Bill Gates shares company's first-ever source code on Microsoft's 50th anniversary

Bill Gates has provided a distinctive look into the company's formative years, sharing the very essence of its creation – the original source code that not only launched the now-iconic tech giant but also became the first commercially available product in its history. As Microsoft commemorates its 50th anniversary, the founder has unveiled what he personally considers to be the "coolest code" he has ever written.“Reaching the 50-year mark is a tremendous achievement, and it's one that we could not have accomplished without the contributions of incredible leaders such as Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella—along with the dedication of the countless individuals who have worked at Microsoft throughout the years,” Gates reflected in his blog post published on his personal Gates Notes platform this week.“It feels like just yesterday that Paul and I were hunched over the PDP-10 in Harvard's computer lab, writing the code that would become the first product of our new company,” he noted, adding, “That code remains the coolest code I've ever written to this day.”Gates explains that the duo wrote code in BASIC – a computer language that allowed people, even those with no computer experience, to order a computer to run a programme. Gates drew parallels with English saying BASIC served the same purpose as English or any other language.“Paul and I set out to create a BASIC interpreter, which would translate code into instructions computer understood line by line as the program runs. We considered creating a similar tool called a compiler that translates the entire program and then runs it all at once,” he said in the blog that also includes several iconic photographs.Before the globally recognised name of Microsoft, there was the initial iteration: Micro-Soft. Gates explained the pivotal moment that sparked the company's inception, tracing it back to the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. The cover of this publication featured a photograph of a groundbreaking personal computer known as the Altair 8800, created by a small, pioneering company called MITs.Inspired by this technological innovation, the then 19-year-old Gates, along with his friend from Harvard University, Paul Allen, reached out to the creators of the Altair. They informed them that they possessed a version of the fundamental programming language BASIC that was compatible with the chip powering the Altair 8800.Driven by their vision, Gates and his collaborators dedicated themselves to an intense two-month period of coding, working tirelessly day and night to create the software they had prematurely announced. This determined effort laid the groundwork for what would become a transformative force in the world of technology.“Altair BASIC became the very first product of our newly established company, which we initially decided to call Micro-Soft,” Gates explained, detailing the origin of the company's name. "We later made the decision to drop the hyphen," he added, noting the subtle evolution of the iconic brand.