Microsoft's biggest hits and misses

The company that Gates built has seen its share of ups-and-downs. Here's a look at some of his greatest successes and failures in the past 30 years.

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Where it all started

April 4, 1975

Gates drops out of Harvard after landing a deal to develop a BASIC operating system for a new microcomputer created by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, based in Albuquerque. He moves to New Mexico with high school friend Paul Allen and they found Micro-Soft.

By Christopher Tkaczyk

NEXT: HIT: MS-DOS

Last updated June 25 2008: 4:03 PM ET

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Farewell, Mr. Gates

Gates looks back

Bill Gates gave Fortune magazine exclusive access to some rare photos from the Microsoft archives - and shared his memories about them. (more)

An icon's second act

For Bill Gates, retirement means time to rethink philanthropy, learn biochemistry, and eradicate malaria. (more)

The end of an era

After Gates is gone, it’s going to be tricky for CEO Steve Ballmer to tackle growth, Google - and those pesky Apple ads. ( (more)

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Microsoft's biggest hits and misses

The company that Gates built has seen its share of ups-and-downs. Here's a look at some of his greatest successes and failures in the past 30 years.

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