“Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, the developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill Gates to found Microsoft, died Thursday in Georgia,” Dionne Walker reports for The Associated Press. “He was 68.”
“Son David Roberts tells The Associated Press his father died after several months battling pneumonia,” Walker reports.
Walker reports, “The man better known as Ed Roberts developed and marketed the MITS Altair 8800 in the 1970s. The build-it-yourself kit was operated by switches and had no display screen, but it inspired Gates and childhood friend Paul Allen to found Microsoft in 1975 after they saw an article about it in Popular Mechanics.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Our condolences to the Roberts family. On this day, don’t blame the good doctor for causing The Dark Ages of Personal Computing; blame Popular Mechanics.
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