14 DAY TRIAL // Back in 1997, as you can see from the adjacent image, Microsoft was still based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The young outfit destined to become the largest software company in the world had been founded only for two years, namely in 1975. It will take another couple of years for Microsoft to move in Bellevue, Washington, and become universally associated with Redmond. But back in 1977, Windows wasn't even an embryonic project, and Microsoft was producing Altair BASIC, and transitioning it to the Apple platform - Applesoft BASIC or Applesoft II, superseding Integer BASIC. The image was supplied by Microsoft's Steve Clayton via FFFound. Steve Clayton is the former Microsoft U.K. Partner Group CTO and then moved to Microsoft International where he is focusing on Software + Services.
"Remember when software used to be delivered and loaded like this? I do...on a Sinclair Spectrum. Then we moved to 5 1/4" disks and then on to 3.5", both so called "floppies" and then on to CD and DVD of course. All of which will be a distant memory of course in a few years as people either run apps on the web in a pure Saas model or download entire apps over the web for local installation - known as ESD," revealed Clayton.
Applesoft BASIC is without a doubt the ancient past, although it was produced just some 30 years ago. The present is shaped by Windows Vista, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and a luxuriant variety of Linux distributions. However, with Ray Ozzie, the company's Chief Software Architect, at the helm, the future is the Software plus Services business strategy, and in this context, an operating system in the cloud.
"That's fine for apps and utilities but for an entire OS? Imagine being able to put your PC on the Internet and press F12 to network boot to a datacentre in the cloud that installs and configured your OS. I'm not saying it's going to be common place but you know it'll happen. This tells me 2 things: broadband is the single most disruptive technology of the last decade and I should hang on to IT heirlooms such as items like the cassette above", Clayton added.