| The '70s and the '80s could be easily described as | | | | was willing to license DOS to anyone else who paid |
| the 'computer war'. Every company had a new kind | | | | their fee. By 1984, 'IBM PC compatible' computers |
| of computer, better than the last that they wanted | | | | were available, and a de facto standard was born. |
| to change the world. Everyone knew it was only a | | | | Software makers could finally write their programs |
| matter of time before one was adopted as the | | | | for one operating system and one hardware |
| standard, with all the advantages for software | | | | configuration - and anyone computer that didn't |
| compatibility this would bring - and they were | | | | follow the specification to the letter was quickly left |
| desperate for it to be their model that made the big | | | | with no programs to run. |
| time. | | | | In 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0 (the first |
| In the '70s, two computers nearly became dominant: | | | | version of Windows to be really successful), and the |
| the Apple II and the Commodore 64. Both of these | | | | PC's lock on the marketplace was set in stone. The |
| computers sold in the millions, inspiring a whole | | | | release of the Pentium and Windows 95 made it |
| generation - they were used for everything from | | | | finally the fastest, cheapest and easiest system |
| office tasks to games. | | | | around, and it quickly stopped making sense to |
| It was in 1980, however, that IBM launched its IBM | | | | develop software for anything else. |
| PC, and things really went crazy. IBM's PC wasn't | | | | From then on, the PC was the dominant computer - |
| patented. IBM went to a small company named | | | | today, it is estimated to have between 95% and |
| Microsoft to get an operating system for this | | | | 98% of the market, with almost all the rest being |
| computer, and ended up with DOS, but Microsoft | | | | held by Apple Macintosh computers. |