What happened to MITS? In 1977, Roberts sold MITS to Pertec Computer. Pertec made Altairs for the following year, but within two years, all elements of MITS were gone from Pertec.

1975
Ed Roberts's company MITS introduces the Altair kit from its New Mexico headquarters. Two thousand people send in their money for the $400 kit.

Harvard undergrads Gates and Allen develop the first programming language for the new computer, a version of the public-domain language Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC). They form another company, Micro-Soft, to license the language to Altair's management and set up shop near MITS in Albuquerque.

1976
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs develop their own kit computer, an insanely great idea called the Apple I. Wozniak fails to convince his employer Hewlett-Packard to market the computer. The two Steves sell the kit for $666, but only 175 are sold in ten months.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

Bill Gates drops out of Harvard to concentrate on making software.

1977
Wozniak and Jobs incorporate their company, Apple Computer, and introduce their second computer, the Apple II, at San Francisco's West Coast Computer Faire. The Apple II's operating system is full of blocky text and commands.