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Microsoft BASIC Becomes the Lingua Franca of Early Home Computers
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Long before Windows, Microsoft's BASIC programming language became the common tongue of the first home computers. After Altair BASIC, Bill Gates and Ric Weiland adapted it for the MOS 6502 chip, and in 1977 Commodore licensed Microsoft BASIC outright for a flat $25,000 — putting it at the heart of the Commodore PET, VIC-20, and Commodore 64, while related versions powered machines such as the Apple II. For a generation, learning to program meant typing into Microsoft BASIC — an early, quiet form of the company's industry dominance.
Source: https://opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09/03/microsoft-open-source-historic-6502-basic/
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