I INTRODUCTION  Microsoft Corporation, leading American computer software company. Microsoft develops and sells a wide variety of software products to businesses and consumers in more than 50 countries. The company’s Windows operating systems for personal computers are the most widely used operating systems in the world. Microsoft has its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft’s other well-known products include Word, a word processor; Excel, a spreadsheet program; Access, a database program; and PowerPoint, a program for making business presentations. These programs are sold separately and as part of Office, an integrated software suite. The company also makes BackOffice, an integrated set of server products for businesses. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer allows users to browse the World Wide Web. Among the company’s other products are reference applications, including Encarta Encyclopedia; games; financial software; programming languages for software developers; input devices, such as pointing devices and keyboards; and computer-related books.

Microsoft operates The Microsoft Network (MSN), a collection of news, travel, financial, entertainment, and information Web sites. Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) jointly operate MSNBC, a 24-hour news, talk, and information cable-television channel and companion Web site.

II FOUNDING  
Microsoft was founded in 1975 by William H. Gates III and Paul Allen. The pair had teamed up in high school through their hobby of programming on the original PDP-10 computer from the Digital Equipment Corporation. In 1975 Popular Electronics magazine featured a cover story about the Altair 8800, the first personal computer. The article inspired Gates and Allen to develop the first version of the BASIC programming language for the Altair. They licensed the software to Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the Altair's manufacturer, and formed Microsoft (originally Micro-soft) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to develop versions of BASIC for other computer companies. Microsoft's early customers included fledgling hardware firms such as Apple Computer, maker of the Apple II computer; Commodore, maker of the PET computer; and Tandy Corporation, maker of the Radio Shack TRS-80 computer. In 1977 Microsoft shipped its second language product, Microsoft FORTRAN, and it soon released versions of BASIC for the 8080 and 8086 microprocessors.

III MS-DOS  
In 1979 Gates and Allen moved the company to Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of their hometown of Seattle. (The company moved to its current headquarters in Redmond in 1986.) In 1980 International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) chose Microsoft to write the operating system for the IBM PC personal computer, to be introduced the following year. Under time pressure, Microsoft purchased QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Seattle programmer Tim Paterson for $50,000 and renamed it MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System). As part of its contract with IBM, Microsoft was permitted to license the operating system to other companies. By 1984 Microsoft had licensed MS-DOS to 200 personal computer manufacturers, making MS-DOS the standard operating system for personal computers and driving Microsoft’s enormous growth in the 1980s.

IV APPLICATION SOFTWARE  
As sales of MS-DOS took off, Microsoft began to develop business applications for personal computers. In 1982 it released Multiplan, a spreadsheet program, and the following year, it released a word-processing program, Microsoft Word. In 1984 Microsoft was one of the few established software companies to develop application software for the Macintosh, a personal computer developed by Apple Computer. Microsoft’s early support for the Macintosh resulted in tremendous success for its Macintosh application software, including Word, Excel, and Works (an integrated software suite). Multiplan for MS-DOS, however, faltered against the popular Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program made by Lotus Development Corporation.

V WINDOWS  
In 1985 Microsoft released Windows, an operating system that extended the features of MS-DOS and employed a graphical user interface. Windows 2.0, released in 1987, improved performance and offered a new visual appearance. In 1990 Microsoft released a more powerful version, Windows 3.0, which was followed by Windows 3.1 and 3.11. These versions, which came preinstalled on most new personal computers, rapidly became the most widely used operating systems. In 1990 Microsoft became the first personal-computer software company to record $1 billion in annual sales.

As Microsoft’s dominance grew in the market for personal-computer operating systems, the company was accused of monopolistic business practices. In 1990 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating Microsoft for alleged anticompetitive practices, but was unable to reach a decision and dropped the case. The United States Department of Justice continued the probe.

In 1991 Microsoft and IBM ended a decade of collaboration when they went separate ways on the next generation of operating systems for personal computers. IBM chose to pursue the OS/2 operating system (first released in 1987), which until then had been a joint venture with Microsoft. Microsoft chose to evolve its Windows operating system into increasingly powerful systems. In 1993 Apple lost a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Microsoft that claimed Windows illegally copied the design of the Macintosh’s graphical interface. The ruling was later upheld by an appellate court.

In 1993 Microsoft released Windows NT, an operating system for business environments. The following year the company and the Justice Department reached an agreement that called for Microsoft to change the way its operating system software was sold and licensed to computer manufacturers. In 1995 the company released Windows 95, which featured a simplified interface, multitasking, and other improvements. An estimated 7 million copies of Windows 95 were sold worldwide within seven weeks of its release.

VI RECENT DEVELOPMENTS  
In the mid-1990s Microsoft began to expand into the media, entertainment, and communications industries, launching The Microsoft Network in 1995 and MSNBC in 1996. Also in 1996 Microsoft introduced Windows CE, an operating system for handheld personal computers. In 1997 Microsoft paid $425 million to acquire WebTV Networks, a manufacturer of low-cost devices to connect televisions to the Internet. That same year Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast Corporation, a U.S. cable-television operator, as part of an effort to expand the availability of high-speed connections to the Internet.

In late 1997 the Justice Department accused Microsoft of violating its 1994 agreement by requiring computer manufacturers that installed Windows 95 to also include Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s software for browsing the Internet. The government contended that Microsoft was illegally taking advantage of its power in the market for computer operating systems to gain control of the market for Internet browsers. In response, Microsoft argued that it should have the right to enhance the functionality of Windows by integrating Internet-related features into the operating system.

The two sides temporarily settled in early 1998 when Microsoft agreed to allow personal computer manufacturers to offer a version of Windows 95 that did not include access to Internet Explorer. However, in May 1998 the Justice Department and 20 states filed broad antitrust suits charging Microsoft with engaging in anticompetitive conduct. The suits sought to force Microsoft to offer Windows without Internet Explorer or to include Navigator, a competing browser made by Netscape Communications Corporation. The suits also challenged some of the company’s contracts and pricing strategies. In June 1998 Microsoft released Windows 98, which featured integrated Internet capabilities

Courtesy www.rediff.com
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