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Microsoft Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Posted by timothy on from the 14,609-days-ought-to-be-enough-for-anybody dept.

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.

13 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. What? by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Windows 3.0 ships in 1990, ushering in the era of graphics on computers

    I think Apple might have something to say about that claim....

    1. 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."

    2. Re:What? by GrahamCox · · Score: 3, Informative

      Windows had a colour graphics API; the Macs of the period were still black and white

      Nope. Colour Quickdraw was written in 1985 and shipped with the first Mac II in 1986. It had a full colour RGB model, though initially only had 256 colour hardware - 32-bit hardware came in 1987. Even the original "black-and-white" Quickdraw had a simple colour model to support colour printing on Apple's dot-matrix printer.

      You could also do colour graphics on a C64, BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum (hint - the name "Spectrum" was for that very reason). Rewrite history all you like - some might even believe it - but there are plenty of us still around that actually remember how it was.

  3. Thank you, and may you live forever Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Happy 40th Anniversary and may you live forever Microsoft.
    Thank you for helping my business with your reliable and affordable products (from the DOS times until now), and for making computers usable for all people (from coders like me to even illiterates around the world).
    A Greek that uses "Linux" almost 3 decades now, but -while anonymous- is not the usual Slashdot coward...
    (haters gonna hate!)

    1. Re:Thank you, and may you live forever Microsoft! by Mass+Overkiller · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As much as people poop on Microsoft I have to thank them as well for making computers so popular and giving me a life long job and hobby that I have used to support my career and family. Thank you Microsoft!

  4. History revisionism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    WOW: "ushering in the era of graphics on computers", WTF is HughPickens.com smoking?

    I don't get how everyone is swallowing this propaganda whole every time there's a corporate PR push like this, computer graphics predates Microsoft by decades, and computer graphics 'in every home' predates Windows 3.0 by at least 5 years if you only take the various Apples, Commodores/Amigas, Ataris that were out by 1985 and literally sold millions by then (C=64 e.g. sold 27 million overall until Commodore went bankrupt in 1993). Even "multimedia" was a popular Commodore marketing term for their CD-ROM equipped systems years before Windows 95. This blurb makes it sound like Microsoft "innovated" again and invented computer graphics all by themselves.

    Same for "the first time the start menu, task bar, minimize, maximize and close buttons are introduced on each window" (style errors aside: "start menu"/"task bar" on every window?), again min/max/close buttons were present on every window in early Lisa/MacOS, AmigaOS, Atari TOS, even Geos for C=64 way before MS copied it from Apple (who copied it from Xerox). The only thing Microsoft keeps (re)inventing is history. I guess stock prices aren't inflated high enough yet.

  5. Re:They didn't user in the era of graphics by crunchy_one · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On that score, let's not forget Xerox PARC. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

  6. Re:And to think by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    AmigaBASIC also came from Microsoft. It was pretty good, although for some reason you needed a RAM expansion to perform a graphics fill operation.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. Re:And to think by spire3661 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Convicted monopolist, right there with AT&T and Standard Oil...

    --
    Good-bye
  8. 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!
  9. Re:What about Bob? by CronoCloud · · Score: 4, Insightful

    anyone remember Clippy, the animated paper clip in Office that everyone loved?

    I see you are making a reference to Clippy, would you like some help with that?

    I didn't mind Clippy that much, but I seriously dislked that @#$@#$ Search dog. He was actually dumber than Clippy, if that's possible and seemed to cause a performance hit.

  10. Maybe this will give some context. by Johnny+Loves+Linux · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've seen a lot of pro and con posts about Microsoft's place in computer history. Maybe this post will help people see it more clearly.

    1. Microsoft didn't invent BASIC. BASIC was around since 1964. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B....
    2. Microsoft didn't invent DOS. They bought something called QDOS and rebranded it DOS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8...
    3. Microsoft didn't invent ubiquitous computing. IBM created a personal computer based on the Intel 8086. But long before that there was the TRS 80, the Commodore Pet, Apple II, and for those people who preferred to roll their own hardware, there were Heathkit parts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit_H8, and http://oldcomputers.net/heathk...) to build one's own computers.
    4. Before there was DOS there was CP/M which could run on Intel 8080, Zilog Z80, Motorola 6502 (it was available as a card for Apple II's). There was even a version for 8086. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M)
    5. The PC industry began not with Microsoft, but with Compaq who made the first IBM PC clones. You may be too young to remember, but PCs used to be called IBM PCs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
    6. Others have already pointed out that GUIs began with Xerox PARC, and the mouse itself goes back to 1968 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos)

    So what exactly did Microsoft invent? Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

    1. A method of ensuring an operating system monopoly by preventing other operating systems from being preinstalled on OEM equipment.
    2. A method of ensuring that OEMs cooperated by giving them a kickback if they cooperated with Microsoft's strategies.
    3. A EULA (End User Licensing Agreement) making it difficult, if not impossible, for an individual to decline the license, return the software, and receive a refund for the Microsoft software they didn't want to use.

    I don't believe it's immoral or wrong for folks to make their livelihood using Microsoft products, but I do think it's unwise to do business with Microsoft while being ignorant of their long history. I also think it's dishonest not to admit that the Microsoft Corporation has a long history of doing shady things to software partners (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyglass,_Inc.#Browser_wars and http://www.justice.gov/atr/cas... for example) , OEM vendors, Standards Boards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open_XML) and lastly to customers (http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf)