innovation from Microsoft. Before there was Office or Windows 95 or Xbox or AI, there was the original source code — and I still get a kick out of seeing it, even all these years later." At the end of his post, he included a PDF of the original source code for the Altair Basic — all 157 pages of it. You can check it out here. In his blog post, Gates noted that late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen finished part of the code on a flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Microsoft was originally based. Gates shared other details on the source code, fittingly, in his memoir "Source Code," which came out in February. Gates reflected on his childhood through his career into today in the book. He wrote that he was disinterested in school growing up, noting that his preschool teachers called him "rebellious" and said he showed a "complete lack of concern for any phase of school life." Gates also wrote about his approach, decades later, to recruiting Steve Ballmer to Microsoft, saying he and Allen had agreed to a split of 64% and 36%, respectively, but Gates ended up giving a 4% stake to Ballmer to convince him to quit business school for Microsoft. Gates' ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, has her own memoir, "The Next Day," out later this month. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Check out Microsoft's original source code from 50 years ago that Bill Gates calls 'the coolest code' he's ever written
Bill Gates is taking a look back at the code that started it all. The Microsoft cofounder this week published the code that became the first product of the company. Take a look at Microsoft's origins as the company turns 50 this month. Microsoft is turning 50 this year, and Bill Gates is looking back at how the company got its start. The Microsoft cofounder published a blog post on Wednesday about the code that would become the company's first product, which was the Altair Basic, an interpreter that translated code into instructions that the Altair 8800 microcomputer could read. "That code remains the coolest code I've ever written to this day," Gates wrote. "It's amazing to think about how this one piece of code led to a half-century of innovation from Microsoft. Before there was Office or Windows 95 or Xbox or AI, there was the original source code — and I still get a kick out of seeing it, even all these years later." At the end of his post, he included a PDF of the original source code for the Altair Basic — all 157 pages of it. You can check it out here. In his blog post, Gates noted that late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen finished part of the code on a flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Microsoft was originally based. Gates shared other details on the source code, fittingly, in his memoir "Source Code," which came out in February. Gates reflected on his childhood through his career into today in the book. He wrote that he was disinterested in school growing up, noting that his preschool teachers called him "rebellious" and said he showed a "complete lack of concern for any phase of school life." Gates also wrote about his approach, decades later, to recruiting Steve Ballmer to Microsoft, saying he and Allen had agreed to a split of 64% and 36%, respectively, but Gates ended up giving a 4% stake to Ballmer to convince him to quit business school for Microsoft. Gates' ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, has her own memoir, "The Next Day," out later this month. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Microsoft Turns 50, Unveils Powerful AI Upgrades for Copilot
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) marked its 50th anniversary Friday by showcasing a range of new artificial intelligence tools at its Copilot Event, underlining the company's evolution from a developer tools business to a platform enabling widespread software creation. During the event, CEO Satya Nadella demonstrated Copilot's Agent Mode, a feature designed to assist with complex tasks drawing parallels to the company's very first product, Altair Basic. He noted the release of Agent Mode for all Visual Studio users and introduced a code review agent intended to automatically detect and fix bugs. Nadella also announced a new framework to support multi-agent systems, along with tools for tuning, monitoring, and providing feedback. He said Microsoft is working on security-focused tools, including an AI Red Teaming Agent and systems to measure code vulnerabilities part of its strategy to build more secure AI platforms. Earlier this week, co-founder Bill Gates (Trades, Portfolio) published a blog post reflecting on Microsoft's origins, including the source code for Altair Basic, describing it as the coolest code he ever wrote. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman introduced additional Copilot functions, such as Copilot Pages, Copilot Actions, Windows Vision, and Deep Research. These features enable users to write documents, find listings, edit images on screen, and plan trips, respectively. He also demonstrated a Copilot-created podcast featuring Nadella, Gates, and Steve Ballmer, and another AI-generated episode made for a child's birthday. New personalization features, such as animated Copilot avatars, were also previewed, alongside an upcoming Memory function that can visualize user-related data. The company received tributes from leaders across the tech industry. Executives from AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE), and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) commended Microsoft's innovation and partnerships over the decades. AMD CEO Lisa Su highlighted joint efforts across Windows, cloud infrastructure through Azure, and gaming with Xbox. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
