History of Microsoft
Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The
company's initial mission was to develop and sell software for personal computers, starting with a
version of the BASIC programming language for the Altair 8800. Microsoft’s big breakthrough came in
1980 when it partnered with IBM to provide an operating system called MS-DOS for IBM’s first
personal computer. This partnership catapulted Microsoft to success, making it a dominant player in
the software industry by the mid-1980s.
In 1985, Microsoft launched Windows, a graphical
extension of MS-DOS, which revolutionized personal computing by making it more user-friendly and
accessible. Over the years, Microsoft expanded its product offerings to include Office productivity
software, gaming consoles like Xbox, cloud services through Azure, and hardware such as Surface
devices. The company also made strategic acquisitions, including LinkedIn in 2016 and GitHub in
2018. Today, Microsoft is a global leader in technology, with a focus on innovation in cloud
computing, artificial intelligence, and software development, maintaining a significant impact on
both consumer and enterprise markets.