Microsoft turns 40

[maflynn]

Love them or hate them, MS turns 40 today. They were and continue to be a driving force in the computer industry.

Without them, there would be no MS Dos, Windows, Office, and a myriad of other products.

They created Excel for Apple, which helped put the Macintosh on the map. They invested 150 million dollars in Apple in 1997. By some accounts this gave apple the capital needed to keep going and reorganize into the juggernaut they are now.

Of course they used their market dominance to crush competition in an illegal manner and things aren't all rosy with them right now but they are turning 40 and produce so much for the computer world.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

I have not been a big fan of MS. Their OS was/is a nightmare. I started to use MS Office from the 2000s after my favorite word processors were not upgraded/continued.

What was/is positive for me from MS:

1. My first professional ergonomic keyboard in the late 90s.
2. My first favorite mouse was Microsoft's also in the late 90s.
3. MS Office Mac. Can't live w/o it.

 

[rdowns]

Happy birthday Microsoft. Here's the last 35 years.

 

[Jessica Lares]

My most used Microsoft programs throughout the years were Paintbrush/Paint and Write/WordPad, later on Internet Explorer in Windows 95 onwards. Windows Mobile was great too, and so is Windows Phone.

 

[mojolicious]

Happy birthday Microsoft. Here's the last 35 years.



Image

Interesting graphic. If I'm reading it correctly, Apple aren't as 'sector dominant' as Microsoft were either side of a mysterious millennial blip?

 

[maflynn]

I have and continue to like a lot of Microsoft technologies. I still remember what was a pet project over at MS - Visual Basic. That in of itself allowed so many people to develop apps for windows that wouldn't normally do so.

My first programming language was GW Basic and then I moved on to MASM, Microsoft's assembler

 

[JamesMike]

Time flies! I still have Windows 3.1 on an old laptop.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Time flies! I still have Windows 3.1 on an old laptop.

It does. I think I still have my first Laptop that ran MS-DOS. It was a Rein Elektronik 300 SLC. And it was made in Japan!

 

[ravenvii]

Interesting graphic. If I'm reading it correctly, Apple aren't as 'sector dominant' as Microsoft were either side of a mysterious millennial blip?

Yeah -- Microsoft basically used to control the amount of marketshare that they and Apple currently both control today.

It's insane how much control over the entire technology sector IBM used to have back in the early 80's. None of today's companies come even close.

That mysterious millennial blip isn't mysterious -- that was the dot-com bubble bursting. A lot of **** went down for Microsoft around that time, too -- the anti-trust trials, Windows ME, ...

 

[impulse462]

I have and continue to like a lot of Microsoft technologies. I still remember what was a pet project over at MS - Visual Basic. That in of itself allowed so many people to develop apps for windows that wouldn't normally do so.

Agree 100%. And I think personnel don't get enough credit. The engineers and designers working at Apple and particularly Microsoft in the early days were some of the smartest people on the planet towards the end of century. I think Steve Ballmer gets a lot of heat too. While definitely unconventional during his keynotes he was probably one of the most outwardly enthusiastic CEOs of any technology company. In addition, I think he tripled Microsofts revenues between 2000 and 2010 (i don't know the exact numbers but it's something like that).

He was just in the unfortunate position of having to be compared to Steve Jobs during the iPod, iPhone, and iPad part of Apple's history (00s).

 

[lowendlinux]

Agree 100%. And I think personnel don't get enough credit. The engineers and designers working at Apple and particularly Microsoft in the early days were some of the smartest people on the planet towards the end of century. I think Steve Ballmer gets a lot of heat too. While definitely unconventional during his keynotes he was probably one of the most outwardly enthusiastic CEOs of any technology company. In addition, I think he tripled Microsofts revenues between 2000 and 2010 (i don't know the exact numbers but it's something like that).

He was just in the unfortunate position of having to be compared to Steve Jobs during the iPod, iPhone, and iPad part of Apple's history (00s).

People like to make fun of Mr. Ballmer but he is one of the grand old men of the modern computing era and is a true believer in the MS platform, I'm actually sad to see him out of action.

 

[loby]

Best programs ever that came out of Microsoft:

Age of Empires

OneNote

I am note sure, but is OneNote totally a Microsoft creation?

If it is, one of the few programs from them that they actually created that was any good. Many others here might know. I talked to one of the creators of Microsoft 6 back in the day and he said OneNote has crazy and complex coding, very different from Word...

 

[maflynn]

Best programs ever that came out of Microsoft:

Not a Microsoft creation, but the best game that kept me coming back on the PC back in the day was Colossal Cave Adventure

I just found this link to play it on the web
http://www.amctv.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire/colossal-cave-adventure

 

[AustinIllini]

Microsoft's place in the world is critically important. No single company did more to advance software development.