Bill Gates and Me

[+TRS-80 MVC]

Even though I have been posting here for a while I have never introduced myself.

Anyway, I thought I would introduce myself with a true Bill Gates story.

As readers probably know, Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft in 1975.   In 1976 Microsoft developed an intrepreter (Altair BASIC) for the MITS Altair home computer kit.  For 1976 Microsoft revenues totaled only about $17,000 and by the end of 1976 Microsoft was close to bankruptcy.   To make matters worse in December 1976 Pertec Computer a NYSE listed computer company bought MITS.   With the purchase, Pertec claimed ownership of Microsoft's only product, Altair BASIC.  

It was during this time that I worked for Pertec in their corporate office as a IT Systems Manager.   Gates visited the office where I worked at least one time in an attempt to negotiate a settlement with Pertec over the ownership of Altair BASIC.  I don't recall if I ever ran into Gates during any of his visits.  It wouldn't been much of an event if I did, since Microsoft was not much of a company at the time.   Anyway, Pertec and Microsoft never reached an agreement over the ownership of Altair BASIC, so Microsoft sued Pertec for the ownership.   If Microsoft had lost the lawsuit and the rights to Altair BASIC the world may never have seen DOS or Windows as there is no doubt that Microsoft would have had to file bankruptcy.  However, Microsoft won the lawsuit and retained owneship of Altair BASIC.  The rest as they say is history. 

A year or so later I left Pertec and went to work for Computer Memories one of the early 5.25" HDD manufacturers, founded by two former Pertec Engineers who had worked on Pertec's 8" HDD.   I stayed with Computer Memories for a few years.  That in of itself is another story.   Anyway, I was snapped away from Compter Memories by Microcomputer Memories the first company to make  a 3.5" HDD.   Unfortunately they could never get a satisfactory yield in manufacturing and wound up going bankrupt. 

I left Microcomputer Memories and went to work for Western Digital.   At the time WD was making silicon wafers.   They too went bankrupt. I was beginning to develop a jinx complex.  I left them and they reconstituted themselves as the HDD manufacturer we know them to be today.   After leaving Western Digital I left the computer industry.   Over the years i did work for two more computer related companies, Quotron and Pioneer Magnetics before finally retiring  

 

 

 

 

[cleverclogs]

Love the history

[+TRS-80 MVC]

On 10/06/2026 at 13:30, cleverclogs said:

Love the history

Each generaton has its exciting times and I was fortunate enough to be right there at the beginning of the PC industry.   I don't think any of us at that time realized how large it would become

I still remember working on a TRS-80 with a green screen monitor that kept overheating and dying.     Also used some TRS-80 PCs with tape cartridge memory.   They worked but boy were they slow with everything being a very slow sequential read or write.  But heh, they worked though it wasn't long before they were repaced by the HDD.