"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." Bill Gates and Paul Allen contacted Dr. Roberts and asked to write the basic software for the machine.
"Ed was willing to take a chance on us -- two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace -- and we have always been grateful to him," Gates and Allen said in a joint statement released Thursday. "The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed."
Henry Edward Roberts R.I.P.