How Microsoft BASIC reached the Apple II
The Apple II arrived with a programming language built into it: BASIC, a beginner-friendly language that let owners give the computer instructions by typing commands. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had written the machine’s original version, but Apple later needed a more capable implementation. Microsoft supplied one, developed with Bill Gates among the programmers working on the code.
That version became known as Applesoft BASIC. It added floating-point arithmetic—the ability to work with numbers that include decimal fractions, rather than only whole numbers. That mattered for practical programs involving measurements, money, or calculations where rounding to integers would be limiting.
A supplier relationship before the rivalry
The arrangement reflected an early split in the personal-computer business. Apple made and sold the computer; Microsoft made software that could run on it. Microsoft’s BASIC was adapted to the Apple II’s hardware and incorporated into Apple’s product, so a buyer could start programming without first finding and loading a separate language package.
The collaboration did not mean the companies shared ownership or merged their efforts. Microsoft was an outside software supplier, and Apple’s acceptance of its code was a commercial decision: a stronger built-in programming language made the Apple II more useful to people who wanted to create their own programs.
That history makes the later rivalry less surprising than it may seem. Before Apple and Microsoft became symbols of competing computer platforms, their products could depend on one another: Microsoft’s code helped make Apple’s computer easier to program.
