---
title: "Which came first, Microsoft or Star Wars?"
description: "Microsoft vs Star Wars: Microsoft came first, by 2 years — 1975 against 1977. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/microsoft-vs-star-wars/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Microsoft or Star Wars?

**Which came first, Microsoft or Star Wars?: Microsoft**

1975 — 2 years before Star Wars

Microsoft came first, by 2 years. Gates and Allen founded Micro-Soft in Albuquerque.

## Side by side

|  | Microsoft | Star Wars |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1975 | 1977 |
| Date | 1975-04-04 | 1977-05-25 |
| Category | company | media |
| What happened | Gates and Allen founded Micro-Soft in Albuquerque. | The first film opened in 32 American cinemas. |

## Microsoft

Microsoft was founded in April 1975 to sell a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 — a product they had demonstrated before writing all of it. It predates Apple by almost exactly one year. The hyphen was dropped in 1976 and the company moved to Washington state in 1979.

## Star Wars

Star Wars opened in May 1977 on fewer than forty screens because the distributor had little faith in it, and it went on to be the highest-grossing film made to that point. Fox let Lucas keep the merchandising and sequel rights in exchange for a lower directing fee, a decision that transferred an extraordinary amount of money. It is eleven years younger than Star Trek.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Microsoft or Star Wars?

Microsoft, by 2 years — 1975 against 1977.

### When did Microsoft start?

1975. Gates and Allen founded Micro-Soft in Albuquerque.

### When did Star Wars start?

1977. The first film opened in 32 American cinemas.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]