Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board.
Bill Gates is the co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft. At a point, he was the world's richest man and now he is stepping down from the board of his very own company, Microsoft. Gates served as the CEO until 2000 and in 2008, he left his full-time role at Microsoft in order to focus on philanthropy. In the world of technology, he has brought a ton of changes and most of us are able to work on our PCs seamlessly just because he created Windows. Here's everything you need to know about Bill Gates and his achievements in the world of tech.
Back in 1960s, Bill Gates along with his friend Paul Allen learnt the BASIC programming language. While the programing language was functional, it was not only being used by advanced level coders but also by beginners. Some of the initial home computers to run the BASIC operating system included the IBM PC, Commodore VIC-20 and the Apple II.
Bill Gates in collaboration with Allen founded Microsoft in 1976 and four years later the company landed a deal with IBM to produce an operating system for its upcoming personal computers. Microsoft then purchased 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products and used its code as the base for developing IBM's first PC OS. Soon after, Microsoft launched MS-DOS, which became immensely popular.
Then came the birth of the biggest operating system in human history, Microsoft Windows. The first iteration of Windows was called Windows 1.0 OS, which was essentially MS-DOS with a GUI (Graphical User Interface). Learning from user's response, the company soon launched Windows 95 and it was a game-changer.
From that point, there was no stopping Microsoft. The company then launched a lot of popular products including Windows 98, Windows Server 2000, Windows XP, Windows 7 and the latest Windows 10. The company also launched Microsoft Office, which was a suite of apps including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and more that helped in offering more productivity in the world of computers. To date, the biggest competitor Microsoft has is Apple. However, considering Microsoft sells its OS to different OEMs, it has managed to lead the market share.
Bill Gates is not only known for his great work at Microsoft but also for giving away his money. Gates and his wife Melinda found the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates has spent billions of dollars in the foundation helping the poor and needy.
