Gates and Allen reshoot historic 1981 Microsoft photo One of the most iconic photos from the history of Microsoft, featuring a lanky young Bill Gates perched next to his coding mentor (the way he tells it) Paul Allen, has been recreated at Seattle's Living Computing Museum. Bill Gates and Paul Allen 1981 Stand back ladies, form a line In a 1981 publicity shot for the then …
I have a soft spot for one-piece designs such the Heathkit; I preferred the Commodore 4032 more over the Commodore PET 2001 shown @ front-right due to the larger screen, full keyboard and external cassette drive over the latter.
I remember wonderful integrated chassis stuffed with Z-80 cards on S-100 bus with a generous 16K of static RAM. Wonderful!
I also miss 'luggables' They were fun.
But no TRS-80 Model 1 with expansion module in the updated photo! How could you?!
Well of course the 4032 was an upgrade on the PET, but I missed that one. I learned BASIC on the PET 2001 at school and then learned Pascal on an 8032 at college, many fond memories re-ignited by this photo. Alongside this I was learning Z80 and 6502 machine code on home machines from Sinclair, Oric and Acorn (and yes I do mean machine code, I only moved from hand-coding to an actual assembler on the BBC Model B).
I'm pretty sure the MS-DOS originator's company was "Seattle Computer Products", not "Seattle Computer Company."
The more interesting company names seemed to come from Silicon Valley: Apple, Intergalactic Digital Research, Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia and Cromemco to name a few.
I used to think Cisco Systems was an imaginative company name referencing The Cisco Kid*, but then a friend told me he'd been there, and it was just the place where the company was based. Disappointing, but I should have realised that you get called "The X Kid" because X is the place you come from.
*For our younger readers, The Cisco Kid was a TV cowboy in the 1950s. Described in the opening credits as "O Henry's Robin Hood of the old west", he was in fact amazingly camp. He wore a skin-tight black (on b/w TV) outfit with sparkly arabesques all over the front. Every week he would jump off a rock on to a bandit as he rode past on his horse. Every episode ended with the Kid and his stereotype Mexican sidekick laughing like drains at nothing in particular: "Oh Cisco!", "Oh Pancho!", "Ha ha ha ha...".
i disagree that they have caused damage. Whether you like it or not (and i guess not), they help bring computing to the masses. I have found Apple elitist - then and now, and most users need things to be simple so going UNIX in any way would be a no-no. Microsoft succeeded where others tried and failed, including Apple - a lot of their money comes from ipods and iphones rather than their computers. I also find those who hate Windows are often elitist in the computer industry as well, rather the masses never had them. There maybe a number of security flaws that have needed fixing over the years but that is the case for all OS's - you hear of Microsoft more Windows is used by so many, we are hearing more of the Android flaws as that gets more popular, and it's OS changes more often and rarely supports older devices - if Windows followed their model we would be on Windows 20 or so by now.
I would argue that the Amiga or Atari ST would have taken their place but I'm not going to. They were great machines for home use but they simply lacked the dull utilitarian aspects of the Wintel world.
It was really easy to crash an Amiga or ST due to their lack of memory protection. The 68000s didn't have an MMU unlike the 80286.
AE1962 wrote :- "Whether you like it or not (and i guess not), they help bring computing to the masses. "
Rubbish. I remember the IBM PC with DOS coming out. Before that there were many small home and business "personal computers" around, cheap and rapidly gaining in popularity. All the other young techies I knew already had a home computer before the PC came along, and others (non-tech), were taking a keen interest. Even after the IBM PC came out, those others continued alongside for quite a while (Apple being a survivor). The Amstrad PCW (running CP/M) was aimed at business for example, and was cheaper than the PC.
Computing would have "reached the masses" with or without Microsoft.
... Brand new computers with windows 8 touchscreen monitors - would've doubled as a marketing opportunity too.
Surely by the "then" picture being them as they were with the computers of the day then the same should be true of the "now"?
... I appreciate they were in a museum of old tech at the time and there was an opportunity to try and recreate it but generally "now" and "then" photos aren't "now with bits of then" and "then with all of then".
Love that film, although I thought it portrayed Gates as someone who would fuck anyone over to get the result he wanted, Steve Jobs as the crazy maniacal business genius - all sharp suits and smooth talk - who shouts at people until he gets what he wants - the scene where he reams out a developer at 3 in the morning is class - and Woz as a out of his depth techy slowly going mad under Job's thumb.
"In December 1982, when Allen was sick with cancer, he overheard Gates and Ballmer discussing his lack of contributions and how to dilute his equity by offering stock options to other employees and shareholders. Allen confronted them and quit a little bit later." link
Back row, L-R : Apple II (Serial no. A252-223242) with two Apple disk II (Serial nos. 663608 and 1028507) and TMC S9 Picture Monitor (Serial no. 1098) ; Intertec Superbrain (Serial no. 355129) [Replacing the original photograph's Datapoint 8200].
Front row, L-R : Sanyo MBC-550 (Serial no. 18221141) with Panasonic RGB monitor (Serial no. EC3430061) and keyboard (Serial no. 18221149) [Replacing the original photograph's NEC PC-8001] ; Zenith Data Systems Z-19 (Serial no. J128P106) ; Commodore Pet (Serial no. 0010850) ; and TRS-80 I (Serial no. 355129) with monitor and expansion unit.
I'm fascinated by how interested and even emotional people are about this recreated photograph. The substituted computers are of the same era and also ran Microsoft software.
Cynde
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/wtf_32.pngFor F***'sake...WE HAD COLOUR BACK THEN...AND I'M SURE THEY USED COLOUR FILM FOR THIS PHOTO!
Nothing like making people from 1981 feel old before their time.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/megaphone_32.pngAND AS FOR 2013 PHOTO WE ARE NO LONGER USING KODACHROME FILM...WE HAVE 20MP COLOUR NOW!!!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/thumb_up_32.png http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/pint_32.png $100 Billion+ between them, and neither one of them own a hair brush or comb.
The No #1 Reason to be a billionaire... you can finally be you...anyway you like... you just have to spend most of that money getting any privacy.
I LOVE THESE GUYS http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/happy_32.png
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