Microsoft
From DocForge
Microsoft Corporation is the largest commercial software maker in the world, and is the producer of the most prevalent operating system for x86 architecture computers, Microsoft Windows. Microsoft was originally started by William Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Microsoft's business model is building computer software and then selling limited usage licenses to that software, a model that has worked extraordinarily well for more than 30 years and does not show distinctive signs of becoming a totally nonviable model in the future.
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[edit] Criticism
[edit] Standards Compliance
Microsoft's web site and public statements claim a very strong interest in interoperability and standards compliance. Yet Microsoft is often criticized for not conforming consistently to open standards, even those which they were a party in creating.
- Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7 do not conform closely to HTML, CSS, or JavaScript standards.
- Microsoft's corporate web site, microsoft.com, is not valid XHTML[1]
[edit] History
[edit] QDOS and the Early Days
Originally Microsoft wrote BASIC interpreters, most notably convincing Apple's Steve Wozniak to buy a license from Microsoft, rather than finish adding floating-point capabilities to Steve's own BASIC interpreter. This arguably started the dependency cycle that initiated the "800 Days of Beige" escapade during the early 90's as well as Steve Jobs' exodus from Apple. Regardless, Microsoft made a name for itself in simple, effective interpreters.
Microsoft's most well-known business is its operating systems, currently flagshipped by their Windows platform. Before Windows, there was DOS. Microsoft did not develop DOS in-house, and rather bought DOS as QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Seattle Computer Products in December of 1980 for $25,000.00 USD. Rather than become stuck with the "Microsoft Dirty Operating System," Bill insisted it stood for "Disk Operating System." Regardless of its origins or name, MS-DOS became the standard on virtually all IBM PCs and their legions of clones, replacing the aging CP/M operating system that had hitherto been the reigning standard.
[edit] Microsoft Windows - Pre 1995
In November of 1985 Microsoft released the first version of Windows, which was a simple graphical extension to DOS. Windows to this day is little more than a graphical extension to DOS still. Shortly after the release of Windows, Microsoft went public with an IPO of $21.00 USD, which rose to a closing value of $28.00 USD by the end of its opening day on market.
Following this, in 1989 Microsoft released their new Office productivity suite, Microsoft Office. The following year Windows 3.0 was introduced, which included graphical upgrades to the fledgling GUI.
In 1993 Microsoft released Windows NT 3.1, which featured the GUI of Windows 3.0 but used a totally new kernel instead of the historical DOS kernel, which persisted until it was discontinued after Windows ME.
[edit] Microsoft Windows - 1995 to Present
In 1996 Microsoft released Windows 95, which was a landmark in the history of user interface design. Windows 95 is from a historical standpoint the peak of Microsoft's innovation and their zenith as a driver of new technology. Windows 95 introduced the radical new Start button, as well as a completely revamped user interface that could do more than just DOS alone. Windows 95 still used the DOS kernel however.
In 1998, Microsoft released Windows 98, which starts the historical decline of Microsoft's status and reputation as a reliable software manufacturer. Windows 98 included a slew of bugs and troubles, mainly focused around a VXD memory system that was not designed correctly. Windows 98 was also experiencing a massive number of problems related to its 16-bit legacy mode features which prevented it from being a true, natively 32-bit operating system. Windows 98 became so buggy that a "Second Edition" was soon released. Even that, however, did not work too well. It was also at this time that CEO Bill Gates announced Steve Ballmer as his successor at Microsoft.
Microsoft made one last attempt to salvage the Windows 95 line as a viable product by releasing Windows Millenium Edition, which looked, felt, behaved, and crashed just like Windows 98 SE.
To escape the now unmaintainable codebase, Microsoft accellerated its Windows NT project to create Windows 2000, which looked and felt much like Windows 98, although the newer kernel made the operating system much more resilient and reliable. Windows 2000 was relatively successful, and so Microsoft released Windows XP - a new version of Windows 2000 with a totally redesigned user interface targeted at both home and business users alike - in 2001.
Microsoft did not meet the same success they enjoyed with Windows 2000, however. Windows XP had an extremely rocky start which was later fixed in large part by the first Service Pack, which solved many bug fixes in the hastily made operating system. Around 2003 Microsoft began leaking information of its next version in the Windows line, codename Longhorn. Longhorn was reported to include the Active Directory features long promised from the days of Windows NT, as well as a fully 3D-accelerated user interface to respond to Apple's technologically precocious OS X.
Finally, six years later and a rumored $8,000,000,000.00 USD in the making, Microsoft released the long-awaited Windows Longhorn as Windows Vista. Vista encountered great controversy for its many faults, mainly a lack of driver support during its initial release. Windows Vista sales sagged far below that of Windows XP's release six years ago, despite the larger market due to more people using personal computers.
Microsoft attempted to fix the market by utilizing their monopoly to force compter manufacturers to bundle Vista on new PCs, though due to customer demands and even several signed petitions the option to keep Windows XP was added even after the advent of Vista's first Service Pack. Also controvesial was Microsoft's confusing "Designed for Windows Vista" and "Windows Vista Capable" sticker program. Also in controversy was the new license that Vista was released under, which prohibited the use of Vista's Home Basic and Home Premium editions in virtualized environments (eg. Virtual Box or VMWare).
[edit] Future Direction
Microsoft has officially announced its next version of Windows, Windows 7, which is rumored to replace the now aged Windows NT kernel with a newer kernel based off of managed code, presumably written in C#.
[edit] Notes
information on this page taken from the Wikipedia page on Microsoft, plus the professional experiences of User:Cmiller.
