The History of Microsoft (1975-2001)
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
1,228 words · ~6 min read
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this episode of techwiki is best viewed in Internet Explorer 11 just kidding but
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it wasn't too long ago that Microsoft's position in the market was so dominant
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that nearly everyone was using iie anyways along with Windows Office and
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that space cadet pinball game that was actually awesome so just how did
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Microsoft become the face of the software industry before Google was even
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a glint in Larry Page's eye well it
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started back in 1975 when Bill Gates and
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Paul Allen wanted to get the programming language basic working on their alter
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8800 the first successful PC the one
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with the little lights and switches on the front that was programmed directly
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by toggling them they believed a basic interpreter would make it a lot easier
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for people to program on the alt using a keyboard what a concept this interpreter
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called alt basic was Microsoft's first ever product and it took up just 4
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kilobytes on paper tape it proved to be so popular that Bill Gates sent a very
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angry letter to hobbyist telling them to stop copying it and passing it around
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for free unfortunately for Bill product activation was still a few decades away
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but that's okay it didn't stop Microsoft from growing and developing many more
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forms of basic through the early 1980s
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which served not only as programming environments but also as Proto operating
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systems for home computers of the time Microsoft also launched its first ever
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piece of Hardware in 1980 called the soft card which allowed the operating
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system CPM which later evolved into Doss
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to run on Apple Computers sound familiar
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anyway speaking of Doss Microsoft agreed to produce Doss for IBM in
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1981 which quickly made Microsoft a software giant their yearly Revenue
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raised from 16 million in 1981 to over 97 million a mere 3 years later in
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1984 this number was also bolstered by the introduction of Microsoft Word in
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1983 which was notable for being one of the first what you see is what you get
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word processors meaning you could see formatting like italics on screen
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instead of having to type in a command later to get the printer to print the
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font that you want and Microsoft continued to roll with the whole idea of
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making things on the monitor look nicer when they released Windows 1.0 in 1985
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and while this initial version of Windows was really just a graphical
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shell that ran on top of MS DOS it was still ahead of its time in some ways for
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example it was widely criticized for relying too much on the mouse since most
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computers in 1985 didn't even have them yet but Bill Gates who previously
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announced that the company would focus firmly on Windows was undeterred and 5
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years later in 1990 Windows 3.0 was
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released and was a smashing success thanks in no small part to their use of
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real actual icons to represent programs and files and a support for a whopping
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256 colors the original version of Microsoft Office was also released this
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year and was similarly successful though some of Microsoft's productivity
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software Rivals cried foul because Microsoft's knowledge of Windows
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supposedly allowed them to make office run better on Windows than the
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competition whatever the truth was Windows became the world's most popular
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graphical OS in 1993 with office
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becoming the market leader in productivity applications a year later
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so with all this success the stage was very much set for the much B hooded
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Windows 95 release in you guessed it
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1995 which included many enduring features like the start menu the modern
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Windows desktop Paradigm and the taskbar
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this along with Microsoft's growing portfolio of consumer products like
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incarta Internet Explorer and MSN which
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is still around as a dialup provider and a web portal quickly turned Microsoft
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into a household name and a Mainstay on both home and office PCS
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worldwide they even invaded our TVs partnering with General Electric to
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launch MSNBC in 1996 a cable news
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channel that emphasized interactivity and online news to complement its TV
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offerings in its early days of course Microsoft's market dominance raised some
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eyebrows especially when they bundled internet explore with Windows 98 and
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treated the browser as an integral part of the operating system certain elements
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of Windows wouldn't run properly without IE this escalated to the point where the
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US government nearly broke Microsoft into two companies in 2000 though this
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was avoided through a settlement while this litigation was going on Microsoft
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rolled out Windows me which was so buggy that PC World joked that me stood for
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mistake Edition but Redmond quickly writed itself in 2011 releasing the
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venerable Windows XP the first Windows
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version for consumers that ditch Ms Doss
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which ran underneath Windows 90x using
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the much more stable Windows NT kernel which was previously only intended for
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business use that same year Microsoft Dove head first into the game console
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Wars releasing the original Xbox is a big Fu to Sony whose PlayStation product
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line was driving game developers away from Windows and although the Xbox may
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have been a little big and looked a little tacky it was ahead of its time in
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a number of ways being the first console to include an Ethernet Jack and a hard
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drive so by this point it's clear that Microsoft was trying to diversify their
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business in areas other than just the traditional PC software space but
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unfortunately if we went into all of Microsoft's post 2001 successes and
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missteps this wouldn't really be a tech Quicky episode it'd be like a tech
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longy episode so let us know in the comments what you'd like to see us cover
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you can save 10% by going to Tunnel bear.com Linus thanks for watching guys
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if you like this video like it if you dislike this video dislike it check out Channel Super Fun if you want to like
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break from learning things and down below if you have any ideas of stuff
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that we should cover on this channel like the history of something let us
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know and we'll look into that see you guys next time