Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has died at the age of 65 from lymphoma complications. The technology pioneer had been battling cancer for years, had been treated for 2009, but unfortunately the disease returned with metastases.
She was with him Bill Gates the creators of the Microsoft company. On his way to the company he experienced the enviable deal that would make Microsoft a tech giant. He led the company to buy Tim Paterson's Quick and Dirty Operating System in 1980, helping his company close a deal to supply PC-DOS for IBM's first computers. He was an ordinary employee until 1982, and then remained on the company's board of directors until 2000. Since then he has held the position of executive director.
We read from wikipedia: According to some legend (which has a basis in fact), the greatest manufacturer computers of the time, IBM decided to build and present to the general public a personal computer. For this purpose an operating system was needed. He turned, naturally, to Kildale and his company, but, according to legend, Dorothy was ready for a taxion an exotic island with her husband and informed IBM that negotiations between them could only begin after fifteen days. IBM, outraged by the behavior of the Kildals, turns to the company of Gates and Allen (then known as Micro-Soft) and requests the development of an operating system for its computer. The two partners, after feverish efforts, deliver to IBM the operating system, which the company named PC-DOS. The success of the IBM PC was huge, and naturally this gave a huge boost to Microsoft, who, having the precedent of making BASIC exclusive to MITS, made sure to keep the rights to DOS by not granting exclusivity to IBM. Thus, when IBM PC "clones" appeared, Microsoft was able to supply manufacturers with an operating system (with some variations from those of PC-DOS), which it called MS-DOS (acronym for MicroSoft Disk Operating System). This action put the company on a path of rapid growth, which has never been interrupted until today.
He was an inventor with 43 US patents under his name and was one of the most important investors in the world of technology. He individually supported Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, founded the space transport company Stratolaunch Systems and started Viulcan Aerospace to make space travel more affordable. He owns shares in Charter and Ticketmaster as well as numerous start-ups.
It has also expanded far beyond the normal technological sphere. He founded the Allen Institutes for Artificial Intelligence, Brain Science and Cell Science to Promote Information Technology and Medicine and the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group for cutting-edge biotechnology. He has supported initiatives on the environment and against the ebola virus.
It is too early to say that Allen's death will affect his many organizations. There is no doubt that they will continue to function for a long time. And as said Steve Ballmer in a tribute, Allen was a "wonderful, bright and inspiring person." The technological world will be poorer without it.
