This Day in Computer History: November 6 - Microsoft and IBM's Original 1980 Contract

This Day in Computer History: November 6 - Microsoft and IBM's Original 1980 Contract
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This Day in Computer History

1957

The Hewlett-Packard Company, Inc. goes public, holding its initial public offering (IPO).

1980

IBM and Microsoft enter into what would become the most famous business contract in the history of the computer industry.

In the terms of the contract, the small software firm Microsoft agreed to develop a viable alternative to Digital Research’s market-dominating CP/M operating system and a simple programming language for the upcoming IBM PC, which would go on to sweep the market.

Microsoft would be paid two hundred thousand dollars to adapt Seattle Computer Products’ 86-DOS system into MS-DOS and another half million dollars to develop the BASIC programming language and its compiler.

However, the monetary gain would pale in comparison to financial gains that would result from Microsoft retaining control over its DOS (Disk Operating System). The stipulation eventually made Microsoft one of the largest and most successful software developers in the world. Microsoft would deliver the initial versions of its software in mid-January.

1993

ViaCrypt released the ViaCrypt PGP 2.4 security application. ViaCrypt is a commercial version of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP).

1995

3dfx released the first consumer 3D accelerator, the Voodoo Graphics PCI. The VooDoo is capable of rendering high resolution graphical scenes in realtime. The first-person shooter QuakeGL, a port of the popular Quake, would become the first game to make use of the technology, and shortly thereafter Tomb Raider would vault VooDoo into the limelight.

1998

Rajib Mitra was convicted of hacking into the networks of the University of Iowa and University of Wisconsin. Mitra. Elevated to minor celebrity for the exploit, he would later make headlines again when he was sentenced to an eight year prison term for jamming emergency radio channels.

Lizzybee.com becomes the three millionth domain to be registered on the internet.

2001

GNUnet was first published. GNUnet was a free software framework for peer-to-peer networking. The framework, written entirely in the C programming language features link encryption, peer discovery, and improved resource (memory) allocation.

2002

Apple Computer updated its iBook and PowerBook computer lines. The upgraded systems feature the Mac OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” operating system, more powerful graphics cards, and faster processors. The updated iBooks feature the new ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics controllers standard.

2006

The iMesh 7.0 filesharing app was released, expanding the system into a social networking system.

Microsoft publicly announced that it would offer AVG Security applications through Windows Vista’s Windows Security Center.

This post is part of the series: A Chronology of Computer History for the Month of November: This Day in Computer History

This series provides a daily account of what happened on this day in the history of computing and technology. It discusses developments, breaking news, new releases and global implications that occurred as a result of these ground breaking events.

  1. This Day in Computer History: November 4
  2. This Day in Computer History: November 5
  3. This Day in Computer History: November 6
  4. This Day in Computer History: November 7
  5. This Day in Computer History: November 9
  6. This Day in Computer History: November 10
  7. This Day in Computer History: November 11
  8. This Day in Computer History: November 12
  9. This Day in Computer History: November 13
  10. This Day in Computer History: November 14
  11. This Day in Computer History: November 15
  12. This Day in Computer History: November 16
  13. This Day in Computer History: November 17
  14. This Day in Computer History: November 18
  15. This Day in Computer History: November 19
  16. This Day in Computer History: November 20
  17. This Day in Computer History: November 21
  18. This Day in Computer History: November 22
  19. This Day in Computer History: November 24
  20. This Day in Computer History: November 25
  21. This Day in Computer History: November 26
  22. This Day in Computer History: November 27
  23. This Day in Computer History: November 28
  24. This Day in Computer History: November 29
  25. This Day in Computer History: November 30