Not many people know, but before 1985 Bill Gates designed the Windows API. It was so marvelously designed that it stands as the grounds of Windows operating systems today. I have profound respect for this deed which is only comparable to a Mozart symphony or Calculus invented by Isaac Newton. It is excellent in the very sense of the word.
At that time, Bill Gates could design the grounds of Windows without flaws. Every call to the API serves a purpose, and together they allowed millions of developers to launch applications for Microsoft’s operating system. Windows 11 supports applications from more than 20 years ago, and the reason for this is that they use the API. How much of a vision Bill Gates had when he designed the API? It has been over 40 years, and it still stands. I believe that is Bill Gates’s most outstanding achievement, and only a true genius could envision such a design.
In 1985 there was the first 4GB per process on PCs with the table of registers and everything that propitiated true multitasking.
At that time, DOS was the operating system. Still, one could programmatically switch to enhanced mode and access the whole new structure of registers, memory slots, CPU sharing, and everything that made true multitasking possible on PCs. That was the moment IBM launched OS/2, and Microsoft launched Windows. Windows took the lead because of Bill Gates’s approach to opening the API to developers so that they could develop applications for Windows and sell them. IBM did not follow this path. In a short period, Windows became commercial, and OS/2 died.
Note that the API was the key to Microsoft’s success. That one act from Bill Gates made Microsoft one of the biggest companies in the World. Without that perfect design and implementation, Microsoft would not have reached what it is today.
The step up to Windows NT API in 1993.
NT stands for new technology. The Windows API grew but noted that the existence remained. Windows NT technology is the basis for all Windows Servers today because, as the first API designed by Microsoft, it remains unchanged. This is the key to Microsoft’s success: The ability to support applications from 30 years ago. Microsoft didn’t run anyone out of business. It just grew.
The strategy of opening the API to anyone.
Microsoft shared how it developed its software, putting anyone in the game. This excited developers and companies who drove investments and created commercial applications growing mainly with Windows 95. AutoCAD, for example. 3DS Studio. CorelDraw. Norton. Giants were built because they made the best use of the API, but all sorts of business came into play, and this popularized the Windows operating system.
From Windows NT, Microsoft launched Windows 2000 and have been launching new servers yearly. They all support applications from 30 years ago, so once again, I must state that the design of the API was magnificent. The API has grown. The code behind the API calls has evolved, but the methods are still the same. That is the secret of Microsoft’s success and the fruit of a genius design from Bill Gates and the boldness to make it available to developers for free competition.
Little is known about this but it is the key to Microsoft’s success and a genious design from Bill Gates who can not be denominated nothing but a genius.
As a conclusion to this tribute of respect for Mr. Bill Gates, I will finish by saying that no other could have done what Bill Gates did, which makes him a unique, extraordinary visionary and strategist. A very bold one. A genius of our time. I wish him success with his philanthropic projects.
This is exactly the idea I had a few weeks ago – glad someone else made it for me!
this looks awesome. Will check it out over the weekend.