People have shaped every stage of computing history. This category presents the scientists, engineers, programmers, inventors and entrepreneurs behind major advances in computers, programming languages, software and digital technologies. Discover the women and men whose ideas and innovations transformed computing.
Bill Gates: Microsoft co-founder and software pioneer Bill Gates is one of the major figures in the history of personal computing. As the co-founder of Microsoft with Paul Allen, he became involved in developing software for the first microcomputers during the 1970s. He quickly understood that software could become an industry independent of computer hardware….
Steve Jobs: Apple Co-Founder and Personal Computing Pioneer Steve Jobs was one of the most influential figures in the history of personal computing. As a co-founder of Apple, the founder of NeXT, and a leading figure at Pixar, he played a major role in transforming computers into products designed for a mass audience. His influence…
Ken Williams is a major figure in the history of computer gaming. A programmer by training, an ambitious entrepreneur, and the co-founder of On-Line Systems, later renamed Sierra On-Line, he played an important role in the transition from text adventures to graphical adventure games. Together with his wife Roberta Williams, he helped establish the personal…
Ada Lovelace: Countess, Mathematician and Poet of Science Ada Lovelace occupies a unique place in the history of computing. A British mathematician born in 1815 and the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, she is often described as the world’s first computer programmer because of the algorithm she published for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Yet…
Charles Babbage: from the Difference Engine to the programmable computer Charles Babbage is one of the founding figures in the history of automatic computing. A British mathematician, inventor and scientific reformer, he designed two radically new families of machines during the 19th century: the Difference Engines, specialised machines intended to perform certain numerical calculations, and…
