A Brief History of Microsoft
WindowsA Brief History of Microsoft
WindowsAs Steve Jobs had noticed, the Graphical User Interface was the way to go. Microsoft caught on to the visual presentation idea as well (later provoking a copyright infringement suit filed by Apple) and started developing Microsoft Windows in 1982. Windows has since become a hit, but it had a bumpy road in its first few years. Here is a list of Windows milestones:
1983 -- Microsoft announces the first version of Windows. It doesn't work. The product ultimately ships in 1985, but (almost) nobody buys it.
1984 -- IBM announces TopView, its own windowing product. Users find it so slow and useless that they call it TopHeavy ...
1987 -- IBM and Microsoft announce, together, a new operating system called OS/2. It is a windowing operating system destined to replace DOS, they say. The system was developed by Microsoft. However, OS/2 proves to be too expensive, too slow, and its hardware requirements are well ahead of its time. That same year, Microsoft announces Microsoft Windows 2.0, offering compatibility with existing Windows applications and a system of overlapping rather than tiled windows.
1988 - Microsoft figures out a way to let Windows take advantage of the "protected mode" of Intel's 80386 microprocessor, which helps solve the memory problems that plagued earlier versions of Windows. Microsoft starts the development of Version 3.0 of Windows.
1990 -- Microsoft launches Windows 3.0 at the City Center Theatre in New York. Easier to use and more aesthetically appealing, this version quickly becomes a best-seller and takes the industry by storm. PC Manufacturers start preloading copies of Windows 3.0 on their PCs along with MS-DOS. Microsoft Windows has made it.
1992 -- Microsoft launches Windows 3.1, fixing major bugs, adding over 1,000 enhancements and speeding Windows up. Microsoft premiers its television advertising campaign, designed to introduce the benefits of Windows-based computing to a broader audience. The new version drew over one million advance orders worldwide. Microsoft also launches Windows for Workgroups, which supports networking. In the same year, IBM launches the competing OS/2 version 2.
1993 - Microsoft Windows unit sales reach 25 million copies. Microsoft launches the first version of Windows NT (New Technology) -- its operating system for networks of PC's. The product is slow, expensive and its hardware requirements are well ahead of its time.
1994 - Microsoft launches Windows NT 3.5, fixing major bugs and speeding Windows NT up. Corporations start taking Windows NT seriously. Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 becomes the world's best selling retail operating system, edging Windows 3.1 into the No. 2 spot.
August 1995- Microsoft ships Windows 95, which combines the operating system with an improved Windows interface. Windows 95 is late, but -- to the tune of a $300 million marketing campaign -- it sells millions of copies with 280 PC manufacturers preloading it on their machines. More than 1 million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 are sold at retail stores during the first four days of availability in North America.
December 1995 - Microsoft declares war, vying to "embrace and extend" the Internet and to weave Microsoft Windows into the Internet fabric. Microsoft gives its Web browser, Internet Explorer for Windows 95, away for free to challenge Netscape's Navigator.
1996 -- Microsoft launches Windows NT 4.0, with the same graphical user interface as Windows 95. Corporations consider Windows NT the operating system of choice for networked PC's.
1997 - The Antitrust Section of the U.S. Justice Department sues Microsoft, accusing it of violating an earlier consent decree by forcing computer makers to use its Internet browser as a condition of using Microsoft Windows.
1998 - Windows 98, which combines Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the Windows operating system, is released, followed by the Microsoft antitrust trial. The U.S. Justice Department and 20 state attorneys general file U.S. vs. Microsoft, charging that Microsoft is illegally thwarting competition to protect and extend its monopoly on software. A key issue at trial is whether integrating the Windows operating system with the Internet Explorer browser is permissible.
1999 - Microsoft promises to release Windows 2000, an operating system that runs the entire range of computers from laptops to large back-office systems. This is the largest software project in history, sized at 30 million lines of code. As of 1999, the product is being tested, and its developers are finding -- and fixing -- a few hunderd bugs everyday.
1999/2000
- Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson reaches a decision in U.S. vs. Microsoft.
However, the impact of the landmark decision is overshadowed by the effects of the Y2K
bug.
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