one of the things that was really hard about making a computer was now on a chip. so all of a sudden, people who had a thirst for this stuff could go out and buy a home brew computer. you could make them yourself. there was a lot of this kind of revolutionary thing with a lot of the technical people who were into the changes in technology and how we were a part of it. even though at our companies we were generally the fringe element. we had the jeans and we re not the managers and the leaders. but boy, just a clever design on its own had value. you had these guys like steve jobs and steve wozniak and bill gates and paul allen messing around on the edges of what would become the personal computer industry. but no one in corporate america and no one in most of the homes of america thought that the personal computer was anything that would ever have, would ever even happen, let alone have any relevance to them. for all of us, the computer revolution was really exciting. it was lik
making it up as they went along. there was nothing that came before it. there was no personal computer industry. so when gates said to ibm, how about this, we ll write you an operating system for your pc, and we ll get a cut of every machine you sell. and in addition, he made sure that it was not an exclusive license. that he was going to be able to sell this software to ibm, but he was also going to be able to sell the same software to other people. because gates intuited that there were going to be people that would build knockoffs of ibm and the pc clones. it was a genius move by bill gates, who was still in his early 20s when he made this decision. and you ve got these guys at ibm in blue shirts and dark ties looking at this company microsoft and saying, who cares? software, who cares about software? man, we build these big machines. ibm did not realize it was essentially handing all this power to this little nerd. if you had stayed at harvard a few more years, would this com
computer was now on a chip. so all of a sudden, people who had a thirst for this stuff could go out and buy a home brew computer. you could make them yourself. there was a lot of this kind of revolutionary thing with a lot of the technical people who were into the changes in technology and how we were a part of it. even though at our companies we were generally the fringe element. we had the jeans and we re not the managers and the leaders. but boy, just a clever design on its own had value. you had these guys like steve jobs and steve wozniak and bill gates and paul allen messing around on the edges of what would become the personal computer industry. but no one in corporate america and no one in most of the homes of america thought that the personal computer was anything that would ever have, would ever even happen, let alone have any relevance to them. for all of us, the computer revolution was really exciting. it was like, wow, this is wide open. it was a group of people wh
there was nothing that came before it. there was no personal computer industry. so when gates said to ibm, how about this, we ll write you an operating system for your pc, and we ll get a cut of every machine you sell. and in addition, he made sure that it was not an exclusive license. that he was going to be able to sell this software to ibm, but he was also going to be able to sell the same software to other people. because gates intuited that there were going to be people that would build knockoffs of ibm and the pc clones. it was a genius move by bill gates, who was still in his early 20s when he made this decision. and you ve got these guys at ibm in blue shirts and dark ties looking at this company microsoft and saying, who cares? software, who cares about software? man, we build these big machines. ibm did not realize it was essentially handing all this power to this little nerd. if you had stayed at harvard a few more years, would this computer revolution have passed you
we built computers that put men on the moon. we ll get that business, squash these guys, no problem. ibm has entered the small computer market for the first time. the idea has become so big that the giant of computer companies, ibm, is busy marketing its new small computer. it will, they say, give credibility to home computers. they ll no longer be just another new gadget. ibm has set an objective to build the office of the future. before ibm came in, companies would not think about buying personal computers, but suddenly, when ibm s selling one it becomes a safer decision. ibm s personal computer is intended for office, school or home use, aimed at exactly the same market as its competitors. when ibm started developing the ibm pc, it needed an operating system. and this young guy named bill gates had started this tiny little company called microsoft. bill gates was that unusual combination of a tech guy who was as good as the best tech guys, but he also had a business