Bill Gates Looks Back on 40 Years of Microsoft

Microsoft hit a milestone this weekend—its 40th birthday—and founder Bill Gates penned a note to the company’s employees that reminisced about the early days, and praised current CEO Satya Nadella’s vision for the future.

“In my role as technical advisor to Satya, I get to join product reviews and am impressed by the vision and talent I see,” Gates wrote in the memo, which was posted to Twitter.

“Early on, Paul Allen and I set the goal of a computer on every desk and in every home,” Gates wrote. “It was a bold idea and a lot of people thought we were out of our minds to imagine it was possible. It is amazing to think about how far computing has come since then, and we can all be proud of the role Microsoft played in that revolution.”

But while it has taken 40 years to get to this point, “I believe computing will evolve faster in the next 10 years than it ever has before,” Gates predicted. “We are nearing the point where computers and robots will be able to see, move, and interact naturally, unlocking many new applications and empowering people even more.”

Gates said he was excited by products like Cortana, Skype Translator, and HoloLens (above), but “those are just a few of the many innovations that are on the way.”

Gates encouraged Microsoft employees to work on tech for everyone, from Silicon Valley to the developing world. “What matters most now is what we do next,” he said.

Source: www.me.pcmag.com