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About
Microsoft
XENIX
MS-DOS 1.x - 3.x
Windows 1.0 - 2.x
MS-DOS 4.0
Windows 3.x
MS-DOS 5.0 - 6.x
Windows NT 3.x
Windows 95
Windows NT 4.0
Windows CE 1.0 - 3.0
Windows 98 & 98 SE
Windows 2000
Windows ME
Windows XP |
Microsoft got its start in 1975, after Paul
Allen saw an article about the MITS Altair 8800 (one of the first
microcomputers) in Popular Electronics. He and Bill Gates
immediately saw the potential of this machine, and developed a version
of the BASIC programming language for the Altair. Once they created the
software and sold the rights to MITS (Micro Instrumentation and
Telemetry Systems), Paul Allen and Bill Gates realized they had stumbled
upon a great opportunity. Gates went on leave from Harvard and together
with Allen formed Microsoft Corporation.4, 25
Today, Microsoft employs over 39,000 people
worldwide and reported a net revenue of $22.96 billion last fiscal year.13
They currently have over 250 active products of various types,
including operating systems, server products, office productivity
suites, games, hardware, and more.17
The most popular of these is the Windows family of operating
systems, which was introduced in 1985 and grew to be the most widely
used personal computer operating system in the world. It is
worth mentioning, however, that the concepts behind Windows and other
popular Microsoft products that fueled the company’s success were not
entirely conceived by Microsoft themselves. Some details
about this are noted with their respective products in the next section.
   
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