Gates and Paul Allen launched computing giant Microsoft 50 years ago. In 1993, he talked to the BBC about the online innovations that would define the 21st Century.

When the BBC first broadcast an interview with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in June 1993, there were thought to be only 130 websites in total. The BBC's venerable science programme Horizon was investigating the new "Electronic Frontier", in an era where "information is starting to redefine our world, its geography and its economy". Gates told the programme: "This is the information age, and the computer is the tool of the information age and software is what will determine how easily we can get at all of that information." Viewers could send off a cheque for £2 and receive a transcript of the programme in the post.

The computer industry had already grown faster than any in history, but the key to future profits was creating something portable and user-friendly. The programme asked: "Do we need endless information, or do they just need to sell it to us?" In a world where a list of almost every website could fit on two sides of a sheet of paper, the world wide web did not even get a mention. However, the ideas explored in the programme are often far ahead of their time.

In the early days of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen set a goal of having a computer on every desk and in every home – all running Microsoft products, of course. They first met as children at a private school in Seattle, where they discovered a shared love of computers. Both went on to college but dropped out and created Microsoft, so-called because it provided microcomputer software.

The company's big break came in 1980 when Microsoft agreed to produce the operating system for the personal computer being developed by IBM, the world's leading computer company at the time. In a stroke of business genius, Microsoft was allowed to license the operating system to other manufacturers, spawning an industry of "IBM-compatible" personal computers which depended on its MS-DOS product. The money had begun to roll in – and to this day it has not yet stopped.

While Gates was the serious-minded computer nerd, Allen was his offbeat big brother. Allen worked at Microsoft until 1983, stepping away from the frontline following a diagnosis of blood cancer. He recovered to become a successful venture capitalist and, having held onto his share of the company, he was a fixture on the world's rich lists until his death in 2018 at the age of 65. He used his vast fortune to invest in his personal passions, owning both the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team and Seattle Seahawks NFL team, who won the Super Bowl in 2013.

His departure from Microsoft also meant that he had more time to perfect his guitar moves. Legendary music producer Quincy Jones even claimed in a magazine interview that Allen "sings and plays just like Hendrix". He said: "I went on a trip on his yacht, and he had David Crosby, Joe Walsh, Sean Lennon... then on the last two days, Stevie Wonder came on with his band and made Paul come up and play with him – he's good, man." The design of........

© BBC