Was there a point in your life when you thought that Bill Gates invented the computer

[wersdaluv]

When I was younger, I always believed that Bill Gates invented the computer.

How about you? Was there a point in your life when you believed that Bill Gates invented the computer?

[Zzl1xndd]

But this probably has to do with the fact that I feel the need to study everything I touch.

[NilsHG]

No

[DoktorSeven]

Back in my day, Microsoft barely had anything to do with computers, so no.

[~~Tito~~]

When I was like 6. Then I saw an apple and it all started.

[Cozza]

I didn't know his name at the time but being brought up on Windows I thought that the company invented computers. Woah bringing back memories of crashing and restarting and the famous Blue Screen TM. Wait...
I still get that now...

At college I came across an 'alien object', a Mac. I love them more than Linux PCs to be honest.

Then at University I got introduced to Linux.

So yes I thought he did

Cara xx

[rax_m]

No.. but then i started using computers in the days of DOS 3.1..

[lepz]

At about 11 I knew it was Charles Babbage

[lepz]

quick! quick! google! google ! :rolleyes:

[Circus-Killer]

Back in my day, Microsoft barely had anything to do with computers, so no.

ditto to that :p

[jclmusic]

lol when i was younger than about 8, i used to think microsoft invented and made all computers in the same way apple make theirs, and windows was part of the computer. that was around when we got our first computer. not long afterwards of course my curiosity proved that wrong!

[mike102282]

I can honestly say I never thought Bill invented the computer.

[stepan2]

i believed that . Ofcourse i am young right now so i didnt grow up as the companies were fighting and i had never touched computers before 8

[LookTJ]

No, I always thought Jobs invented it.

[mike102282]

No, I always thought Jobs invented it.

Really Jobs?

[LookTJ]

Really Jobs?

Either him or Apple.

[jrusso2]

I was using a computer before anyone heard of Bill Gates, we started using them around the same time with main frames

[BWF89]

The first computers I ever used were some of the really old Macintosh designs we had in Kindergarten. Back when you wanted to play a game you'd put in a 5-1/4inch floppy disk.

No I never thought that.

[Zzl1xndd]

No, I always thought Jobs invented it.

If you mean the Personal Computer then that would go to Woz so in a way you are correct that it was apple. If we are talking computers in general then no it wasn't

[MetalOverlord]

No.

Back in the early days, IBM was the king of the hill. The PC was a closed proprietary architecture much like Apple. MS was an obscure startup from which IBM licensed MSDOS to run on their early models (8086, AT). The PC revolution really didn't start until Compaq reverse engineered the IBM BIOS thus paving the way for the tidal wave of PC-compatible OEM manufacturers we have today.

MS didn't become the force it is today until it parted ways with IBM. IBM wanted to make OS/2 THE OS for the masses. MS could see the writing on the wall; IBM was going to squeeze them out and leave them to fend for themselves. However much you might hate Gates and MS, Gates made probably one of the smartest business decisions in American corporate history and split with IBM. There was a lot of speculation at the time that MS wouldn't survive without IBM.

Bill Gates and company saw an opportunity to slay the dragon (IBM). OS/2 was actually a wonderful OS, far superior to DOS or Windows. Windows at that time was nothing more than a real-mode graphic shell for DOS called the Windows Graphical Environment. It wasn't even an OS. The problem with OS/2 however was that it required a lot of very expensive hardware. You have to remember that back then, memory was $100+ per MEG. Very few computers came with more than 640K at that time. Even hard drives were somewhat scarce. A 10 meg drive ran you $200+. To properly run OS/2 you needed a 386 with 4M of memory and a hard drive. This was a lot of hardware for the time and VERY expensive.

Bill Gates and company got to work polishing their Windows product to make a protected-mode environment that would run on less hardware than OS/2. Gates knew that few people would buy OS/2 if they could buy a much cheaper OEM running a "good enough" Windows.

The first protected-mode version of Windows was 3.0. It was not very good, but it was "good enough" and could be run on virtually any computer of the time without little or no upgrading. Back then it was considered OS/2 Lite. You could even run Windows in real mode with only 640K of memory.

Not long after that MS released 3.1 and WFW. This was the version that slayed IBM and Apple. Gates got OEM manufacturers to pre-install Windows on their machines. Windows 3.1 would run well on a lot less hardware so Windows machines were significantly cheaper (by $500+) than either OS/2 or Macs. People bought them up by the millions.

By the time Windows 95 came along, the war was over. MS was the big winner. IBM and Apple were left scratching their heads wondering what went wrong. Both IBM and Apple had their window of opportunity but blew it. They assumed that the masses would be willing to pay more for their superior machines. They didn't, thus they lost.

I often wonder how different the computing world would be if Apple and IBM had done what they should have, create a Lite version of their machines and OS that wasn't so much more expensive than a Windows machine. I don't think MS would've won and we'd probably be complaining about how evil IBM or Apple is.

[rocknrolf77]

If you mean the Personal Computer then that would go to Woz so in a way you are correct that it was apple. If we are talking computers in general then no it wasn't

Actually xerox invented the computer/gui as we know it, and apple stole it from them. Then ms stole it from apple.

And answer to the topic. NO. The c64 and then the amiga was the king of the hill, when I was young. If you where going too buy a game for instance, the stores was full of amiga games. So I know ms won't be the "leader" for gaming forever :) (Even though it's another topic, I just had to say it) :)

[Nezing]

MetalOverload.Great history lesson

3.1 was the first OS I used.The good old days eh? :)

IBM.I know I will get expelled for this,but does'nt it stand for Idiot Bought Microsoft?

[notwen]

Negative, I grew up in Cochran, GA. The home town of Dr. Edward Roberts. He actually built the Altair 8800 to which Gates coded BASIC for. So in my mind, Ed Roberts built one of the very first personal computers. =]

[amadeus266]

"Bill Gates and company got to work polishing their Windows product to make a protected-mode environment that would run on less hardware than OS/2. Gates knew that few people would buy OS/2 if they could buy a much cheaper OEM running a "good enough" Windows."

Too bad he lost touch with that thinking. When I started using a computer it was 1982 and I got a Commodore64 for Christmas. Never heard of Bill Gates until windows 3.1 was released and a friend of mine thought that it was soooo cool. I was already using GEOS so I wasn't impressed at all. I wrote more BASIC programs in the first 2 years of owning that C= than were released for windows 3.1 total. I actually didn't need to buy a PC until 1999 when My C= finally broke down and I couldn't get parts for it any more. I am glad that I not longer have 2000 5 1/4 floppies laying around anymore though. Anyone emember when 20MB was an astronomically HUGE storage device and paying $600 for it was perfectly OK?

[LookTJ]

IBM.I know I will get expelled for this,but does'nt it stand for Idiot Bought Microsoft?No, it's International Business Machines Corporation

[MetalOverlord]

I am glad that I not longer have 2000 5 1/4 floppies laying around anymore though. Anyone emember when 20MB was an astronomically HUGE storage device and paying $600 for it was perfectly OK?

Yup. I do. The good old days! 5 1/4 floppies. 1mg of memory costing $200. $250 for a 10m RLL drive. Brings back memories!

[infoseeker]

I grew up on the ZX81 and soon after that the Commodore 64 with its 'painful' tape cassette drive. My father-in-law opened up a small business and bought a IBM compatible AT computer. I booted it up and all that it produced was the c> prompt. I couldn't figure out what to do with the darned thing at all :D. I then went out and bought a MSDOS 3.1 manual and read it from front to back.......and that was the start of it all. Business actually ran on something called 'pcfile' or something like that.

BTW never heard of 'Bill Gates' until a lot later!

[Islander85]

have to say no to that my first computer was a AMIGA 500 that was too good.

[tbroderick]

Nope. My first computer was an Apple IIGS then an IBM (I forget the model, my Dad took it home from his work) with OS/2, No Gates for me. As a kid, I thought IBM developed them. I thought IBM made the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles for the US and computers were a byproduct of their development. I blame the movie WarGames. I spent years trying to control a nuclear arsenal from my computer.

[macogw]

No way. I think I was taught about ENIAC before I found out that Bill Gates was "the Microsoft guy" (as opposed to just "that rich guy")

[PrimoTurbo]

Nope because the first computer I ever had was basically a keyboard with a tape player that connected to your tv to play games and run programs, this was right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I was 4 or 5, never heard of Microsoft before either.

[Atomic Dog]

I used a few computers that did not have a MS/Gates operating system. Tandy model 1, 3, and 4, vic20, timex/sinclaire, Tandy coco. I still appreciate the uniformity Gates OS created in the PC market at that time. After he started selling his OS you only needed to know DOS commands to do whatever.