History of Microsoft Word

Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft has had a major role in how we use computers today. It all started when the duo decided they wanted to utilize their shared skills to create an interpreter for a new personal computer, the Altair 8800 microcomputer. The interpreter worked flawlessly when it was demonstrated to MITS in the March of 1975. Microsoft wasn’t officially established until April 4 with Bill Gates as CEO. In 1977 Microsoft established its first international office in Japan. Microsoft entered the OS business with it’s own version of Unix called Xenix in 1980, and then later created MS-DOS, which established the company’s dominance. Later in 1980 Microsoft received a contract from IBM to provide CP/M OS, which would be used in their next personal computer. Microsoft continued to dominate the operating system game with their release of Microsoft Mouse in 1983. Paul Allen then resigned from Microsoft in February of 1983 after developing Hodgkin’s disease. In 1984 while developing a new operating system with IBM, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows. At this time the company also went public, and with the rise in stock prices created an estimated four billionaires, as well as 12,000 millionaires. Microsoft began to release their operating systems to original equipment manufacturers, which caused the partnership with IBM to come to an end. Microsoft then came out with Microsoft Office in 1990, which was a bundle of other products such as Microsoft Word and Excel. Shortly after Windows 3.0 was launched, which was capable for the Intel 386 Processor. Both of the new software packages proved to be a great success in their own areas. Novell, which was a previous competitor of Microsoft Word, filed a law suit claiming that part of their programing undocumented to gain an advantage. The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed for a competitive impact statement July 15, 1994, stating “Beginning in 1988, and