For many years, a short -sighted prediction, allegedly made by the founder of Microsoft in 1981, has been walking on the Internet and literature. We checked whether Bill Gates said such.

This is what text is widespread on the social network "VKontakte": “In 1981, four years before the appearance of Microsoft Windows, at the initial stage of Microsoft and IBM cooperation, Bill Gates said the following:“ 640 KB should be enough for any tasks! ”
It was about the peculiarity of the early microprocessors of Intel, where in the only megabite of the target space 640 kb under the RAM was allocated. Then 640 KB seemed incredible!
Today we understand that even the most outstanding minds standing at the origins of modern IT did not suggest how swiftly and all -consuming the development of computer technology would be.
Now we wear phones in pockets, which are many times more powerful than the first computers, and for schoolchildren, smart hours are sawn on the wrists, the functionality of which is much more extensive than any gadget of the time of Bill Gates. ”

The statement attributed to Gates is found on various Internet portals (Gameinonline.com, PEOPles.ru, ixbt.com, "Culture.rf"), in the lists the most unsuccessful predictions, collections of aphorisms and printed books ("The era of longevity: an active and happy life at any age", “Business without rules. How to destroy stereotypes and receive superprofits ", "Big Encyclopedia of Computer and the Internet").

The fact that computer technology has stepped ahead over the past four decades, even people who are far from this sphere know. August 12, 1981 IBM Issued your first personal computer. The IBM 5150 model had the opportunity to expand up to 256 KB RAM and cost about $ 3,000. To download and save the data, an audio cassette was used, the presence of disks was optional, and the hard drive was not supported. In the next line (model 5160, 1983), RAM could be expanded to the notorious 640 KB. The most modest smartphones today look against the background of those PCs are simply supercomputers. But it is important to note that Microsoft has developed the MS-DOS operating system to this restriction I had no relationship - Initially, it was architectural, that is, it came from IBM.

It is also known that the ex-senior person of the planet Bill Gates was noted at different times by not the most accurate predictions, such as:

“I believe that OS/2 is destined to become the most important operating system and, possibly, the best program of all times” (Pronounced in 1987);
“We will never release a 32-bit operating system” (It is said In 1989, four years before the appearance of Windows NT);
“In two years, the spam problem will be solved” (statement was done in 2004).

Gates himself is not shy of such kiks and in 1996 even in one of the newspapers declared: “I sometimes said nonsense and wrong things ...” The quote has a continuation: “... but not this one. None of those who are engaged in computers will never say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all times. The need for memory increases as computers and software become more powerful. In fact, every couple of years, the volume of the address space of the memory necessary to launch any software currently popular is approximately doubled. This is well known. "

So, 26 years ago, Bill Gates said that he did not say anything like this about 640 KB. But let's see how the spread of this quote began at all. Its earliest mention was discovered by the Quote Investigator website in one of the oldest publications devoted to information technologies - magazine Infoworld. It was dated April 29, 1985. James Fosett began his editorial column with the epigraph: “When we set the Upper PC-DOS limit 640 kilobytes, we thought that no one would need so much memory (William Gates, the head of Microsoft).”

The editor did not specify where and under what circumstances Gates made this statement. And although similar opinions in the 80s sounded more than once and from others, not so authoritative persons, the version with 640 KB is first found in the press in connection with it. In addition, in this quote (even if it is genuine), Bill Gates does not claim that he ever openly spoke about the sufficiency of 640 KB, he simply shares his former thoughts. However, this did not prevent the authors of the same publication in subsequent years to distort the quote - compare. Number Infoworld on November 14, 1988: “The head of Microsoft Bill Gates once said that 640 KB memory is more than anyone needs it. He was mistaken ”; number Infoworld From January 1, 1990: “640 KB should be enough for everyone” (Bill Gates).

However, there is also a quote that exactly belongs to Gates. In 1989, he made a speech about information technology at the Waterloo University Club of Computer Sciences. That's what he is declared: “I must say that in 1981, making these decisions, I felt that I gave enough freedom for ten years. That is, the transition from 64 kbytes to 640 KB seemed something that would last a lot of time. Well, this did not happen - it took only about six years before people began to see a real problem in this. ”

And from the mid-90s, Gates began to include “reckless quote” in all kinds of misses. For example, in an article "If they only knew" (Washington Post, November 16, 1995). And this despite the fact that he declared On the incorrectness of the presentation of information in the form of a quote.

Thus, we can draw a general conclusion. There is no evidence that Bill Gates in 1981 declared sufficient memory of 640 KB. Moreover, he himself denies such a wording. At the same time, he clearly believed that this amount of memory would be enough for a long time. In addition, “for a long time” is not equal to “forever”.

Image on the cover: “VKontakte"