5 things you might not know about Microsoft
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
We all know the basics: Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Windows and Word, but here are a few almost forgotten moments you might not know about the company that helped build the modern tech world.
📍 It started in Albuquerque: Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Gates and Allen in New Mexico, where the Lakeside School alumni created one of the first computer language programs for a personal computer.
- The company didn't move to Washington until 1979 when it leased office space in Bellevue, per HistoryLink.
💾 Their first product wasn't for a PC: Microsoft's inaugural product, a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800, was built for a mail-order hobbyist computer lacking a screen or keyboard.
- They developed the software without access to an actual Altair, instead simulating it on a Harvard mainframe, and then crossed their fingers it would work, according to this week's commemorative blog post from Gates.
🎮 Xbox was almost canceled: Microsoft execs nearly pulled the plug on what has become one of the company's signature brands.
🌐 Microsoft was late to the internet: The company didn't see the web as a big deal until Netscape began to emerge as the face of the internet.
- Gates famously pivoted the company toward the web in 1995, a year after Jeff Bezos started Amazon in his garage.
📎 Clippy returns: Once labeled one of the 50 worst inventions ever, Microsoft's paperclip "assistant" was demoted in 2001 but lives on in memes, as an emoji in newer Office apps and as an Easter egg on some platforms.