r/Albuquerque • u/AnimeHoarder • 2d ago

50 years ago, Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque

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Gates and Allen wrote an BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 microcomputer and licensed it to MITS (which sold the Altair 8800 kits). MITS was here in Albuquerque, so Allen and Gates moved here to work with MITS and founded Micro-Soft.

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16

u/Scorpiogre_rawrr 2d ago

IIRC, they were denied a loan (citation needed), so they looked for greener pastures.

Also the old BBVA Bank downtown, big white one, was their office base.

5

u/theArtOfProgramming 1d ago

Yeah no bank here was willing to take the risk

6

u/MisRandomness 1d ago

Imagine if the loan was approved, it could’ve changed the whole trajectory of the state.

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u/Scorpiogre_rawrr 1d ago

Would've been the difference between Gotham and Metropolis

11

u/AnimeHoarder 2d ago

Some anecdotes from an article on their time in Albuquerque and then moving to Bellevue from historylink.org :

Allen settled in at the Sundowner, a motor lodge along Route 66 a few blocks from MITS headquarters in the Cal Linn Building. He frequented the café at Duran Central Pharmacy, where his favorite order was a Hatch-green-chili enchilada and a tamale with red chili sauce. Gates, who divided his time between Harvard and Albuquerque until January 1977, had appetites for fast food, fast cars, and the orange drink mix Tang. Of his time in Albuquerque, Gates recalled: "I bought one thing that was a tiny bit of a splurge, which was that my first car that I owned was a Porsche 911. It was used, but it was an incredible car ... Sometimes when I would want to think at night, I'd just go out and drive around at high speed and fortunately I didn't kill myself doing that" ("Bill Gates Discusses …").

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u/diamond 1d ago

That famous mugshot of Bill was taken here by APD. It was a moving violation, no doubt in that Porsche 911.

1

u/BellaMachina 1d ago

That's the lore. I believe it was a charity event.

1

u/diamond 1d ago

A charity event?

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u/Swimming-Challenge53 2d ago

Gates is one of those people that I allow to live in my head, rent-free. 😄

On one hand, he really seems to want to impose his will, exert his power, that heavy-handed, control freak, sort.

On the other hand, he genuinely seems to understand that "people are people", there can be scenarios where everyone wins, a rising tide that can lift all the boats.

I have to wish him well for the latter.

13

u/RioRancher 2d ago

Tomorrow, the blue screen of death is 50 years old

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u/antmakka 2d ago

There’s a plaque outside. Although it’s usually stolen.

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u/Enchanted_Culture 1d ago

The father of my children actually had Bill Gate’s office when the NMERB took the floor over. I thought it was cool.