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Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. Internet Explorer is the most widely used web browser today, although since 2004 it has lost some usage share to other browsers. As of October 2005, IE's usage share is about 86% (see the market adoption section). Internet Explorer is an integrated component of all current versions of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft has shipped Internet Explorer as the default browser in all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 OSR1. The last major upgrade to Internet Explorer, however, was only offered for Windows XP Service Pack 2. The beta version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2 has been available since July 27, 2005. Internet Explorer had also been available as a separate, free-of-charge product for many older versions of Windows, and several other operating systems. For some time, Microsoft produced Internet Explorer for Mac and versions for use through the X Window System on Solaris and HP-UX. All of these versions have ceased active development, although Internet Explorer for Mac is still available for download. Internet Explorer is now known as Microsoft Internet Explorer, but the name will be slightly changed to Windows Internet Explorer in Windows Vista.

History

Windows Vista Internet Explorer is derived from Spyglass Mosaic, an early commercial web browser. In 1995, Spyglass Mosaic was licensed by Microsoft in an arrangement under which Spyglass would receive a quarterly fee plus a percentage of Microsoft's revenues for the software. Although bearing a name similar to NCSA Mosaic, which was the first widely used browser, Spyglass Mosaic was relatively unknown in its day and did not use any of the NCSA Mosaic source code . Internet Explorer 3 was the first major browser with CSS support, and it could handle the PICS system for content metadata. The improvements were significant, compared to its main competitor at the time, Netscape Navigator. The browser was not widely used until version 4, which was released in October 1997 and was integrated with the Windows 98 operating system. This integration, however, was subject to numerous criticisms (see United States v. Microsoft). Version 5, released in September 1998, was another significant release which supported bi-directional text, ruby characters, XML and XSL. Version 6 was released on August 27, 2001, a few weeks before Windows XP. This version included DHTML enhancements, content restricted inline frames, and better support of CSS level 1, DOM level 1 and SMIL 2.0. The MSXML engine was also updated to version 3.0. Other new features included a new version of the IEAK, Media bar, MSN Messenger integration, fault collection, automatic image resizing, P3P, and a new look-and-feel which is in line with the style of Windows XP. P3P On February 15, 2005, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced a new browser version at the RSA Conference 2005 in San Francisco . The new beta version has been released on July 27, 2005. Internet Explorer 7 will be available to Windows XP SP2 and later only, including Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 . The new version of Internet Explorer is intended to defend users from phishing as well as deceptive or malicious software, and will include important bug fixes and some enhancements to better support the web standards. The decision to update the browser occurred in the wake of a decline in the use of Internet Explorer for the first time (see the market adoption section). An updated beta 2 featuring improvements in HTML 4.01 and CSS 2 was expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Features

Internet Explorer has been designed to view the broadest range of web pages and to provide certain features within the operating system, including Windows Update. During the heydays of the historic browser wars, Internet Explorer superseded Netscape by supporting many of the progressive features of the time.

Component architecture

The Component Object Model (COM) technology is used extensively in Internet Explorer. It allows third parties to add functionalities via Browser Helper Objects (BHO); and allows websites to offer rich content via ActiveX. As these objects have the same privileges as the browser itself (in certain situations), this raised concern over security. This issue was addressed in Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 2, which provides an Add-on Manager for controlling ActiveX controls and Browser Helper Objects.

Usability and accessibility

Add-on Since it is tightly integrated with the operating system, Internet Explorer makes use of the accessibility framework provided in Windows. Internet Explorer is also a user interface for FTP, with operations similar to that of Windows Explorer. The ability to block pop-up windows (unrequested windows created with JavaScript) was introduced with Internet Explorer 6.0, Service Pack 2. Tabbed browsing, while not natively supported, can be added to Internet Explorer 6 by installing Microsoft's MSN Search Toolbar. According to [http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/05/16/417732.aspx a post in IEBlog], the browser will support tabbed browsing in version 7.0, and the Beta 1 version of IE 7 includes tabbed browsing. Web Feeds support is built in version 7.0; users can read Web Feeds(RSS/Atom) without an RSS reader and it discovers web feeds automatically.

Security framework

Internet Explorer uses a zone-based security framework, which means that sites are grouped based upon certain conditions. It allows the restriction of broad areas of functionality, and also allows specific functions to be restricted. Patches and updates to the browser are released periodically and made available through Windows Update website. Although security patches continue to be released for a range of platforms, most recent feature additions and security improvements are released for Windows XP only. A report in April 2005 showed that only [http://www.winplanet.com/article/2825-.htm 24% of corporate PCs] had upgraded to XP SP2.

Standards support

Internet Explorer almost fully supports HTML 4.01, CSS Level 1, XML 1.0 and DOM Level 1, with minor implementation gaps. It partially supports CSS Level 2 and DOM Level 2, with some implementation gaps and conformance issues. It supports XHTML 1.0 to the extent that HTML 4.01 compatibility guidelines are followed. Internet Explorer uses DOCTYPE sniffing to choose between "quirks mode" (renders similarly to older versions of MSIE) and standards mode (renders closer to W3C's specifications) for HTML and CSS rendering. It fully supports XSLT 1.0 or the December 1998 Working Draft of XSL, depending on the version of MSXML (a dynamic link library) available. It also provides its own dialect of ECMAScript called JScript. Internet Explorer supports a variety of graphics file formats, including GIF, JPEG and PNG. The long-waited support for PNG alpha channel was introduced in 7.0 Beta 1.

Proprietary extensions

Internet Explorer has introduced an array of proprietary extensions to many of the standards, including HTML, CSS and the DOM. This has resulted in a number of web pages that can only be viewed properly using Internet Explorer. Many view this as an example of what is called "embrace, extend and extinguish" (EEE), a way to drive competitors out of business by forcing them to use proprietary technology that a company controls, resulting in vendor lock-in. Netscape Navigator up to version 4.7 was also responsible for massive proprietary extension of the core web standards, but was not criticized for it as much.

Criticisms

Internet Explorer is subject to a relatively high volume of criticism. Much of this criticism is related to concerns about security: A notable portion of the widespread promulgation of spam, spyware, adware, and computer viruses across the Internet is known to be facilitated by exploitable bugs and flaws in the security architecture of Internet Explorer. Furthermore, a notable number of users and security experts have pointed out that Microsoft has not been sufficiently committed to fixing the browser's exploitable bugs in a timely manner, and has been ineffective in pushing those changes out to users. Several companies maintain databases of security vulnerabilities known to exist in Internet Explorer and for which no fixes have been published by Microsoft — as of June 2005, there are between 20 and 27 such vulnerabilities reported in Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP SP2, and 146 in Internet Explorer 6 for Windows 2000 SP4. Other criticisms, mostly coming from technically proficient users and developers of websites and browser-based software applications, concern Internet Explorer's support of open standards. Internet Explorer supports, to some degree, a number of standardized technologies, but has implementation gaps and conformance failures – some minor, some not – that have led to criticism from an increasing number of developers. The increase is attributable, in large part, to the fact that competing browsers that offer relatively thorough, standards-compliant implementations are becoming more widely used. Internet Explorer's ubiquity, in spite of its perceived inferiority in this area, frustrates developers who want to write standards-compliant, cross-browser code. See also: Common criticisms of Microsoft.

Market adoption

Usage share

:Statistics reference: Usage share of web browsers Usage share of web browsers The adoption rate of Internet Explorer seems to be closely related to that of Microsoft Windows, as it is the default web browser that comes with Windows. Since the integration of Internet Explorer 3.0 with Windows 95 OSR 2 in late 1996, the adoption was greatly accelerated: from below 20% in 1996 to about 40% in 1998 and over 80% in 2000. It was often credited for bringing the World Wide Web to newbies. This effect, however, has recently been dubbed the "Microsoft monoculture", by analogy to the problems associated with lack of biodiversity in an ecosystem. By 2002, Internet Explorer had almost completely superseded its main rival Netscape and dominated the market. After having fought and won the browser wars of the late 1990s, Internet Explorer began to see its usage share shrink. Having attained a peak of about 96% in 2002, it has since been in a steady decline. Statistics indicate the current most significant competition comes from Gecko-based browsers, in particular Mozilla Firefox. Nevertheless, Internet Explorer remains the dominant web browser, with an usage share of around 85% (based on statistics reference).

Industry adoption

ActiveX is used by many public websites and web applications, including eBay. Similarly, BHOs are also used by many search engine companies and third parties for creating add-on that access their services, for example, search engine toolbar. Because of the use of COM, it is possible to include web browsing function in application. Hence, there are a number of Internet Explorer shells, and a number of application like RealPlayer (a media player) also used the Internet Explorer's web browsing module for viewing the World Wide Web within the applications.

"Standalone" Internet Explorer

While it is not officially possible to keep multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same machine, some hackers (Joe Maddalone, Ryan Parman, et al.) successfully separated several versions of Internet Explorer making them standalone applications. These were referred as "standalone" IEs and included versions 3.0 to 5.5 SP2.
- [http://labs.insert-title.com/labs/article795.aspx Multiple IEs In Windows Web Design] — The web developer Joe Maddalone who found the solution.
- [http://www.skyzyx.com/downloads/ Skyzyx.com - Standalone Internet Explorer] — The web developer Ryan Parman who made the customized browsers files available.
- [http://www.quirksmode.org/browsers/multipleie.html Multiple Explorers] — Downloads of all the versions Microsoft has discontinued standalone installers for Internet Explorer to the general public. However, a blogger/web developer/programmer named Liew Cheon Fong has posted a procedure for downloading the complete install package.
- [http://www.liewcf.com/blog/archives/2005/04/download-full-internet-explorer-6-sp1-standalone-installer/ Standalone Install Procedure for IE6 SP1]

Removal

The idea of removing Internet Explorer from a Windows system was first proposed during the antitrust case. Critics felt that user should have the right to uninstall Internet Explorer freely just like any other application software. One of Microsoft's arguments during the trial was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability. At least one commentator supports this argument, and notes that removing Internet Explorer will also disable Windows Update, leaving the user without vital security updates to the operating system. However, an Australian computer scientist Shane Brooks later demonstrated that Windows 98 could in fact run with IE files removed . Brooks went on to develop software designed to customize Windows by removing "undesired components", which is now known as 98lite/XPLite. Microsoft has claimed that the software did not remove all components of Internet Explorer, leaving many DLL files behind.

Footnotes

# [http://biztech.ericsink.com/Browser_Wars.html Memoirs From the Browser Wars], May 12, 2005. # [http://www.zone-h.org/en/news/read/id=2789/ Microsoft to abandon standalone IE], May 12, 2005. # [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/feb05/02-15RSA05KeynotePR.asp Gates Highlights Progress on Security, Outlines Next Steps for Continued Innovation], May 12, 2005. # [http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/02/28/382054.aspx IE7 Platforms and Outlook Express], May 12, 2005. # [http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm U.S. v. Microsoft: Court's Findings of Fact], May 12, 2005.

References

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External links

- [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ Internet Explorer Home]
- [http://blogs.msdn.com/ie IEBlog] – The weblog of the Internet Explorer team
- [http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.InternetExplorer Channel9 Wiki: InternetExplorer] – The wiki for Internet Explorer
- [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/ Internet Explorer Community] – The official Microsoft Internet Explorer Community
- [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=293907 How to Uninstall Internet Explorer 6] – A Microsoft support article for pre-XP versions of Windows
- [http://secunia.com/product/11/ Secunia Vulnerability Report for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x] Category:Internet Explorer Category:Windows web browsers Category:Microsoft Internet applications ko:인터넷 익스플로러 ms:Internet Explorer ja:Internet Explorer simple:Internet Explorer th:อินเทอร์เน็ตเอ็กซ์พลอเรอร์

Proprietary software

Proprietary software is software that has restrictions on using and copying it, usually enforced by a proprietor. The prevention of use, copying, or modification can be achieved by legal or technical means. Technical means include releasing machine-readable binaries only, and withholding the human-readable source code. Legal means can involve software licensing, copyright and patent law. The term is used by the Free Software Foundation to describe software that is not free software. Technically, the term means software that has an owner who exercises control over the software. Thus, it can be used for all software that is not in the public domain. However, the FSF uses the term to highlight that the owner is of prime importance, in contrast to "free software", where the freedom of computer users is of prime importance. The term "non-free software" is used interchangeably and about as often. Richard Stallman sometimes uses the term "user subjugating software", while Eben Moglen sometimes talks of "unfree software". The term "non-free" is generally used by Debian developers, but they too sometimes talk of "proprietary software". Open Source Initiative prefers the term "closed source software". Some free software packages are sold and distributed by their copyright holders under proprietary terms. Examples include MySQL and SSH. Some proprietary software comes with source code or provides offers to the source code. Users are free to use and even study and modify the software in these cases, but are restricted by either licenses or non-disclosure agreements to redisribute modifications or simply share the software. Examples include proprietary versions of SSH, PINE or the Microsoft Shared source license program. Proprietary software available at no cost is freeware. Shareware is available at zero price for a trial period. Proprietary software that has a copyright that isn't enforced but is used illegally by users is called "abandonware" and may include source code. Some abandonware has its source code placed in the public domain either by its author or copyright holder and is therefore free software, not proprietary software. Well known examples of proprietary software include Microsoft Windows, RealPlayer, Winzip, Adobe Photoshop, Mac OS and UNIX.

Web browser

A web browser is a software application, technically a type of HTTP client, that enables a user to display and interact with HTML documents hosted by web servers or held in a file system. Popular browsers available for personal computers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Netscape, Apple Safari and Konqueror. A browser is the most commonly used kind of user agent. The largest networked collection of linked documents is known as the World Wide Web.

Protocols and standards

Web browsers communicate with web servers primarily using HTTP (hyper-text transfer protocol) to fetch webpages. HTTP allows web browsers to submit information to web servers as well as fetch web pages from them. As of writing, the most commonly used HTTP is HTTP/1.1, which is fully defined in RFC 2616. HTTP/1.1 has its own required standards which Internet Explorer does not fully support, but most other current-generation web browsers do. Pages are located by means of a URL (uniform resource locator), which is treated as an address, beginning with http: for HTTP access. Many browsers also support a variety of other URL types and their corresponding protocols, such as ftp: for FTP (file transfer protocol), gopher: for Gopher, and https: for HTTPS (an SSL encrypted version of HTTP). The file format for a web page is usually HTML (hyper-text markup language) and is identified in the HTTP protocol using a MIME content type. Most browsers natively support a variety of formats in addition to HTML, such as the JPEG, PNG and GIF image formats, and can be extended to support more through the use of plugins. The combination of HTTP content type and URL protocol specification allows web page designers to embed images, animations, video, sound, and streaming media into a web page, or to make them accessible through the web page. Early web browsers supported only a very simple version of HTML. The rapid development of proprietary web browsers led to the development of non-standard dialects of HTML, leading to problems with Web interoperability. Modern web browsers support standards-based HTML and XHTML, which should display in the same way across all browsers. Internet Explorer does not fully support HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.x yet. Currently many sites are designed using WYSIWYG HTML generation programs such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage. These often generate non-standard HTML by default, hindering the work of the W3C in developing standards, specifically with XHTML and CSS (cascading style sheets, used for page layout). Some of the more popular browsers include additional components to support Usenet news, IRC (Internet relay chat), and e-mail. Protocols supported may include NNTP (network news transfer protocol), SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol), IMAP (Internet message access protocol), and POP (post office protocol). These browsers are often referred to as Internet suites or application suites rather than merely web browsers.

Brief history

Tim Berners-Lee, who pioneered the use of hypertext for sharing information, created the first web browser, named WorldWideWeb, in 1990 and introduced it to colleagues at CERN in March 1991. Since then the development of web browsers has been inseparably intertwined with the development of the web itself. The web browser was thought of as a useful application to handle CERN's huge telephone book. In terms of user interaction it follows the protocols gopher/telnet, enabling every user to easily browse sites others have written. However, it was the later integration of graphics into the web browser that made it the "killer application" of the internet. The explosion in popularity of the web was triggered by NCSA Mosaic which was a graphical browser running originally on Unix but soon ported to the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms. Version 1.0 was released in September 1993. Marc Andreessen, who was the leader of the Mosaic team at NCSA, quit to form a company that would later be known as Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape released its flagship Navigator product in October 1994, and it took off the next year. Microsoft, which had thus far missed the wave, now entered the fray with its Internet Explorer product, hastily purchased from Spyglass Inc. This began the browser wars, the fight for the web browser market between the software giant Microsoft and Netscape, the startup company largely responsible for popularizing the World Wide Web. The wars put the web in the hands of millions of ordinary PC users, but showed how commercialization of the web could stymie standards efforts. Both Microsoft and Netscape liberally incorporated proprietary extensions to HTML in their products, and tried to gain an edge by product differentiation. Starting with the acceptance of the Microsoft proposed Cascading Style Sheets over Netscape's JavaScript Style Sheets (JSSS) by W3C, the Netscape browser started being generally considered inferior to Microsoft's browser version after version, from feature considerations to application robustness to standard compliance. The wars effectively ended in 1998 when it became clear that Netscape's declining market share trend was irreversible. This trend may have been due in part to Microsoft's integrating its browser with its operating system and bundling deals with OEMs; Microsoft faced antitrust litigation on these charges. Netscape responded by open sourcing its product, creating Mozilla. This did nothing to slow Netscape's declining market share. The company was purchased by America Online in late 1998. At first, the Mozilla project struggled to attract developers, but by 2002 it had evolved into a relatively stable and powerful internet suite. Mozilla 1.0 was released to mark this milestone. Also in 2002, a spin off project that would eventually become the popular Mozilla Firefox was released. In 2004, Firefox 1.0 was released. As of 2005, Mozilla and its derivatives account for approximately 10% of web traffic. Opera, a speedy browser popular in handheld devices and in some countries was released in 1996 and remains a niche player in the PC web browser market. The Lynx browser remains popular for Unix shell users and with vision impaired users due to its entirely text-based nature. There are also several text-mode browsers with advanced features, such as Links and its forks such as ELinks. While the Macintosh scene too has traditionally been dominated by Internet Explorer and Netscape, the future appears to belong to Apple's Safari which is based on Apple's WebCore layout engine, derived from the KHTML layout engine of the open source Konqueror browser. Safari is the default browser on Mac OS X. In 2003, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer would no longer be made available as a separate product but would be part of the evolution of its Windows platform, and that no more releases for the Macintosh would be made. However, more recently in early 2005, Microsoft changed its plans and announced that version 7 of Internet Explorer would be released for its Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server operating systems in addition to the upcoming "Windows Vista" operating system.

Features

Different browsers can be distinguished from each other by the features they support. Modern browsers and web pages tend to utilize many features and techniques that did not exist in the early days of the web. As noted earlier, with the browser wars there was a rapid and chaotic expansion of browser and World Wide Web feature sets. The following is a list of some of the most notable features:

Standards support

- HTTP and HTTPS
- HTML, XML and XHTML
- Graphics file formats including GIF, PNG, JPEG and SVG
- Cascading Style Sheets
- JavaScript (Dynamic HTML)
- Cookie
- Digital certificates
- Favicons
- RSS, Atom

Fundamental features

- Bookmark manager
- Caching of web contents
- Support of media types via plugins such as Macromedia Flash and QuickTime

Usability and accessibility features

- Autocompletion of URLs and form data
- Tabbed browsing
- Spatial navigation
- Caret navigation
- Screen reader or full speech support

Annoyances removers

- Pop-up ad blocker
- Ad filtering
- Phishing

External links

- [http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/browsers.htm Browser timeline (1993-2001)]
- [http://browsers.evolt.org evolt.org - Browser Archive]
- [http://www.dejavu.org Deja Vu: (re-)creating web history]
- [http://livinginternet.com/w/wi_browse.htm Web Browser History]
- [http://danvine.com/icapture iCapture - Safari "emulator"]
- [http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/ Viewable with Any Browser: Campaign]
- [http://darrel.knutson.com/mac/www/browsers.html Macintosh Web Browsers]
- [http://www.aadmm.de MultiOS Browser Test]
- [http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp W3Schools Browser Statistics]
- [http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Web-Browser-Vulnerabilities.html Web Browser Vulnerabilities: Is Safe Surfing Possible?] Category:Internet
- zh-min-nan:Bāng-ia̍h liû-lám-khì ko:웹 브라우저 ms:Pelayar web ja:Webブラウザ simple:Web browser th:โปรแกรมค้นดูเว็บ

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation (, ) is the world's largest software company, with 2005 global annual sales of 40 billion US dollars and more than 55,000 employees in 85 countries and regions. The company's headquarters are in Redmond, Washington, USA. Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Its most popular products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, each of which has achieved near ubiquity in the desktop computer market. Microsoft has footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta computer encyclopedia. The company also markets home entertainment products, such as the Xbox and WebTV. "Micro-Soft" (short for microcomputer software) was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. After the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones in the mid-1980s, Microsoft used its new position, which it gained in part due to a contract from IBM, to dominate the home computer operating system market with its MS-DOS operating system. The company later released an initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market, which netted several of its employees millions of dollars due to the ensuing rise of the stock price. The price of the stock continued its rise steadily into the early 2000s. In Microsoft Windows, the company was selling what would become the most widely used operating system in the world, which was originally an add-on for their DOS operating system; Microsoft continued to push into multiple markets, such as computer hardware and television. In addition, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers. With what is generally described as a developer-centric business culture, Microsoft has become widely known for some of its internal codes of conduct for its employees. One example is the "eat your own dogfood" mantra, which describes the practice of using pre-release products inside the company to test them in an environment geared towards the real world. Microsoft has also become notorious for its business practices—the U.S. Justice Department, among others, has sued Microsoft for antitrust violations and software bundling. In addition, Microsoft has been criticized for the security of its software. Despite this, Microsoft has won several awards, such as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S." by Fortune Magazine. The company is on the Fortune 500 list of companies as of 2005. Microsoft opened its first research center outside the US at the Cambridge Science Park, UK. It currently has research centers around the world.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microsoft&action=edit§ion=header edit this section]

History

:See also: History of Microsoft Windows. First conceived in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft has evolved through several stages throughout its history. By 1985, the company was selling the Microsoft Windows operating system and MS-DOS, and had collaborated with IBM to produce OS/2 Warp. By 1992, Microsoft had released an IPO in the stock market and discontinued OS/2 development to focus directly on Windows. By 1995, Windows was the most widely used graphical operating system in the world, and with the introduction of Windows 95, the company became a more consumer-driven company. Microsoft would proceed to enter other business markets, such as publishing and video games, would be sued more than once by the U.S. Justice Department and other governments and companies, and would continue to dominate the operating system market.

1975–84: the founding of Micro-soft

video game.
Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen.]] Days after reading the January 1 1975, issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Bill Gates called the creators of the new microcomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), to inform them that he and others had developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the platform. Allen flew to MITS to unveil the new BASIC system. Allen had never handled an Altair, since Gates had carried out all of the product development; however, the demonstration was successful and resulted in a deal with MITS to buy the rights to Allen's and Gates' BASIC for the Altair platform. Having identified a valuable opportunity, Gates left Harvard University to pursue the market and eventually founded "Micro-soft" in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The name Microsoft, without the hyphen, was first used in a letter from Gates to Allen on November 29, 1975, and in November 26, 1976 the name became a registered trademark. The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft". On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington. Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and would later succeed Bill Gates as CEO. The company restructured on June 25 1981, to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington (with a further change of its name to "Microsoft, Inc."). As part of the restructuring, Bill Gates became president of the company and Chairman of the Board, and Paul Allen became Executive Vice President. Microsoft's first operating system was Xenix, released in 1980 and later sold to Santa Cruz Operation. However, the source of the real success for the company was the DOS operating system. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). However, Microsoft did not have an operating system at the time, so it purchased a CP/M clone called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for $50,000, which Microsoft renamed to PC-DOS. Due to potential copyright infringement problems with CP/M, IBM marketed both CP/M and PC-DOS for $250 and $40, respectively, with PC-DOS eventually becoming the standard because of its lower price. Around 1983, in collaboration with numerous companies, Microsoft created a home computer system, MSX, which contained its own version of the DOS operating system, entitled MSX-DOS; this became relatively popular in Japan and Europe. Later, after Compaq successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones. Microsoft was quick to use its position to dominate the home computer operating system market. Microsoft began licensing its operating system for use on non-IBM PC clones, and called this version of the operating system MS-DOS (short for Microsoft Disk Operating System). By marketing MS-DOS aggressively to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry. Starting on May 2, 1983, with the "Microsoft Mouse", Microsoft entered markets such as computer hardware. This expansion included Microsoft Press, a book publishing division, on November 10 the same year, which debuted with two titles: "Exploring the IBM PC Home Computer" by Peter Norton, and "The Apple Macintosh Book" by Cary Lu.

1985–91: the rise and fall of OS/2

Cary Lu The Republic of Ireland became home to Microsoft's first international production facility in 1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2. OS/2 was marketed in connection with a new hardware design proprietary to IBM, the PS/2. Shortly afterwards on February 16, 1986, Microsoft relocated to Redmond, Washington. Around one month later, on March 13, the company went public with an IPO, raising $61 million at $21.00 per share. By the end of the trading day, the price had risen to $28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs. Continuing its trend of rebranding products from other companies, Microsoft announced SQL Server on January 13, 1988, a relational database management system for companies that was based on technology licensed from Sybase. In 1989, Microsoft announced at Comdex that the 1991 release of Windows 3.0 would be the last version of Windows. Over the next few years, Microsoft continued to issue statements indicating that OS/2 was the future of computing. On May 16, 1991, Bill Gates announced to Microsoft employees that the OS/2 partnership was over, and that Microsoft would henceforth focus its platform efforts on Windows and the Windows NT kernel. Some people, especially developers who had ignored Windows and committed most of their resources to OS/2, were taken by surprise, and accused Microsoft of deception. The Windows changeover was frequently referred to in the industry as "the head-fake". In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows quickly became the favored PC platform. 1991 also marked the founding of Microsoft Research, an organization in Microsoft for researching computer science subjects, and Microsoft Visual Basic, a popular development product for companies and individuals.

1992–95: domination of the corporate market

Microsoft Visual Basic During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft's product Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. Some allege that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors, but internal sources at Microsoft later revealed that the Office team did not have access to the Windows source code at the time, and relied on reverse engineering. Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors. In March 1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 along with its first promotional campaign on TV; the software sold over three million copies in its first two months on the market. In October, Windows for Workgroups 3.1 was released with integrated networking capabilities such as peer-to-peer file and printing sharing. In November, Microsoft released the first version of their popular database software Microsoft Access. By 1993, Windows had become the most widely used GUI operating system in the world. Fortune Magazine named Microsoft as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S.". The year also marked the end of a five-year legal case brought by Apple, dubbed Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., in which the ruling was in Microsoft's favor. That same year, Microsoft released Windows for Workgroups 3.11, a new version of the consumer line of Windows, and Windows NT 3.1, a server-based operating system with a similar user interface to consumer versions of the operating system, but with an entirely different kernel. As part of its strategy to broaden its business, Microsoft released Microsoft Encarta in 1994, the first encyclopedia designed to run on a computer. Microsoft also created the Microsoft Plus product support program for its customers, a service that offered cost savings on Microsoft products. The name of that program was later used for several expansion packs for Windows. The company changed its slogan to "Where do you want to go today?" in that year, as part of an attempt to appeal to nontechnical audiences in a US$ 100 million advertising campaign, which some critics regarded as uninspired. Dreamworks SKG and Microsoft formed a new company, Dreamworks Interactive, to produce interactive and multimedia entertainment properties in 1995. In March, Microsoft released Microsoft Bob, a Windows 3.1 program manager replacement, which is widely considered Microsoft's most unsuccessful product; its unpopularity became the source of many jokes. Up until 1995, Microsoft was a business-oriented company. However, in August 1995, it released a new version of its flagship software, Microsoft Windows 95, with a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more than a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its release. The new version of Windows was the start of a major transition towards a consumer-oriented company. In September, the Chinese government chose Windows to be the operating system of choice in that country, and entered into an agreement with the Company to standardize a Chinese version of the operating system. Microsoft also released the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick in an attempt to further expand its profile in the computer hardware market.

1995–99: foray into the Internet and other venues

computer hardware In the mid-90s, Microsoft began to expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web. On August 24, 1995, it launched a major online service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct competitor to AOL. MSN became an umbrella service for Microsoft's online services, using Microsoft Passport as a universal login system for all of its websites. The company continued to branch out into new markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC. The station was launched on July 16 to compete with similar news outlets—in particular, CNN; in the same year, Microsoft launched Slate, an online magazine edited by Michael Kinsley, which offered political and social commentary along with the cartoon Doonesbury. In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the Company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Internet from their televisions. Microsoft entered the palm computing market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system, specifically designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other palm-sized computers. 1996 saw the release of Windows NT 4.0, which brought the Windows 95 GUI and Windows NT kernel together. While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. One of the most prominent of these was ActiveX, an application programming interface built on the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM); this enabled Microsoft and others to embed controls in many programming languages, including the company's own scripting languages, such as JScript and VBScript. ActiveX included frameworks for documents and server solutions. The company also released the Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, which had built-in support for internet applications. Later in 1997, Microsoft Office 97 as well as Internet Explorer 4.0 were released, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from rival Netscape, and by agreement with Apple, Internet Explorer was bundled with the Apple Macintosh operating system as well as Windows. Windows CE 2.0, the handheld version of Windows, was released this year, which included a host of bug fixes and new features designed to make it more appealing to corporate customers. In October, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court in which they stated that Microsoft had violated an agreement signed in 1994, and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. In 1998, Microsoft released an update to the consumer version of Windows, Windows 98. Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32 file system, and new features specifically for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays. Microsoft also launched its Indian headquarters that year, which would eventually become the company's second largest after its U.S. headquarters. Steve Ballmer was appointed president of Microsoft, and Bill Gates remained as Chair and CEO. Later in 1999, Microsoft Office 2000 was released, along with Internet Explorer 5.0.

2000–05: legal issues, XP, and .NET

Internet Explorer 5.0. The largest Microsoft campus outside the United States.]] On May 18, 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states filed charges against Microsoft, stating that Microsoft illegally abused its monopoly power in its sales of Windows, in United States v. Microsoft. However, it was not until April 3, 2000 that a ruling was made that Microsoft had to be split into two companies. However, in June 2001, part of that ruling was overturned by a federal appeals court, and in September the Justice Department decided to seek a settlement with Microsoft instead of trying to split it up. While the trial was underway, on February 17, 2000 Microsoft released Windows 2000, which some consider a significant improvement over previous versions. It provided a similar OS stability to that of its Unix counterparts. Unlike previous consumer-level operating systems, Windows 2000 was built on the Windows NT kernel, rather than the DOS kernel as previous consumer versions of Windows had been. Windows 2000 also provided a DOS emulator that could run most old DOS applications from previous versions of Windows. During the trial, Bill Gates stepped down as CEO and Steve Ballmer became the new CEO, with Bill Gates remaining chairman and Chief Software Architect. In the same year, Microsoft released a new version of the consumer version of their flagship product, Windows Me, (Millennium Edition). Widely regarded as one of the most unstable operating systems Microsoft had ever produced, its main features were enhanced multimedia capabilities, such as an automated video editor. In June, the company released a new version of its hand-held operating system, Windows CE 3.0. The main change was the new programming APIs of the software. Previous versions of Windows CE supported only a small subset of the WinAPI, the main development library for windows, and with Version 3 of Windows CE, the operating system now supported nearly all of the core functionality of the WinAPI. In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, which brought the consumer and business lines of Windows together, combining the kernel of Windows 2000 with features of its consumer line of Windows, and enhancing the DOS emulation capabilities of the OS. Among the new features was an entirely new interface. However, it included the controversial Microsoft Product Activation, a part of that software that required people to register with Microsoft before using the product for the first time, and if they did not the product would cease to function. This would become a hallmark of the Company's other products, including Microsoft Office. Microsoft Product Activation In 2003, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions of some of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio. The initiative has been an entirely new development API for Windows programming, and includes a new programming language, C#. Windows Server 2003 was launched, featuring enhanced administration capabilities, such as new user interfaces to server tools. In 2004, the Company released Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, a version of Windows XP specifically designed for multimedia capabilities, and Windows XP Starter Edition, a version of Windows XP with a smaller feature set designed for entry-level consumers. In March 2004, the European Union brought legal action against Microsoft for antitrust violations. Eventually Microsoft was fined $613 million, ordered to divulge certain protocols to competitors, and to produce a version of Windows that did not include the Windows Media Player. Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN search service later in 2005, designed to compete with Google.

Product divisions

Microsoft sells a wide range of products, many of them developed internally, such as Microsoft BASIC and Microsoft Word. Others were acquired and rebranded by Microsoft:
- Microsoft Project, a project management package;
- Visio, a charting package;
- FoxPro, a database;
- Links, a golf game;
- Visual SourceSafe, a developer's tool;
- DoubleSpace, a compression tool;
- Virtual PC, software to emulate different version of Windows, which was acquired from Connectix; and
- MS-DOS itself, the basis for the company's success. Many of these products have undergone continual development by the Company. Internet Explorer is based on code licensed from Spyglass, Inc.; the initial development of the software was performed outside Redmond in Spyglass headquarters. In April 2002, Microsoft reorganized into seven core business groups—'each an independent financial entity—to delegate all responsibility and more closely track the performance of each unit. On September 20th, 2005, Microsoft announced a rationalization of its original seven business groups to three core divisions: the Windows Client, MSN and Server and Tool groups were merged into the Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division; the Information Worker and Microsoft Business Solutions groups were merged into the Microsoft Business Division; and the Mobile and Embedded Devices and Home and Entertainment groups were merged into the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division.

Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division

2005 This division produces Microsoft's flagship product, the Windows operating system. It has been produced in many versions, including Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Almost all IBM compatible personal computers designed for the consumer come with Windows preinstalled. The next planned version of Windows is Windows Vista (code-named Windows Longhorn). The online service MSN, the cable television station MSNBC, and the Microsoft online magazine Slate are all part of this division. Slate was later acquired by The Washington Post on December 21, 2004. At the end of 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail, the first and most popular webmail service, which it rebranded as "MSN Hotmail". Later in 1999 Microsoft introduced MSN Messenger, an instant messaging client, to compete with the popular AOL Instant Messenger. Microsoft Visual Studio is the company's set of programming tools and compilers. The software product is GUI-oriented and links easily with the Windows APIs, but must be specially configured if used with non-Microsoft libraries. The current version is Visual Studio .NET 2003, named after the .NET initiative, a Microsoft marketing initiative covering a number of technologies. Microsoft's definition of .NET continues to evolve. As of 2004, .NET aims to ease the development of Microsoft Windows-based applications that use the Internet, by deploying a new Microsoft communications system, Indigo. This will address some issues previously introduced by Microsoft's DLL design, which made it difficult to manage, install multiple versions of complex software packages on the same system (see DLL-hell), and provide a more consistent development platform for all Windows applications (see Common Language Infrastructure. In addition, the Company established a set of certification programs to recognize individuals who have expertise in its software and solutions. Similar to offerings from Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Novell, IBM, and Oracle Corporation, these tests are designed to identify a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator"). Microsoft offers a suite of server software, entitled Windows Server System. Windows Server 2003, an operating system for network servers, is the core of the Windows Server System line. Another server product, Systems Management Server, is a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution, and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include:
- SQL Server, a relational database management system;
- Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail features;
- Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and
- BizTalk Server, for employee integration assistance and other functions.

Microsoft Business Division

BizTalk Server The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office, which is the company's line of office software. The software product includes:
- Word, a word processor;
- Access, a personal relational database application;
- Excel, a spreadsheet program;
- Outlook, Windows-only groupware, frequently used with the Exchange server;
- PowerPoint, presentation software; and Microsoft FrontPage, a WYSIWYG HTML editor. With the release of Office 2003, a number of other products were brought under the Office banner, including Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Project, Microsoft MapPoint, Microsoft InfoPath, Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft OneNote. The division focuses on developing financial and business management software for companies. These products include products formerly produced by the Business Solutions Group, which was created in April 2001 with the acquisition of Great Plains. Subsequently, Navision was acquired to provide a similar entry into the European market, resulting in the planned release of Microsoft Navision 4.0 during the week of 18 October, 2004. The group markets Axapta and Solomon, catering to similar markets, which is scheduled to be combined with the Navision and Great Plains lines into a common platform called Microsoft Dynamics.

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division

Microsoft Dynamics Microsoft has attempted to expand the Windows brand into many other markets, with products such as Windows CE for PDAs and its "Windows-powered" Smartphone products. Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, which today has developed into Windows Mobile 5. The focus of the operating system is on devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The company produces MSN TV, formerly WebTV, a television-based Internet appliance. Microsoft used to sell a set-top Digital Video Recorder (DVR) called the UltimateTV, which allowed users to record up to 35 hours of television programming from a direct-to-home satellite television provider DirecTV. This was the main competition in the UK for bSKYb's SKY + service, owned by Rupert Murdoch. UltimateTV has since been discontinued, with DirecTV instead opting to market DVRs from TiVo Inc. The division includes consumer and Macintosh software, along with computer hardware and entertainment software. Microsoft sells computer games that run on Windows PCs, including titles such as Age of Empires and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. It produces a line of reference works that include encyclopedias and atlases, under the name Encarta. Microsoft Zone hosts free premium and retail games where players can compete against each other and in tournaments. Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo in late 2001, with the release of the Xbox. As of 2005, the console ranks second to Sony's PlayStation 2 and ahead of Nintendo's GameCube in market share in the United States (although behind the two worldwide). The console shipped 22 million units compared with competitor PlayStation 2 at 90 million units, and the company took a 4 billion dollar loss due to the console . Microsoft develops and publishes its own video games for this console, with the help of its Microsoft Game Studios subsidiary, in addition to "third party" Xbox video-game publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision, who pay a license fee to publish games for the system. The most recent version of the Xbox is the Xbox 360. Microsoft markets a number of computing-related hardware products, including mice, keyboards, joysticks, and gamepads, along with other game controllers, the production of which is outsourced in most cases. The division houses Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit, the largest developer of Macintosh software outside Apple itself; it produces such software as Microsoft Office for the Mac (sometimes called "Macintosh Office"), which includes Entourage, a Macintosh-specific application not available in the Windows version of Microsoft Office.

Business culture

Entourage Microsoft has often been described as having a developer-centric business culture. A great deal of time and money is spent each year on recruiting young university-trained software developers who meet very exacting criteria, and on keeping them in the company. For example, while many software companies often place an entry-level software developer in a cubicle desk within a large office space filled with other cubicles, Microsoft assigns a private or semiprivate closed office to every developer or pair of developers. In addition, key decision makers at every level are either developers or former developers. In a sense, the software developers at Microsoft are considered the "stars" of the company in the same way that the sales staff at IBM are considered the "stars" of their company. This culture is reflected in their hiring process—the "Microsoft Interview" is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?" and is a process often mimicked in other organizations. Note that, although they were once ubiquitous, recently fewer interviewers have been using these types of questions. Within Microsoft the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using the latest Microsoft products inside the company in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations. Only prerelease and beta versions of products are considered dog food. This is usually shortened to just "dog food" and is used as noun, verb, and adjective. For fun, Microsoft also hosts the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt, an annual puzzle hunt (a live puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles) held at the Redmond campus. It is a spin-off of the MIT Mystery Hunt. In an ever changing world, Microsoft expects its employees to be comfortable with ambiguity. They may not, for example, know with any degree of certainty when a product will ship, what it will be called, or what features will be included. The business culture expects agile thinkers to rapidly adjust to dramatic changes. Microsoft also fosters a general attitude of long-term strategic wariness in its managers, who are expected to be ready for any challenge from the competition or the market. In this frame of mind, being the largest software company in the world is not seen as a form of safety or a guarantee of future success. For instance, future competitors could rise from other industries, or computer hardware companies could try to become less dependent on Microsoft, or consumers could decide not to upgrade their software as often. Microsoft requires its managers to maintain vigilance and sustain a dynamic expansion in new markets.

User culture

Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) is available through Microsoft's MSDN site, short for Microsoft Developer Network. MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software. In recent years, Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, entitled Channel9, which provides many modern features such as a wiki and an Internet forum. Most free technical support available through Microsoft is provided through online Usenet newsgroups (in the early days it was also provided on Compuserve). There are several of these newsgroups for nearly every product Microsoft provides, and often they are monitored by Microsoft employees. People who are helpful on the newsgroups can be elected by other peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles people to a sort of special social status, in addition to possibilities for awards and other benefits.

Corporate affairs

Corporate structure

The company is run by its Board of Directors, which consists of ten people, made up of mostly company outsiders (as is customary for publicly traded companies). Current members of the board of directors of Microsoft are: Steve Ballmer, James Cash, Jr., Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Raymond Gilmartin, Ann Korologos, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, Helmut Panke, and Jon Shirley. The ten board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting, and those who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. There are five committees within the board which have oversight over more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws. There are several other aspects to the corporate structure of Microsoft. For worldwide matters there is the Executive Team, made up of sixteen company officers across the globe, which is charged with various duties including making sure employees understand Microsoft's culture of business. The sixteen officers of the Executive Team include the Chairman and Chief Software Architect, the CEO, the General Counsel and Secretary, the CFO, senior and group vice presidents from the business units, the CEO of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions; and the heads of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services; Human Resources; and Corporate Marketing. In addition to the Executive Team there is also the Corporate Staff Council, which handles all major staff functions of the company, including approving corporate policies. The Corporate Staff Council is made up of employees from the Law and Corporate Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Marketing, and Advanced Strategy and Policy groups at Microsoft. Other Executive Officers include the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the various product divisions, leaders of the marketing section, and the CTO, among others.

Stock

When the company debuted its IPO in March 12, 1986, the stock price was $22. By the close of the first trading day, the stock had closed at twenty-eight dollars, or 97c, compared with the time period after the company's first nine splits. The initial close and ensuing rise in subsequent years made several Microsoft employees millions. The stock price peaked in 1999 at around 119 dollars (60,928 dollars adjusting for splits). While the company has had nine stock splits, the first of which was in September 18, 1987, the company did not start offering a dividend until January 16, 2003. The dividend for the 2003 fiscal year was eight cents per share, followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year. The company switched from quarterly to yearly dividends in 2005, for eight cents a share per quarter with a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year. Around 2002 the stock price began a slow descent that continued through 2005. The company had its ninth split on February 2, 2003, in what could have been an attempt to arouse interest in the stock, but the price continued to stagnate regardless. On the September 23, 2005, episode of CNBC's Mad Money, the host of the show, Jim Cramer, called Microsoft's stock "the most hated stock on Wall Street".

Diversity

Microsoft received a 86% rating in the 2004 Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign relating to its policies concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees. According to the Human Rights Campaign, this was in line with the industry standard . Through the work of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM) group and Diversity, Microsoft added gender expression to its antidiscrimination policies in April 2005, and the Human Rights Campaign upgraded Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index rating to 100%, putting it among the most progressive companies in the world. Microsoft also received criticism from the Human Rights Campaign and many others in April 2005 for withdrawing support for Washington's H.B. 1515 bill that would extend the state's current antidiscrimination laws to people with alternate sexual orientations. However, under harsh criticism from both outside and inside the company's walls, Microsoft eventually supported the bill again in May 2005 . Even though it hires many domestic American workers, Microsoft generally goes up to the annual limit in hiring foreign workers with H1B visas. Bill Gates has criticized Congress for the cap on the H1B visas, which he claims makes it difficult to hire employees for the company. Proponents of the cap cite economic and security reasons for the current law. Microsoft was also named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mother magazine.

Logo

Working Mother In 1987, Microsoft adopted its current logo, the so-called "Pacman Logo" designed by Scott Baker. According to the March 1987 Computer Reseller News Magazine, "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s to emphasize the "soft" part of the name and convey motion and speed." Employees ran a campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O nicknamed the blibbet, but it was nevertheless discarded.

Criticism

Working Mother Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry, especially since the 1980s; in particular, which some some think its business tactics as unfair and anticompetitive. Some describe Microsoft's business tactics as "embrace, extend and extinguish", in which Microsoft initially embraces and extends a competing standard or product, only to later extinguish it through such actions as writing their own incompatible version of the software or standard. Microsoft has also been called a "velvet sweatshop" in reference to the company working its employees to the point where it might be bad for their health. The first instance of the term in reference to Microsoft originated from a Seattle Times article in 1989, and later became used to describe the company by some of Microsoft's own employees. In rulings following antitrust litigation, U.S. courts ruled that Microsoft is an abusive monopoly, and the company endures legal attacks along these lines in many countries around the world; these are successful to varying degrees, but have not yet forced serious reform such as forcing a separation of the company. Some also accuse Microsoft of allowing the user interface of its products to become inconsistent and overly complicated, requiring interactive "wizards" to function as an extra layer between the user and the interface. The security of Microsoft products (such as Internet Explorer) is also questioned by some as being overly vulnerable to computer viruses and malicious attacks. In addition, proponents of free software are engaged with Microsoft in a debate over the Total cost of ownership (TCO) of its products, as some perceive Microsoft software as more expensive to purchase, use and maintain than competitors' software. A July, 2003 article in the New York Times, accused Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, of stealing ideas for the development of Windows from its competitor, Apple. Microsoft has also been criticized for its end user license agreements, which some believe are too restrictive. As detailed in this article, Microsoft has purchased the products of many other companies to market as its own. It has also duplicated the innovations of other companies (Apple in particular) in products which have in many cases gone on

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows refers to a series of operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers.

Background

Microsoft first introducted an operating environment named Windows in 1985, as an add-on to MS-DOS. This was in response to Apple Computer's then-new computer system, the Apple Macintosh, which used a graphical user interface (GUI). Microsoft Windows eventually came to dominate the world personal computer market with market analysts like IDC estimating that Windows has around 90% of the client operating system market. [http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;940707233;fp;2;fpid;1] All recent versions of Windows are fully-fledged operating systems. Windows is proprietary closed source software: Microsoft Corporation owns the software's copyright and controls its distribution. Windows was developed for IBM PC-compatible computers (these were based on Intel x86 architecture), and today, almost all versions of Windows are made for this hardware-platform (although Windows NT was written as a cross-platform system for Intel and MIPS processors, and later appeared on the PowerPC and DEC Alpha architectures). The popularity of Windows made Intel CPUs more popular and vice versa. In fact, the term Wintel became used to describe PC-compatible computers running a version of Windows.

Microsoft Windows versions

The term Windows is used as a collective term for several generations of operating system products which can be classified into the following categories: ; 16-bit operating environments : The early versions of Windows were just graphical user interfaces or desktops, mostly because they used the underlying MS-DOS for file system services and all operating processes. Soon, 16-bit Windows versions would have their own executable file format and provide their own device drivers (graphics, printer, mouse, keyboard and sound). Unlike DOS, the Windows environment allowed all users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time (cooperative multitasking). Finally, they implemented a software segment-based virtual memory scheme which allowed the GUI to run applications larger than available memory: code segments and resources are swapped in and thrown away when useless or memory becomes scarce and data segments move in memory when a given application has relinquished processor control. Examples include Windows 1.0 (1985) and Windows 2.0 (1987) and its close relative Windows/286. ; Hybrid 16/32-bit operating environments : Windows/386 introduced a 32-bit protected mode kernel and virtual machine monitor. For the duration of a Windows session, it provided a device virtualization for the disk controller, video card, keyboard, mouse, timer and interrupt controller. The user-visible consequence was that it became possible to preemptively multitask multiple MS-DOS environments in separate windows (graphical applications required switching the window to full screen mode). Windows applications were still multi-tasked cooperatively inside a real-mode environment. Windows 3.0 (1990) and Windows 3.1 (1992) perfected the design, notably thanks to virtual memory and loadable virtual device drivers (VxDs) which allowed them to share arbitrary devices between multitasked DOS windows. Most important, Windows applications could now run in 16-bit protected mode (when Windows was running in Standard or 386 Enhanced Mode), which gave them access to several megabytes of memory and removed the obligation to participate in the software virtual memory scheme. They still ran inside the same address space, where the segmented memory provided a degree of protection, and multi-tasked cooperatively. For Windows 3.0 Microsoft also rewrote critical operations from C into assembly, making this release faster and less memory-hungry than its predecessors. ; Hybrid 16/32-bit operating system : With the introduction of 32-Bit File Access in Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows could finally stop relying on DOS for file management. Leveraging this, Windows 95 introduced Long File Names, reducing the 8.3 DOS to the role of a boot loader. MS-DOS was now bundled with Windows; this notably made it (partially) aware of long file names when its utilities were run from within Windows, but angered the competition. The most important novelty was the possibility of running 32-bit multi-threaded preemptively multitasked graphical programs. There were three releases of Windows 95 (the first in 1995, then subsequent bug-fix versions in 1996 and 1997, only released to OEMs, which added extra features such as FAT32 support). Microsoft's next OS was Windows 98; there were two versions of this (the first in 1998 and the second, named "Windows 98 Second Edition", in 1999). In 2000, Microsoft released Windows Me (Me standing for Millennium Edition), which used the same core as Windows 98 but adopted the visual appearance of Windows 2000, as well as a new feature called System Restore, allowing the user to set the computer's settings back to an earlier date. It was not a very well received implementation, and many user problems occurred. ME was considered a stopgap to the day both product lines would be seamlessly merged. Microsoft left little time for Windows Me to become popular before announcing their next version of Windows which would be called XP. ; 32-bit operating systems : Originally designed and marketed for higher-reliability business use with no DOS heritage. The first release was Windows NT 3.1 (1993, numbered "3.1" to match the Windows version and to one-up OS/2 2.1, IBM's flagship OS codeveloped by Microsoft and Windows NT's main competitor at the time), which was followed by NT 3.5 (1994), NT 3.51 (1995), and NT 4.0 (1996); the latter implemented the Windows 95 user interface. Microsoft then moved to combine their consumer and business operating systems. Their first attempt, Windows 2000, failed to meet their goals, and was released as a business system. The home consumer edition of Windows 2000, codenamed "Windows Neptune", ceased development and Microsoft released Windows Me in its place. Eventually "Neptune" was merged into their new project, Whistler, which later became Windows XP. Since then, a new business system, Windows Server 2003, has expanded the top end of the range, and the forthcoming Windows Vista will complete it. Windows CE, Microsoft's offering in the mobile and embedded markets, is also a true 32-bit operating system. ; 64-bit operating systems : The newest category, are designed for AMD's AMD64 CPU architecture, Intel's Intel Architecture 64-bit, and EM64T. The 64-bit Windows family comprises Windows XP Itanium edition, Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003; Windows XP Professional and Server 2003 x64 editions were released on April 25, 2005. Itanium editions already came out in 2002. Early indications are that Windows Vista, the projected successor to Windows XP, will be released in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. See also: List of Microsoft Windows versions.

Microsoft Windows history

The first independent version of Microsoft Windows, version 1.0, released in 1985, lacked a degree of functionality and achieved little popularity. Windows 1.0 did not provide a complete operating system; rather, it extended MS-DOS. Microsoft Windows version 2.0 was released in 1987 and was slightly more popular than its predecessor. Microsoft Windows version 3.0, released in 1990, was the first version to achieve broad commercial success. It featured improvements to the user interface and to multitasking capabilities. In 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, which made further changes to the user interface. In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, a version that used the kernel from Microsoft Windows NT. With Windows XP, Microsoft merged the consumer-oriented Windows 3.1 line with the more commercially-oriented Windows NT line of products.

Interface

kernel The most obvious feature of the more recent Windows versions (since Windows 95 and NT 4.0) besides the window, is the desktop, which holds various icons, or graphical objects that the user can double-click to open. Windows has produced a significant change in the way people interact with computers; it is possible to perform most common tasks, some quite complex, with very little computer knowledge. Another quite significant feature of Windows since Windows 95 is the Start Button and Start Menu, which gives users access to installed programs and many of the other features of the operating system. It is attached to the taskbar (blue in the picture on the right). Windows XP introduced a new visual style dubbed "Luna", which updated the classic Windows style (a plain grey box look) with a more graphical appearance. The new style features bold colors and a larger titlebar and start button, which some people have labelled immature or childish. Users can still elect to use the old Windows 9x/2000 visual style. There is a view that modern operating systems need to cater to the vastly increased user base with a lower average computer skill level and the increased power and complexity of modern computer systems. However, some users accuse the Windows interface of isolating the user from too much of the inner workings of the computer, making it more difficult to control, configure and troubleshoot some system features. Windows also comes with features to help the disabled through its accessibility options. Under Windows XP, these features include the Narrator, Magnifier and contrast display mode. However, these are not suitable for everyone. Other customized builds of other operating systems may provide the needed features.

Popularity

Microsoft Windows is installed on the majority of personal computers. A July 2005 poll of Network Computing magazine readers found that 87% of their organisations used Microsoft's desktop operating systems. [http://www.networkcomputing.com/showitem.jhtml?articleID=165701950&pgno=8#2] It achieved enormous market penetration due to the domination of MS-DOS in the early days of PC compatible computers (IBM-PC clones). It is also the primary platform for Microsoft Office and many computer games. Microsoft's operating system has also benefited from not being tied to the success of one hardware manufacturer, and from Microsoft's willingness to license the operating system to manufacturers. For example, this is in contrast with Apple Computer, which does not license Mac OS X to other manufacturers, as well as