Microsoft Co-Founders Deeply Saddened by the Death of the Creator of the Early PC

Those familiar with the history of how Microsoft came to be already know that Paul Allen showed Bill Gates the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine featuring the Altair 8800, a computer built by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). MITS was founded by Ed Roberts, the father of Altair 8800, considered by many as the first personal computer. On April 1st, 2010, Microsoft’s co-founders expressed their regret as Roberts passed away, saying they owed a lot to the computing pioneer.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and early mentor, Ed Roberts, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family,” Gates and Allen said in a joint statement. It was the Altair that inspired the Microsoft duo to build their first platform, and to build what would end up becoming the largest software company in the world.

“Ed was truly a pioneer in the personal computer revolution, and didn’t always get the recognition he deserved. He was an intense man with a great sense of humor, and he always cared deeply about the people who worked for him, including us. Ed was willing to take a chance on us – two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace – and we have always been grateful to him. The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed in Albuquerque, in the MITS office right on Route 66 – where so many exciting things happened that none of us could have imagined back then,” an excerpt from Microsoft’s co-founders reads.

Despite having created Altair 8800, Roberts left the computing field in the 70’s after selling MITS, and went on to practice medicine. Gates and Allen went on to build platforms for PCs, and with the creation of Windows, established a monopoly on the OS market worldwide. There are now over one billion computers worldwide powered by Windows.

“More than anything, what we will always remember about Ed was how deeply compassionate he was – and that was never more true than when he decided to spend the second half of his life going to medical school and working as a country doctor making house calls. He will be missed by many and we were lucky to have known him,” Gates and Allen stated.