Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
First initiated in the 1980s, the Excel spreadsheet built off predecessors like Lotus and VisiCalc, leveraging a novel graphic interface to entice new customers and packaging the program with other Microsoft Office products. Forty years later, the tool faces challenges from Google and AI, but retains devoted users.
The two bonded over a teletype terminal at their school, which required a $40 hourly fee for computing time. They were banned from using the device after exploiting a bug that allowed them to bypass the fee, only to be later offered free computing time for finding more bugs.
In discussions with teams responsible for MITS's Altair 8800 and IBM's PC, Bill Gates and Paul Allen claimed to have created ready-to-use software. Code for the former was not completed until Paul Allen's flight to MITS' headquarters, where the software was successfully tested for the first time.
Rather than write MS-DOS from scratch, Bill Gates purchased the full rights to QDOS—Quick and Dirty Operating System—from Seattle Computer Products only weeks before IBM’s PC hit the market. The IBM deal allowed Microsoft to license its OS to other manufacturers, ensuring it was not dependent on IBM’s long-term success.
Named after the windows that separate different applications, the operating system’s first version came preinstalled with Calculator, Paint, and Reversi. There was no Windows 9 to avoid compatibility issues with legacy code searching for Windows 95 and 98 files via a “windows9” query.
Coproduced by Timex, the Timex DataLink 150 featured a small LCD screen and could transfer data to and from a Windows PC. Like the Windows XP Tablet that launched in 2002, the smartwatch did not sell well, and both products are considered to have been released before their time.
Captured by National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear in 1996, the photograph was uploaded to the stock image site Westlight in 1998, before being purchased by Microsoft. As of 2023, the hillside in the image is now home to rows of grapevines.
The program originated from a master’s thesis project on generating three-dimensional graphics, which was later combined with flight equations. The first version ran on the Apple II in early 1980, but its creator licensed the program to Microsoft two years later,
Brian Eno, the ambient music artist, was tasked with creating a 3.25-second jingle that was inspiring, universal, optimistic, and futuristic in tone. As with all of his compositions, Eno created the sound, which was double the requested length, on a Mac.
The fee was part of Microsoft’s $300M advertising and promotional campaign for the operating system, which featured the Start button for the first time. The company also filmed sitcom-style infomercials featuring "Friends" TV stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry.
The animated characters served as intelligent user interfaces for Microsoft Office and were sketched by hand before being scanned. Clippy was selected as the default assistant after social psychologists at Stanford University identified it as the most trustworthy, likable, and humorous character based on public testing.
Since our ancient human relatives began using stone tools to perform tasks, humans have harnessed scientific knowledge and new technologies to expand the boundaries of our understanding of the natural world. From quantum computing and microplastics to artificial intelligence and memory, explore these topics and more with our concise yet informative overviews and expert-curated resources.