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Microsoft Celebrates 40th Anniversary

HughPickens.com writes Alyssa Newcomb reports at ABC News that the software company started by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975 is 40 and fabulous and highlights products and moments that helped define Microsoft's first four decades including: Microsoft's first product — software for the Altair 8800; Getting a deal to provide a DOS Operating System for IBM's computers in 1980; Shipping Windows 1.0 in 1985; Microsoft Office for Mac released in 1989; Windows 3.0 ships in 1990, ushering in the era of graphics on computers; Windows 95 launches in 1995, selling an astounding 7 million copies in the first five weeks, and the first time the start menu, task bar, minimize, maximize and close buttons are introduced on each window.

For his part, Bill Gates sent a letter to employees celebrating Microsoft's anniversary, and how far computing has come since he and Paul Allen set the goal of a computer on every desk and in every home, and predicting that computing will evolve faster in the next 10 years than it ever has before.

3 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And to think by crunchy_one · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I did. Microsoft was the big dog in the world of BASIC. My second personal computer, an Apple II Plus, came with Applesoft BASIC in ROM, a Microsoft product, of which I have fond memories. Happy birthday Microsoft!

  2. Re:And to think by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    BASIC.

    Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

    Beginners.

    That's what was up. Besides, you really could do quite a bit with BASIC on those machines by linking to Assembly code. Although many of us had to unlearn twisted spaghetti code in order to progress anywhere, I do wonder what horrible PTSD cases we would have created if high school kids in the 1970's had to start out with C. Talk about a dystopian future.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  3. Re:What? by kthreadd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Windows won using abusive monopolist tactics.....

    Ehm, technically you can't really use "abusive monopolist tactics" until after you've "won."