In the early 80s the world so the initial boom of the computer era. The firstpersonal computers were sold and the main players of the business were sortedout.
Two of the prominent figures were Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Eachpioneering their own front, the two entered the 90s as the computer worldcelebrities. By the mid 90s each of these tycoons’ life had taken many turns andtwists, albeit for the better usually. Bill Gates’ 1995 was a bit hectic, thiswas the year of the huge unveiling of windows 95. After many delayed attempts toget it out Gates released windows 95 in August without Microsoft Plus, as hadbeen earlier said, this was due to time restrictions as changing windows 95 to96 would be a waste of money and probably more seriously the worst movecommercially any company would ever make. With the release of Windows 95 theworld saw the largest over media onslaught to sell a product.
Also with therelease of Windows came Microsoft’s foray into the Internet market share. Inhindsight this perhaps may not have been the best move to make. 1996 passed withmuch criticism of Gates’ operating system, people said it was unstable, hard tofigure out and anything else possible. 1997 came around with rumours of a newoperating system in the works dubbed Chicago.
This was perhaps a rumour but morelikely the beginning of Windows 98. In 1998 Gates released this newer version ofWindows 95, which made the world Gates’ subject for the biggest beta test ever. Windows 98 was just an upgrade of 95. Upgrade may be an understatement, but onthe surface it is almost identical, underneath they are worlds apart.
RecentlyMicrosoft’s ghosts have come to haunt them. Netscape, their main rival in theInternet division, had started an Anti-trust case in the federal supreme court. The accusations spawned from a dispute where Netscape’s browser were beingloaded onto pre made Compaq computers and Microsoft did not approve of this. This case has recently come to the end of its first stage with Microsoft fallingguilty.
The consequences have yet to come, but are foreseen in the comingmonths. This most likely will not spell the end of Gates’ empire rather actuallymay boost his worth by making him CEO of 4 giant specialised companies. SteveJobs, a cofounder of Apple Computers Inc. , has also had good fortune with thecomputer world, but also had his fair share of hiccups. In 1985 after theMacintosh had had troubles selling as much as wished Steve Jobs was forced outof Apple.
From here he went on to try and rebuild a new frontier in media, 3Danimation. After leaving Apple he formed a new company, Next Inc. this was ahardware/software development company. He then went on in 1986 to purchase acontrolling share in Pixar, a LucasFilm branch that dealt with 3D animation. In1989 Next released its first computer at $10,000 which was incompatible and didnot sell well, 4 years later they shut down their hardware division. In 1996Apple bought out Next.
Inc. and uses Jobs as a part time consultant. This aidsApple to become one of the top players in the world of computers in 1998. Someof Pixar’s achievements are; Toy Story, the first full length film created soleyby computers. “A Bug’s Life” released and is a hit.
And February 1999,Technical Academy Award to Pixar’s David DiFrancesco for “pioneeringefforts in the development of laser film recording technology”. Theseachievements of both these men have helped to fuel the second wave of thecomputer revolution. The third is on the horizon as the informationsuperhighway’s potential will be seen in the next couple of years.
