Microsoft is officially half a hundred former and what a half a hundred it ’s been . It go from being a small scale package company to dominating the world of personal computers , to today where it ’s worth over $ 3 trillion — or at least it was until somerecent duty trickery . It ’s not the only name in the game any more , with Google ’s Android platform the most democratic operating system on twist , but Microsoft ’s Windows still form the backbone of the professional and play earth , and that ’s not the only pie it has its fingers in .
From trying to wrestle controller of the AI hype train , to endeavour in Quantum computing , Microsoft is face to form the zeitgeist of the next 50 years . Let ’s take a look at some of its with child wins over the past few decades , and what it might do in to secure some more in the years to come .
The founding – 1975
Bill Gates and partner Paul Allen founded Micro - indulgent in 1975 . Although the fellowship name was a portmanteau word of Microprocessor and Software , the twosome focused on software developing for the Altair 8800 personal computer . They found immediate success and batten a declaration with the Altair ’s developer , Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems , but it was n’t for a few more days that Microsoft would get piece of work on some of its most iconic package products .
MS-DOS to Windows, to Office – 1980 – 1989
The next two decades went smoothly for Microsoft . It secured a contract to put up MS - DOS adaptation 1.0 and other Microsoft software system products to IBM for its Personal Computer . Also admit on the raw system was Microsoft ’s 1979 school text - based RPG , Microsoft Adventure . cut-rate sale of MS - DOS chop-chop expanded as other PC manufacturers and Microsoft began work on the graphihcal user interface for MS - DOS that would before long become the first variant of Windows .
In 1985 Gates showed off Windows for the first meter , describing it as “ unique software system designed for the serious microcomputer user . ” In reality , Windows made the user experience with a microcomputer far more straightforward , as well as expand MS - DOS capabilities , such as running multiple unrelated programs at the same time .
Throughout the 1980s Microsoft also enter a issue of its other iconic software applications . In 1983 , it unblock Word , surveil up with Excel in 1985 ( on the Mac ) .
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Evolution of Windows, Xbox – 1990 – 2010
Microsoft ’s Windows went on to transition through a number of versions throughout the 90s and 2010s — some hit , some misses . It also introduce the Xbox console in the former 200s , and continued its development throughout the decades . The compounding of a pop plate gaming consoles and the prevailing personal computer gambling platform in Windows , made Microsoft an absolute cornerstone of gaming . The continued maturation of of import play software and genus Apis , like DirectX , form Microsoft still one of the most important party in gaming today — even if it never did get us thatFreelancersequel I so want .
Branching out – 2010s
The 2010s were an interesting full point for Microsoft . It end up launch its most pop operating organisation in eld in Windows 10 , but also render and failed , and then try and succeeded in the tablet space with its Surface line . Steve Ballmer crashed out as chief executive officer after blackguard about developers and sweating all over the place , and Microsoft started buying up client - facing software and services like Skype and Linkedin .
Office went from being a Windows exclusive to being software you could expend almost anywhere , with World Wide Web versions bridge any mill about compatibility gap . In gaming , Microsoft ’s Xbox consoles persist in doing well enough and it pay a distich of billion tosome Swedish guy . Microsoft still makes 100 of millions of dollar sign a year fromMinecraftalone , so it was probably a smart purchase than it seemed at the clip .
More than just an operating system – 2020s
In the 2020s , Microsoft connect a ambit of other major technical school troupe in not only looking to new avenues of tax income , but also refocusing for the future . It commence the tenner with the launching of Windows 11 , which while successful has pushed for ever greater user trailing , advertizing integration , and pushing towards more of a software as a service design .
Then the AI bonanza began and the Earth has been cod that wave ever since . After being blindside byChatGPT ’s capabilities and subsequent succeeder , Microsoft managed to succeed the bidding war to secure its employment in create Copilot which it ’s now jostle into everything . Windows has it , all of Microsoft ’s first - political party apps have it , and Bing became equal parts chatbot and search engine overnight . Copilot+ PC and laptop followed , although nobody care the Recall idea .
And that ’s where we recover ourselves today . Microsoft is big than ever , but it feel more spread . The Windows chopine still forms the backbone of professional industries and house gaming , but the traditional screen background microcomputer and laptop computer does n’t find quite as ubiquitous as it once was . The pandemic might have drive everyone back into their home offices , but today Chromebooks , MacBooks , and a wider - range of limb - powered equipment mean Microsoft is n’t the monolith it once was .
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AI is emphatically where Microsoft sees the future start and it ’s couch its full weight behind it . Enough so that the last few CEOs were well-chosen to be roast by one :
Three Microsoft CEOs take the air into a room on Microsoft ’s 50th day of remembrance … and are interview by Copilot!pic.twitter.com/5E8wHCDV92
But is that where it will really make its next wallop ? Even more so than with Windows , the AI landscape is saturate with contest and there are many questions about how much farther this gravy trail has to turn over .
My hands are small, but those “Duke” controllers were massive, right?Micorosft
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