Timeline

1975
Bill Gates drops out of Harvard, after a dispute over his illegal use of school computers for commercial purposes. According to various accounts, Bill Gates and Paul Allen used a DARA funded PDP-10 computer to develop commercial software for the MITS Altair 8800. Some Harvard officials thought that Gates had broken university rules, and Gates faced a threat of expulsion. To resolve the dispute, Gates reportedly was required by Harvard to place the computer code in the public domain, an act that did not sit well with Gates. According to his father, William Gates, “There was a flap, no question about it … My son felt a little put upon by the Harvard administration’s attitude.” The long term consequences of this dispute may have been larger. To this day, Microsoft and the Gates Foundation are strong advocates of preserving the private intellectual property rights of entities that receive government funds for research.

Micro-Soft was founded April 4, 1975. The initial products were BASIC interpreters developed for the Altair 8800,