Super HN

Microsoft got its start by Bill Gates doing some dumpster diving. Back then software wasn't seen as valuable commodity, only hardware was. Source code wasn't something to be protected, so print out of code would be thrown in trash. And that's where Bill Gates found the source code for Basic interpreter, which he ported and it became the first Microsoft product.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm

https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx by breadwinner 6 minutes ago

The source code is linked at the end (warning: it's a 100 MB PDF).

https://images.gatesnotes.com/12514eb8-7b51-008e-41a9-512542... by jer0me 6 minutes ago