First Microsoft Os |work| ✦

+-------------------------------------------------------+ | MICROSOFT XENIX (1980) | | - Microsoft's true first commercial OS | | - Licensed from AT&T's UNIX System V | | - Built for multi-user, high-end 16-bit machines | +-------------------------------------------------------+

When Paul Allen finally flew to Albuquerque to demonstrate the software, he carried the paper tape containing the code in his pocket. If the software crashed, the gig was up. He loaded the tape into the Altair, held his breath, and hit enter.

: It featured a line-oriented text editor called EDLIN and basic commands like DIR , COPY , and FORMAT that many users still recognize today. The Leap to Windows first microsoft os

: It only supported single-sided 160KB 5.25-inch floppy disks.

They called the manufacturer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gates and Allen claimed they had developed a version of the BASIC programming language that could run on the Altair’s Intel 8080 microprocessor. : It featured a line-oriented text editor called

While Microsoft is now a household name for operating systems, they didn't actually write their first one from scratch. Instead, they bought it.

As Altair BASIC spread, hobbyists started copying the paper tapes and sharing them for free at computer clubs. In 1976, an outraged Bill Gates wrote an open letter to the computer community titled "An Open Letter to Hobbyists." In it, he famously accused users of stealing, asking, "Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?" Gates and Allen claimed they had developed a

Because Microsoft lacked the rights to sell it under the "UNIX" name, they rebranded it as Xenix. They ported the code to run on 16-bit microprocessors like the Intel 8086.

: It introduced the very first version of the File Allocation Table (FAT12).