Microsoft in November 1979

[tarlabnor]

While looking for info about early Microsoft days, I stumbled upon an interesting site with a few photos.

Those were made by John L. Marshall in November 1979 at the Microsoft Headquarters in the Old National Bank building in Bellevue, Washington (according to the author). Which is a bit strange, cause according to Wiki this building is located in Spokane, Washington.

Anyway those photos show how MS looked like when it was just a small company. And back then no one could even imagine that few years later it will turn into one of the biggest IT monsters.

[Mr. Smith]

Microsoft sure have many interesting story
And can you share this site to us?

[JimOlive]

Microsoft sure have many interesting story
And can you share this site to us?

http://www.sound-photo.com/microsoft/microsoft.htm

[curti21]

Wow, Bill sure looked different back then.

[Trev-MUN]

Wow, it has been a LONG time since I've seen that much office work done on paper. I think it would have killed me to have been working a job during those days.

This also gives me an appreciation for how old dot matrix printers really are. I keep thinking of them as a machine of the 80's, with inkjet printing becoming more common in the 90's. Shows just how little I know of the history of printing technology!

[Okaris]

Also they are all using different computer models. Computers then were much more diversified compared to now.

[rkmbrown]

Also they are all using different computer models. Computers then were much more diversified compared to now.

How were they more diversified?

[Okaris]

There were a wider variety of PCs in the past in my opinion, with different brands using different cpu architectures. Contrast that to now where the cpu is either IBM-based or Apple.

[rkmbrown]

There were a wider variety of PCs in the past in my opinion, with different brands using different cpu architectures. Contrast that to now where the cpu is either IBM-based or Apple.

By any measure I would argue that we are just as, if not more, diversified today. But yes, a few players have gone out of business.

The photos above in the links from msft were not diversified at all thus my question on the "they" reference. But I see you were talking in general re the time.

Personal "computing" devices include cell phones, tablets, game machines, smart TVs, kiosks, ...

[Okaris]

I see your point. If tablets, cell phones etc are included as personal computing devices then the computers today would be just as diversified. PCs back then I think only consist of either the desktop computer or the occasional portable PC.

[rkmbrown]

Even back then... what was diversified on the desktop that isn't diversified today? Back at the start of home pcs you had ibm (jr) vs apple and some also rans from radio shack, commodore, atari... But really what was more diverse? It was new but no more or less diverse than today. I'd be hard pressed to identify what was more diverse back then. We have more operating systems today, more peripherals of all types, more architectures, more manufacturers, more cpus, more memory suppliers, more motherboard suppliers, more bios suppliers, more....

[James]

Even back then... what was diversified on the desktop that isn't diversified today? Back at the start of home pcs you had ibm (jr) vs apple and some also rans from radio shack, commodore, atari... But really what was more diverse? It was new but no more or less diverse than today. I'd be hard pressed to identify what was more diverse back then. We have more operating systems today, more peripherals of all types, more architectures, more manufacturers, more cpus, more memory suppliers, more motherboard suppliers, more bios suppliers, more....

I think the "more diversified" is architectural-related, rather than corporations. Today, there aren't any mainstream computer manufacturers that use something else than the Intel or AMD-based x86(or x86_64) architecture. Back in the 80s and 90s, we had m68k, PowerPC, Alpha, etc, and they had their own appeal and success before Intel swept the board by the 2000s.

[rkmbrown]

Even back then... what was diversified on the desktop that isn't diversified today? Back at the start of home pcs you had ibm (jr) vs apple and some also rans from radio shack, commodore, atari... But really what was more diverse? It was new but no more or less diverse than today. I'd be hard pressed to identify what was more diverse back then. We have more operating systems today, more peripherals of all types, more architectures, more manufacturers, more cpus, more memory suppliers, more motherboard suppliers, more bios suppliers, more....

I think the "more diversified" is architectural-related, rather than corporations. Today, there aren't any mainstream computer manufacturers that use something else than the Intel or AMD-based x86(or x86_64) architecture. Back in the 80s and 90s, we had m68k, PowerPC, Alpha, etc, and they had their own appeal and success before Intel swept the board by the 2000s.

There's more computing power in your graphics card than a thousand early PCs.

Architecturally? PCs are more diverse today than they were way back when. Way back when the number of cpu board manufacturers could be counted on one hand. Not so today. m68k, PowerPC,... those are CPUs... Alpha was not a home computer. If you want to talk about workstations... which kind.. there are tons out there.

The biggest difference is everyone has a home PC now and for the most part they are all compatible with each other. But that's because we have hardware standards for buses now. See SATA and USB. At the dawn of TVs there was no standard at a certain point a standard is set then more investments can be made. See vhs vs betamax.