The story so far. In 1975 Ed Roberts invented an Altair personal computer. It was a pain to use until 19 year-old pre-billionaire, Bill Gates wrote the first personal computer language still the public didn't care. Then two young hackers, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built apple computer to impress their friends. We are all impress and the apple was the stunning success. By 1980 the PC market was worth a billion dollars.