PC maker, inspiration for Microsoft, dies

[IDemo]

Source: Associated Press

Dr. Henry Edward Roberts created the MITS Altair 8800 in the 1970s

By Dionne Walker
updated 6:12 p.m. MT, Thurs., April 1, 2010

ATLANTA - Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, a developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill Gates to found Microsoft, died Thursday in Georgia. He was 68.

Roberts, whose build-it-yourself kit concentrated thousands of dollars worth of computer capability in an affordable package, inspired Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen to come up with Microsoft in 1975 after they saw an article about the MITS Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Roberts, an ex-military man, later went on to careers as a farmer and a physician, but continued to keep up with computer advances: He recently told Gates he hoped to work with new, nanotechnology-enhanced machines, according to son David Roberts.

"He did think it was pretty neat, some of the stuff they're doing with the processors," said David Roberts, who confirmed Gates rushed to Georgia Friday to be with his mentor.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36142816/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

[PSPS]

1. One thing I share with Bill Gates

One thing I share with Bill Gates is that, though I'm younger than Gates, I was on the same customer list as he was when I purchased my MITS Altair after reading about it in Popular Electronics.

[Electric Monk]

2. Imagine being him, in it right at the beginning and watching how far it's come since

10 applaud
20 goto 10

[Canuckistanian]

3. I just missed the Altair 8800 revolution

I got my start in computing with a Timex-Sinclair 1000.

But the Altair led the way for cheap home computers that had useful applications.

[Hardrada]

4. And we had that Radio Shack contraption which is now

on a ledge out in the garage. My wife still uses the cassette player that came with it.

[SpiralHawk]

7. That'd be the Trash-80 ! (TRS-80)

Strolling down (small) memory lane

[old mark]

13. We bought one of those for some kids, so they could "learn about computers"-

they used it to play "Pong" and some other simplke games of the time. It cost a lot of money, held their interest for maybe 8 months tops.

mark

[BootinUp]

6. my first was the AIM 65

It had a microsoft BASIC ROM chip, 4K of RAM, and ran at a smoking 1 MHZ. http://oldcomputers.net/AIM-65.html

[hunter]

5. He was a very intelligent and innovative man.

Somewhere in my stacks of paper I've got a letter from him, nothing about computers, it was about the American Medical Association.

This was in the period where the AMA stopped representing doctors to become a lame marketing brand and yapping lapdog of the pharmaceutical industry even as primary care physicians were increasingly screwed over by the system. The older farts in the AMA were anti-union and couldn't see that they too were becoming mere cogs in the corporate machines. These days most doctors have figured this out. The insurance companies call the shots.

What I recall of Roberts is that he was the doctor and he was going to call the shots.

Dr. Roberts had some very strong opinions about the medical profession itself and medicine in general. As someone who had a professional life before medicine he saw past a lot of the crap most doctors tend to miss in their non-stop grind from kindergarten through medical residency.

I'd like to see more about medicine in Robert's obituaries, but I don't expect we will. Instead it'll be about Bill Gates written in the style of a celebrity gossip or business magizine.

[maddezmom]

8. kick

[old mark]

9. Ed Roberts, PC pioneer, dies at 68

Source: New York Times

Dr. Ed Roberts, who invented the Altair "Micro computer" - the first PC - died of pneumonia April 1st at age 68.

Roberts invented the individual computer primarily for rocket hobbyists, hired a young Harvard dropout-Bill Gates-
whose new company "Micro-soft" developed a programming system for the computer. It was called "Basic".

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03roberts.html

---

These guys developed the concept of the PC after Roberts worked with a huge IBM computer while earning a degree in electronics. Roberts later sold the Altair company and later became an MD. He imagined a computer that could be used and owned by everyone.


Thanks, Ed Roberts.


mark

[Lithos]

10. Thank you Mr. Roberts

Thank you for your vision... You were a true pioneer.

L-

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. And we are using your children

I wonder what you'd have to say about my IPOD Touch... which has far more computing power than the Altair or my first laptop... which also was far more advanced than the Altair. It also used that graphical interface that this kid we have all learned to despise helped develop. You may have haerd of him, Bill Gates... and like him or hate him, him and his boss (and the kids at the other upstart, aka MAC) are partly the reason we are here "talking to each other."

Of course it helps to have another visionary help fund Arpanet, but hey, we all know puters were there like for evah!

RIP... someday some of these folks will be compared, dare I say it, to DaVinci.

[hunter]

12. Earlier LBN post...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4329462&mesg_id=4329462

A true Renaissance Man he was.

I hope he's out there somewhere in the infinity partying with Leonardo Da Vinci, Ben Franklin, and Ada Lovelace tonight.