Microsoft

Tagline: Where do you want to go today? (1994 - 2002)
your potential. Our passion. (current slogan)

The world famous manufacturer of software (software) for desktop computers, mobile devices, clusters, servers and game consoles. In addition to software, the company is also engaged in the production of game consoles themselves, computer manipulators and audio players.

The history of the now mighty corporation began on April 14, 1975. Its founders were now well-known personalities (then they were unknown students), like Bill Gates (Bill Gates) and Paul Allen (Paul Allen). According to the official legend, they decided to develop a BASIC programming language interpreter for the Altair 8800 personal computer, manufactured by the company Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). The students even managed to conclude an agreement with the manufacturer Altair, on the supply of an interpreter along with the device. The idea of selling software caused sharp criticism and misunderstanding in certain circles - at that time there were few programs written and they were freely distributed among programmers. At the same time, the first case of piracy was noted. However, time has proven Bill Gates right - by the end of 1975, the company's income was in the thousands, which is very good for beginners.

But the real success came to Gates and his company, along with representatives of the firm IBMwho were looking for someone to create an operating system for the IBM PC. It happened on August 12, 1981. The advent of MS DOS (Disk Operation System) and determined the final fate Microsoft. Later, on November 20, 1985, the first graphical shell for DOS appeared, called Windows. A new era has begun.

The name of the company was formed from two words: MICROcomputer SOFTware". At first it was written with a hyphen: Microsoft. The company has modified the logo several times without changing its essence; only the font in which the word was written changed Microsoft. Today, this name is no longer true - software is created not only for microcomputers, but also for high-performance servers and the like.

History Microsoft is a story of dizzying success and continuous development. The corporation repeatedly made mistakes and miscalculations, but always quickly corrected them, eventually conquering more and more new areas for itself and setting new records. And if the first year Microsoft only three people worked (including the founders), by 2008 their number was more than 80 thousand, in offices scattered around the world.

List of software released Microsoft huge. These are operating systems (MS-DOS, Windows), office suites (MS Office), Server applications (SQL Server…), development tools (Visual Studio, Visual FoxPro…), games (Age of Empires, Microsoft Flight Simulator…) and much more. other. Keyboards and mice produced under the Microsoft brand are well-deserved respect. Extremely popular gaming console Xbox. The excellent support service provided by the company also deserves a commendation. Not to mention the search engine bingdesigned to compete with Google.

But you should not think that everything is so smooth. became famous Microsoft, first of all, as a monopolist imposing its decisions. The corporate policy is exceptionally aggressive. Many of the company's products have become so popular, not because they are the best, but because of their aggressive promotion in the market, which competitors could not afford. The company is also criticized for the "closeness" of its software.

Monopoly Microsoft in the software market haunts many. The corporation has been repeatedly held accountable. Some of the litigation Microsoft lost, but it did not bring much harm to her. The main reason for this state of affairs is the lack of serious competitors. Operating systems and office suites capable of challenging the company's products have appeared only recently, and so far have not managed to cause any serious damage to it.

Headquarters Microsoft located in Redmond, Washington, USA (Redmond, Washington, USA).