Bill Gates and Paul Allen together again

The Microsoft co-founders reprise a famous photo of themselves from the early days of the company.

Paul Allen and Bill Gates posed in 1981 amid some contemporary computers. They reprised the photo on April 3 at the Living Computer Museum. (Credit: Paul Allen)

Thirty-two years ago, Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen took a picture together, surrounded by the computers of the time. It was 1981 and Ronald Reagan had just become president of the U.S. In June of that year, Microsoft incorporated in Washington state, and in August IBM introduced its first PC with Microsoft's fledgling operating system, MS-DOS. At the beginning of 1981, Microsoft had 129 employees. By 2012, Microsoft had more than 97,000 employees and MS-DOS still lives on.

The picture of the older Gates and Allen was taken in Seattle at the Living Computer Museum, which was developed by Allen to preserve the history that led to the founding of Microsoft.

A bearded Paul Allen and glassesless Bill Gates in 1981.