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Microsoft Introduces BASIC for 8086
June 18, 1979 In use at the time by over 200,000 computers with the Z80 and 8080 processors, Microsoft BASIC is introduced for the 8086 16-bit microprocessor. By being one of the first to offer a version of the BASIC programming language for a 16-bit processor and making it compatible with their 8-bit versions of BASIC,…
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Gates Announces Transition from Microsoft
June 15, 2006 Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft (Steve Ballmer was CEO at this point) announces that he will transition out of his day-to-day role at Microsoft by July 2008 in order to dedicate more time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates Announces Transition from Microsoft is original content of This Day in…
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The Breakup of Microsoft … That Never Happened
June 7, 2000 United States District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson orders the breakup of Microsoft into two companies: one that will develop operating systems and one that will develop other applications. Microsoft immediately announces that it will file an appeal of the judgment. What would have been a monumental event in the history of the technology…
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Antitrust Suit Filed Against Microsoft
May 18, 1998 The United States Justice Department and the Attorneys Generals of twenty states plus the District of Columbia file an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. The case focuses on Microsoft’s integration of the Internet Explorer web browser into its Windows 98 operating system. The trial becomes one of the most famous events in tech…
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Apple Sues Microsoft for Copyright Infringement
March 17, 1988 Apple Computer famously sues Microsoft Corporation for copyright infringement in its Windows operating system. Apple eventually lost the lawsuit in 1995. The post Apple Sues Microsoft for Copyright Infringement appeared first on This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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Microsoft Goes Public
March 13, 1986 Ten years after the company’s founding, Microsoft Corporation stock goes public at $ 21 per share. The stock, which eventually closed at $ 27.75 a share, peaked at $ 29.25 a share shortly after the opening. It is said that the rising value of Microsoft stock has made an estimated 4 billionaires and 12,000…
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Microsoft Ships Internet Explorer 2.0
November 27, 1995 Nearly 6 months to the day after Bill Gates sent his Internet Tidal Wave memo recognizing the importance of the Internet, and only 3 months after releasing version 1.0, Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 2.0 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5. IE 2.0 was still based on licensed code from Spyglass Mosaic, but was the…
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Microsoft Introduces Zune
November 14, 2006 Knock-knock Who’s there? Microsoft Zune. Microsoft Zune who? Exactly. Microsoft releases their Zune media player, intended to compete with Apple’s iPod. Hailed by some as an “iPod-killer”, the only killing done was by Microsoft less than 5 years later when they ended production of the Zune brand. Otherwise known as simply another…
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Microsoft Word 1.0 for DOS
September 29, 1983 Microsoft releases their first software application, Microsoft Word 1.0. For use with MS-DOS compatible systems, Word was the first word processing software to make extensive use of a computer mouse. Not coincidentally, Microsoft had released a computer mouse for IBM-compatible PCs earlier in the year. A demo version was also included for…
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Microsoft Introduces BASIC for 8086
June 18, 1979 In use at the time by over 200,000 computers with the Z80 and 8080 processors, Microsoft BASIC is introduced for the 8086 16-bit microprocessor. By being one of the first to offer a version of the BASIC programming language for a 16-bit processor and making it compatible with their 8-bit versions of BASIC,…