The first computer craze in the mid-1970s suddenly brought together many technically interested and computer-enthusiastic tinkers who organized themselves in small clubs and working groups.
They began to further develop their computer outside the development labs of large, established companies.
So-called interfaces were developed to which a keyboard or a monitor could be connected.
The company Xerox, a market leader in copiers, had, on the other hand, developed a functional home computer very early on.
But Xerox showed no interest in bringing the microcomputer to market.
Similar to IBM, the market leader in the field of mainframe computers, Xerox underestimated the enormous market potential for the personal computer and did not recognize in time the promising future of this new technological achievement.
This cleared the way for young visionaries and genius tinkerers.
The small computer was thus reinvented from scratch once again.
In one of the legendary Altair clubs, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak met each other.
Together they founded the company Apple, which has been shaping the development of home computers to this day.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates went from garage tinkerer to multimillionaire in the early 1980s by designing the much-needed software for the PC and cleverly marketing and making his operating systems MS-DOS and Windows mainstream.
