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40 Years of Microsoft
cnbcwatcher
Posts: 56,681 Forum Member
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In case anyone didn't know, today is the 40th anniversary of Microsoft. They were founded on April 4th 1975. Has it really been that long?! 
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/40-years-of-microsoft-40-milestones-in-microsofts-history/537841-11.html
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/40-years-of-microsoft-40-milestones-in-microsofts-history/537841-11.html
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He's down to $80bn'ish. Plans to only leave around $100m to each of his kids.
As for MS they miss-fired a couple times like under estimating the effect of the Internet and mobile devices but generally down ok for themselves.
Well, yeah....close-ish. I think even a billion dollars each would easily, easily provide a fantastic life. Considering what he's worth, I think $3bn left to his kids is still a tiny amount compared to almost $80bn. $100m is, in my opinion, too small an amount to leave them.
Edit: Yeah, the internet was destined to just grow and grow in usage as the years went by. I'd say in about ten years, maybe less, only a tiny percentage of the worldwide population won't have internet access. There's so many things to do online, no wonder internet usage is increasing more and more. Thank you Tim Berners-Lee for inventing the World Wide Web.
The Amiga and OS was far ahead in technology wise than any PC running windows at that time.
Maybe it's a good thing that CBM lost the battle because Commodore might have been like Apple, in the sense that we wouldn't have been able to build our own computers 15+ years later. Commodore could have stuck to making the computers themselves, as well as the operating system, and then selling them like that, as Apple do. It's good that we have the choice of building our own computers, for the people that can, or buying pre-built ones with operating systems already on them.
Edit: Windows 3.0 did look a bit lifeless compared to the Amiga operating system.
As far as I know Windows 3.0 wasn't that popular but Windows 3.1, the updated version, was probably the first Windows OS that was of interest to home users. I always consider Windows 95/98 the first 'true' home Windows OSes. Computers back then were very expensive too and not everyone could afford to have one in their homes. I've never used Amiga OS, only seen pics of it.
didn't matter who had better technology. Microsoft had the better business knowledge. Look how many times better technology has lost due to business environment.
I doubt if early professional users could have worked 9 to 5, 5 days a week on TV screens as comfortably.
Actually the Amiga used a proper monitor (I had the Commodore 1084s monitor). If you wanted to use a TV (RF) you had to use a special interface. I have an original Amiga in front of me right now, and use it often.
Never a good thing, If CBM or at least someone else was producing the Amiga or a large scale, MS may make sure their OS are a bit smaller and you do not need tons of ram and storage space to run the flipping thing. Also, maybe software would not be so buggy.
The Amiga did not like buggy software, if Firefox was on the Amiga with all it memory leaks, the Amiga would have crashed.
I think the Amiga would be more like a PC type of machine now, CBM was working on a new machine when they went belly up and even now you can buy the Amiga Os and run it on a old power pc based machine like a old Mac mini.
The Amiga Os was small and fast, sadly the Amiga 4000/040 had a slower CPU than the machine I replaced it with, which was a 166 PC.
Put a new version on today CPU and it would fly.
I would certainly drop Windows in a heartbeat if someone came out with a decent Os and the software I require.
If say Sony decided to produce Vegas for Linux, that would be it, Windows be gone.
It was a amazing machine in it's day. Separate chips for it main functions. While the Atari ST was to be more for audio due to its built in midi, my mate used a amiga with Dr dos and also used samples on the Amiga as the sound chip was that good. A lot of the sound samples he used was under the synth or Guitar, but they could still be heard. Those days everything was mixed onto multitrack reel to reel.
These days the Amiga as it stood then would not be any good for audio and even I can tell the difference of the quality between my mates old stuff and whaty he does now with Cakewalk, his Yamaha Daughter board and Cool Edit.
That is the problem
I had and still have a Philips monitor that I used on my Amiga 500A and my 4000
My mate used to use a TV in his studio and the picture was pretty good as far as I remember.
You can still get adaptors to connect the Amiga to a VGA monitor.
I agree when CBM went belly up, the PC was getting better, my first PC, had a decent sound card and graphics for it's time and a 166 chip meant it was pretty speedy. Sadly windows 95 was naff and so often I felt like chucking the machine through the window.
i know some of it was a new learning curve, I was use to Amiag Dos and doing most things through the command line.
I would still go back to the Amiga Os if the software was available.
http://www.xkcd.com/1508/
One of my fav time wasters is clicking random on the XKCD comic page. Any joke you don't get is explained here
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
I learn a lot of science/computing stuff that way.
One for the Linux dudes -
http://xkcd.com/149/
wow - that is some sentence! Taken me a while to follow what you are saying:-)
Sorry, was trying to type it while the mrs was on a rant so wasn't paying attention to the smaller details.
It is: Amiga OS 4.1
You can: AmigaOne X1000.
And coming soon is the AmigaOne X5000.
A version of Firefox has been ported to the Amiga: Timberwolf.
Paragraphs would be nice.
Digital Research CP/M was the market leader OS back then when it was mainly Zilog Z80 based minis and micros. The rumour was that IBM approached DR to write a version compatible with Intel 8088 /86 instruction sets, but DR (Gary Kildall) turned them down for reasons that have now been debunked.
The rest as they say, is history. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/30/msdos_paternity_suit_resolved/
I know those are available, but the software for my use is not available.
Hardware is different now and maybe the updated the OS to stop memory leaks crashing the machine.,
Actually in the early days of the IBM PC there was hardly any networking with mainframes.
You could run a 3270 terminal emulator (using non-IBM hardware like the "IRMA" card) and hotkey to it from DOS. But there was no way to get mainframe data into your Multiplan spreadsheet.
Indeed most IBM S/370 sales people saw the PC as a threat to their profitable dumb terminal business and actively discouraged the big "blue" corps from buying them.
Microsoft "won" because IBM forgot to negotiate an exclusive deal for DOS so MS were able to sell it to the clone PC market once that emerged.
I was likewise cursing you for complete lack of punctuation, but in the circumstances I congratulate you