The Microsoft Milestone: 50 Years On, It’s Personal

This year marks 50 years since the founding of Microsoft. Half a century since two young men—Bill Gates and Paul Allen—took a gamble on the idea that personal computers might one day change the world. Looking back, they didn’t just bet right; they helped build the very future we now live in. And while tech giants come and go, Microsoft’s story feels personal in a way that few others do. It certainly does for me.

I’ve never worked for Microsoft, nor do I have shares in the company. But like most people my age, I’ve grown up alongside it. My earliest memories of a computer involve a beige box running Windows 95, the unmistakable chime of startup, and fumbling through MS Paint with more enthusiasm than skill. Clippy the paperclip might have been annoying, but he was also a weird sort of companion during my first attempts at typing school reports in Word.

That’s the thing about Microsoft: it didn’t just exist in the background—it shaped how we worked, learned, and communicated. When the internet began to move from novelty to necessity, Internet Explorer was the gateway. Later, Excel and PowerPoint became the backbone of academic and professional life. Microsoft Office wasn’t just a product; it was an entire way of doing things.

Of course, the company hasn’t always been loved. In the early 2000s, Microsoft was the tech giant everyone loved to criticise. It was big, slow, and seen as the establishment in a world that was falling in love with Apple’s sleek design and Google’s clean search. Windows Vista was a mess. Internet Explorer turned into a punchline. For a while, it looked like Microsoft might slip into irrelevance—another legacy firm with too much cash and not enough ideas.

But then, something changed. Quietly, without the usual Silicon Valley showboating, Microsoft got its act together. It stopped chasing the consumer gadget market and focused on what it did best: software, services, and cloud infrastructure. The arrival of Satya Nadella as CEO in 2014 was pivotal. His leadership brought a much-needed cultural shift, moving the company from arrogance to curiosity, from closed-off to open-minded.

Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, is now a key player in the backbone of the internet. GitHub, which it acquired in 2018, is beloved by developers. Even Windows, after years of stagnation, has found its footing again. And let’s not forget Microsoft Teams, which—love it or loathe it—became a lifeline during the pandemic when remote work was suddenly the default.

But it’s not just about products or market share. What stands out to me now, at this 50-year mark, is how Microsoft has managed to remain relevant by evolving with the times. It has made serious investments in artificial intelligence, accessibility, and sustainability. It’s not perfect—no company is—but it’s far more self-aware than it used to be.

I also think there’s something reassuring about Microsoft’s steadiness. In a tech landscape that often prizes disruption above all else, Microsoft offers continuity. It’s not chasing hype for hype’s sake. It’s building tools that people actually use—every day, across industries, across borders.

There’s a strange comfort in the fact that the same company that brought us MS-DOS is now shaping the future of AI and cloud computing. In some ways, Microsoft has become the infrastructure of modern life. We don’t always see it, but we rely on it. From spreadsheets that run small businesses to the servers behind your favourite streaming service, it’s there, quietly powering the world.

And while I’m not naïve about the risks that come with that level of influence, I do think Microsoft has earned a bit of respect—not just for surviving but for learning. It’s no longer the bully in the playground. In fact, compared to the data-hungry antics of Meta or the chaos of Elon Musk’s Twitter/X, Microsoft feels almost… grown up.

So yes, this anniversary is a corporate milestone. But for many of us, it’s also a personal one. It’s a moment to reflect on how a company founded in a garage became part of our daily lives—not in flashy, headline-grabbing ways, but in the slow, steady march of progress. Whether you’re a fan or a sceptic, it’s hard to deny the impact.

Fifty years on, Microsoft isn’t just still standing—it’s leading. And for a company that started with a simple mission to put “a computer on every desk and in every home,” that’s one hell of an achievement.