They were best friends, typical eighth graders, except for this: they spent most of their time writing computer programs. The two boys, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, grew up in Seattle.

Before they entered high school, they'd already produced two programs: one played tic-tac-toe.

Before long, they were moonlighting as young computer consultants for a local corporation.

In high school, Bill and his friends devised a program that analyzed traffic data.

Bill went off to Harvard. While still a freshman at Harvard, he read about the birth of the first personal computer in a magazine.

Bill and Paul decided to see if they could improve the computer language which ran the machine.

The computer maker was impressed by their work after Paul flew across the country to demonstrate it. The company (MITS) promoted their computer language.

Paul joined MITS but he left in 1976 to work full time with the company he and Bill had formed the year before-you guessed it-- Microsoft. Bill had dropped out of Harvard in his junior year to devote his full attention to the company.

Bill and Paul learned the hard way about how to run their business. They negotiated a flat fee of $21,000 for their version of Basic to run on Apple computers, a computer that has always used a unique operating system.

The machines loaded with Basic sold like crazy. In the end the flat fee worked out at just two cents per copy sold.

In November 1977 Microsoft shipped its second language product, "Fortran". The following year the company made more than a million dollars for the first time.

In 1978 Microsoft launched its third language product, Cobol 80 and the company moved from New Mexico-where MITS was based-to Seattle.

Because Bill Gates has been so successful he has many fans as well as critics. There are Web sites dedicated to making fun of him. Once he was even hit in the face by a pie-thrower. (Bill Gates Pie Attack from Brussels Television)

A few years ago he told a reporter he wanted to run Microsoft for another 10 years, then focus on giving his money away.

Since then he has started The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , which has this slogan: "Bringing innovations in health and learning to the global community."

He has endowed $21.8 billion to the Foundation. Some major projects include a Minority Scholarship Program announced last year and a $750 million grant to a global fund for children's vaccines in the poorest countries in the world.

Recently the foundation gave a million dollars for relief efforts in Mozambique following the floods there.

Bill Gates is currently the Chairman of Microsoft.

Paul Allen left Microsoft in 1983, after a serious illness. He retains his seat on the Microsoft board and remains its second largest stockholder.