Bill Gates is marking Microsoft’s 50th anniversary by releasing the original source code for Altair BASIC, the company’s initial product.
Gates announced the release on his Gates Notes website, stating, “Before there was Office or Windows 95 or Xbox or AI, there was Altair BASIC.” He credits the vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home” as the driving force behind Microsoft’s founding in 1975 with Paul Allen.
Gates acknowledges the contributions of Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella, as well as the numerous Microsoft employees over the years, in achieving this milestone. The release coincides with the launch of Gates’ autobiography, “Source Code: My Beginnings.”
Reflecting on the anniversary, Gates described it as “bittersweet,” recalling the early days spent with Allen writing the code for their first product in Harvard’s computer lab. He considers the Altair BASIC code “the coolest code I’ve ever written to this day.”
The released source code consists of over 150 pages of Intel 8080 assembly language.
