54 pages • 1 hour read
Source Code
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Background
Historical Context: Computing in Post-War America
The history of the computing industry in the United States began in the post-war era and was largely shaped by military needs and government funding. During World War II, the US military sought advanced computing power for tasks such as codebreaking and ballistics calculations. The first programmable, electronic digital computer was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), developed at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945. The ENIAC was designed to calculate firing cables for the Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory and was later used to study the impact of thermonuclear weapons. During this time, most computers were used by the military and military contractors for defense purposes, and computing research was largely sponsored by military sources.
The late 1940s and early 1950s saw the development of general-purpose, stored-program computers like the UNIVAC I, developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. UNIVAC I was the first digital computer designed for businesses rather than military application. In 1952, the UNIVAC was used by CBS News to correctly predict that Dwight D. Eisenhower would win the presidential election. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the computer industry focused primarily on mainframes—large, expensive machines used primarily by government agencies, research institutions, and large corporations. During this period, teletype machines became a common way for users to interact with computers remotely, allowing typed input and printed output over telephone lines. Timesharing also emerged during this time, enabling multiple users to access a single computer simultaneously through individual terminals. This innovation significantly increased efficiency and accessibility, allowing for a wider range of users and broad adoption of computing in business, universities, and even high schools. Source Code describes Bill Gates’s first interactions with computers during this time. As a student at Lakeside High School, Gates was able to access a shared computer using a teletype machine and timesharing.
Technological Context: Microsoft
Source Code ends with Gates describing how the newly formed Microsoft team left Albuquerque, New Mexico, for their new headquarters in Seattle, Washington, in 1978. Microsoft is now one of the most influential technology companies in the world. One of its earliest breakthroughs was MS-DOS, an operating system released in 1981 that became the foundation for IBM-compatible personal computers. The success of this operating system led to the development in 1985 of Windows, a graphics-based user interface that eventually dominated the PC market due to its user-friendly features and widespread software compatibility. This version of Windows remained dominant until the 1995 release of Windows 95, which introduced now-common features such as the Start menu and taskbar. In 1990, Microsoft released Microsoft Office as a bundle of productivity software featuring new versions of a word processor called Word (originally released 1983), a spreadsheet editor called Excel (originally released 1985), and a presentation program called PowerPoint (originally released 1987). This productivity suite would come to dominate the home computing market. The release of Microsoft’s internet browser Internet Explorer in 1995 played a key role in expanding internet access for Microsoft computer users. The development of these early technologies made Microsoft a leader in computing and catapulted Gates to international fame.
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