Chapter 15 Software in the 1990's
15.1 ... Microsoft
Operating Systems and Windows
See Appendix B for a description and release dates
of the different versions of DOS .
Microsoft released Windows version 3.0 in May 1990
in New York City with a $10 million promotional
campaign. This version provided a new file manager,
networking features, more desktop accessories, new
screen appearance and new more recognizable icons. It
was easier to install and provided an easier user
interface for new users . Within four months a million
copies were sold. It was a huge success.
Following the release and success of Windows 3.0,
Microsoft had additional discussions with IBM in an
attempt to improve its relationship with the company and
its participation in the continued development of OS/2.
In September an agreement was signed that IBM would take
over most of the OS/2 development, Microsoft would work
on an advanced future version 3.0 of OS/2 and IBM
received limited rights to Windows . This resulted in
Microsoft shifting programmers to Windows development.
However by April 1991, Microsoft had abandoned OS/2
completely, and by 1992 the separation was final.
Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) was a new
concept introduced into Microsoft products in 1990. It
was also to be incorporated into a new operating system
project with the code name of Cairo. Microsoft
incorporated OLE Version 1.0 technology into PowerPoint
in the summer of 1990 and to Excel in 1991.
In May 1991 Microsoft co-sponsored a new Windows
World Exposition Conference.
Version 5.0 of MS-DOS was released in June 1991.
This was an upgrade version only available from
Microsoft that required a previously installed version
of MS-DOS. It was a highly successful release. IBM had
released its own version 5.0 but it had a number of
problems. The success of the Microsoft products and
15/1
15/2 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
other problems resulted in a further deterioration in
the relationship with IBM during the latter part of
1991.
The highly successful Windows Version 3.1 upgrade
with over 1,000 enhancements that included support for
Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and TrueType font
technology was released in April 1992 . It was in direct
competition with the IBM release of OS/2 Version 2 in
March. However the new release of Windows was a huge
success that resulted in three million copies being
shipped in the first six weeks after its introduction.
Microsoft announced Win32 in July 1992. Win32 is
an application program interface with a 32-bit flat
memory model, multithreading, preemptive multitasking,
interprocess communication features and other advanced
features .
Windows for Workgroups is a networking program
with workgroup capabilities that was released as Version
3.1 in October 1992. It was not successful, and
improvements were made that resulted in Version 3.11
being released in November 1993.
Version 6.0 of MS-DOS was released in March 1993
and OLE Version 2 . in 1993.
Windows NT (New Technology) was announced in May
1993, and the first release was at Version 3.0. Windows
NT is an advanced operating system for PC computers . It
is a 32-bit system incorporating Win32 concepts with
compatibility for applications written for MS DOS,
Windows, OS/2 and POSIX. Other features included are:
security protection to U.S. Government C-2 level,
portability to different microprocessor architectures,
symmetric multiprocessing support, built-in networking
capabilities and support for international multilingual
applications . The system will operate on Intel
microprocessors, MIPS workstations and supports the DEC
Alpha architecture. The software requires 12 to 16
megabytes of memory and a powerful microprocessor such
as an Intel 486 or better. Windows NT is a sophisticated
operating system for workstations and file server
applications .
Software m the 1 990 ' s 15/3
In August 1994, the U.S. Patent and Trademark
office, approved a Microsoft request to register the
label "Windows" as a trademark.
Various improvements were made to the Windows NT
software under the code name of Daytona. The hardware
requirements were reduced and the system reliability
improved. This resulted in an upgrade Version 3.5 being
released in September 1994.
The Consumer Products Division released what was
called a new "social interface" with the product name of
Bob in March 1995. This new easy to use user interface
requires Windows, a 48 6 microprocessor and 8 megabytes
of memory. It uses a living room setting metaphor with
12 "intelligent agents" or "friends" and 8 integrated
programs. The "room" can be rearranged and customized by
the user. An intelligent agent can be selected by the
user to act as a guide through different tasks. The
agents observe user actions and get to know the user and
anticipate the persons needs . The eight integrated
programs provide a calendar, checkbook, letter writer,
address book, e-mail, financial guide, GeoSafari and
household manager. The program has a price of $100 and
received mixed reviews .
Chicago was the product code name assigned to a
new advanced 32-bit operating system. It evolved from
Windows with some MS-DOS code and some features from
Windows NT. It incorporated Win32 technology and was
targeted at the mass consumer market. Microsoft released
an extensive beta test of the new software starting in
June 1994. Then after a number of delays the software
was released as Windows 95 in August 1995. The program
incorporated a new user interface, 255-character file
names, preemptive multitasking, multithreading, support
for "plug and play" to optimize hardware performance and
integrated network connectivity to the new Microsoft
Network (MSN) . MSN provides on-line communication to
commercial services and the Internet. Microsoft
estimated that more than 1 million copies of Windows 95
were purchased by customers at retail stores during the
first four days after the release.
Windows as a separate graphical user interface for
MS-DOS essentially ended with the release of the Windows
15/4 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
95 operating system. The functionality of MS-DOS and the
previous Windows graphic user interface had been
integrated in the new operating system.
WINPAD is a new operating system being developed
for handheld computers .
Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 was released in
July 1996. It combined the ease of use of the Windows
operating system with the reliability and security of
Windows NT. Windows NT Server is a powerful operating
system foundation for server applications, such as
BackOffice, that was released in 1996.
The Windows CE operating system, is a subset of
the Windows family that was released in 1997. It was
developed for a broad range of communications,
entertainment and mobile devices .
Windows 98 that had a project name of Memphis was
released in June 1998. It integrated Internet Explorer
version 4 and supported numerous new device types. This
was reported to be the last major version of Windows
based on the old DOS system. Future versions of Windows
will be based on NT technology.
Other Microsoft Product Releases
Microsoft Office was introduced in 1990. Initially
it was a discounted suite of applications that consisted
of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The applications
contained in the suit were subseguently changed to
incorporate a standard user interface and improved
integration features using Object Linking and Embedding
(OLE) and Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) technology.
Version 4.0 of Office was released in October 1993. It
contained Word 6.0, Excel 5.0 and PowerPoint 4.0, plus
Mail and Access in the Professional Office edition.
Office 95 was released with Windows 95 in August 1995,
Office 97 in January 1997 and Office 2000 in June 1999.
Microsoft offers various versions of its Office suite
and has a dominant position in this market.
Microsoft issues upgrades to its application
software to add improvements, new features and correct
problems at one to two year intervals . Excel for
Windows, Macintosh and OS/2 was improved with the
release of Version 3.0 in January 1991, Version 4.0 in
Software m the 1 990 ' s 15/5
March 1992 and Version 5.0 in October 1993. Word for
Windows has also been improved with the release of
Version 1.1 that included a grammar checker in November
1991, Version 2.0 in 1992 and Version 6.0 in October
1993. Microsoft moved from Version 2.0 to Version 6.0 to
synchronize the Word for Windows version number with the
MS-DOS version number. PowerPoint Version 3.0 shipped in
May 1993 and Version 4.0 in October 1993.
Microsoft released Visual Basic for Windows in May
1991. Visual Basic is a graphical version of BASIC that
simplifies the writing of programs for Windows . It was
subseguently released in three editions: Standard,
Professional and Enterprise.
Microsoft introduced a personal finance and home
banking program called Money in 1991. Schedule + is an
appointment, scheduling and list management program that
was released in 1992 .
Microsoft entered the database segment of the
application software market when it acguired Fox
Software and its advanced database program called FoxPro
for $173 million in March 1992. Then in November,
Microsoft announced its own database program called
Access at a significant discount to increase market
penetration. These actions contributed to the financial
difficulties of Borland International, who was a major
supplier of database software for the personal computer
market .
Microsoft at Work is a software and architecture
technology for the connection of office eguipment that
was announced in June 1993. Eguipment such as copiers,
fax machines, hand-held devices, printers and telephones
would be able to communicate with a personal computer
using Windows software. Microsoft released a system for
fax machines in January 1995. However, it was not
successful .
BackOffice is an integrated series of server
applications that enables users to access information
from inside and outside an organization. It can be
combined with a new system called Microsoft Exchange and
the Office suites. Microsoft Exchange was released in
beta test in February 1995. It is an extension of
15/6 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
Microsoft Mail and is a groupware type of program that
was developed to compete with Lotus Notes.
The company released a final version of Internet
Explorer 2.0 for Windows 95 in November 1995. Version
3.0 was released in October 1996, Version 4.0 in
September 1997 and Version 5.0 in March 1999.
Multimedia
The CD-ROM division established in 1985, became
the multimedia publishing division in March 1992. After
many delays and changes in project management, the
encyclopedia with code names of Merlin and finally
Gandalf shipped with the product name of Encarta in
March 1993. Encarta now contains a 2 9-volume
encyclopedia with 26,000 articles, an interactive atlas
and an illustrated timeline of world history.
This division has and still is releasing many
other multimedia CD-ROM products . Some of these are
Ancient Lands, Art Gallery, Atlas, Cinemania, Complete
Baseball, Dangerous Creatures, Dinosaurs, Isaac Asimov's
The Ultimate Robot, Musical Instruments and disks on a
number of musical composers.
New Developments
Microsoft is currently working on a number of
systems that suggest a convergence of operating systems,
application software, communication technology, personal
computers and television. Some of these are the WINPAD
operating system, TV set-top device software and Tiger
cable-TV project. The Tiger project is a network server
system to provide video-on-demand and interactive TV.
Microsoft' s vision of "Information At Your
Fingertips," "A Computer on Every Desk and In Every
Home" and "Windows Everywhere" is becoming a reality.
Software m the 1 990 ' s 15/7
15.2 ... Apple Computer and IBM
Apple Computer
Apple Computer released HyperCard IIGS in January
1991 and the System 7 operating system for the Macintosh
computer in May.
In October 1991, Apple participated in the
formation of the PowerPC Alliance with IBM and the
creation of joint software companies called Kaleida to
develop multimedia applications and Taligent to develop
an advance operating system (See Section 19.6) . Apple
wanted to move in a direction that facilitated the
interaction between their systems and IBM.
Apple Computer announced a new strategic plan in
September 1994, that would expand the Macintosh
technology base. The company had decided to open the
Macintosh hardware and software by licensing the
operating system to other computer vendors in January
1995. This licensing and an agreement with IBM and
Motorola in November 1994, to create a new common
hardware reference platform for computers based on the
PowerPC microprocessor, was intended to increase market
share. Another part of this overall strategy was to
offer independent software developers a broader
installed base to design applications for the Macintosh
platform.
In February 1997, the company acguired NeXT
Software, Inc. Apple obtained the NeXT operating system
to replace its own future operating system with the code
name of Copland that had been having technological
problems. The new operating system based on Apple and
NeXT software technology would have the code name of
Rhapsody. Avidis Tevanian, who had been a principal in
the software design at NeXT was placed in charge of the
new operating system and became a senior vice president
for software engineering.
Apple terminated the program to license the
Macintosh operating system to other personal computer
vendors and its support of the unified PowerPC platform
in September 1997. The company had decided that the
15/8 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
benefits of increased market share were more than offset
by the costs of the licensing program.
A new operating system called OS 8 was released in
July 1998 . The new system featured multi-threading,
PowerPC processor-native finder, spring-loaded folders,
pop-up windows, contextual windows and an Internet Set
Up Assistant. This was followed by the release of OS 9
in October 1999 with over fifty new features. Apple
indicated that it intended to make a new release of the
operating system each year with a major change on OS X
(ten) in 2000.
IBM
In early 1990, James Cannavino had discussions
with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer regarding the
possibility of Microsoft assuming full responsibility
for OS/2 development. However the discussions were not
successful. The release of the highly successful
Microsoft Windows Version 3.0 in May 1990, had a further
detrimental effect on OS/2 sales. Then in September IBM
announced that it was taking over most of the
responsibility for the development of OS/2. Around this
time Cannavino appointed Joseph Guglielmi as a senior
marketing executive for OS/2.
Cannavino received approval from the Corporate
Management Committee (CMC) to remove Microsoft from any
future development of OS/2 in early 1991. This position
was announced in April, accompanied by a statement that
a new version of OS/2 would run DOS applications better
than DOS and Windows applications better than Windows.
The announcement also stated that IBM would release the
new version of OS/2 by the end of 1991. Coding in the
new version was now being changed from assembler to the
"C" programming language.
In October 1991, IBM participated in the formation
of the PowerPC Alliance with Apple Computer and the
formation of joint venture companies called Kaleida and
Taligent to develop multimedia applications and an
advance operating system (See Section 19.6) . IBM wanted
to share Apple' s expertise in personal computer software
development and provide an alternative to OS/2 and
Microsoft systems.
Software m the 1 990 ' s 15/9
Problems accommodating Window applications delayed
the release of OS/2 Version 2.0 to March 1992. It
included the graphics Presentation Manager user
interface. The price had been reduced to a low of $35
for Windows users, $99 for DOS users and $139 for all
others. However sales of the new Version 2.0 were well
below expectations. Also affecting sales was the lack of
application programs from other software companies for
the new operating system.
OS/2 Warp Version 3 was released in October 1994.
15.3 ... Other Software
Corel
Corel Corporation introduced new versions of its
highly successful graphics program CorelDRAW in the
1990' s. Corel initiated a unigue marketing strategy for
CorelDRAW by marketing several versions of the program
simultaneously. Version 2 was introduced in November
1990, Version 3 in May 1992, Versions 4 and 5 in May
1993 and May 1994 respectively, then Version 6 in August
1995. Corel entered the home consumer multimedia CD-ROM
market in April 1995. Then after the acguisition of the
WordPerfect and related software in February 1996, the
company released the Corel WordPerfect suites and
applications .
Digital Research
Digital Research released Version 5.0 of DR-DOS in
April 1990 followed by Version 6.0 in 1991. Then after
Digital Research was purchased by Novell, Inc., in 1992,
DR-DOS became Novell DOS.
Linux
Linus Torvalds, a 21-year-old student at Helsinki
University in Finland, developed an experimental version
of the UNIX operating system in 1991. Torvalds posted
the source code on the Internet and named the new
operating system Linux. This open-source software was
widely disseminated and improved upon by many users. By
1992 it was functioning on Intel processors, had a
15/10 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
graphical user interface and had about 1,000 users. By
1995, networking capability had been added, the system
had been modified to run on other processors and now had
an estimated 500,000 users. In 1998 the number of users
was estimated to be 7,500,000.
The dominant commercial supplier of the Linux
operating system software, is Red Hat Software Inc.,
that was founded in early 1995 by Bob Young and a former
IBM software engineer named Marc Ewing. The company
provides manuals, support and other services for the
Linux operating system.
Lotus
Notes is a communications program developed in the
mid 1980 's by Iris Associates Inc., which was a research
group that spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Raymond Ozzie was a principal in the
development of the software and president of Iris
Associates. The software technology was bought by Lotus
Development Corporation in 1988 and released with the
name of Lotus Notes in 1990. The software enables the
connection of multiple personal computers, to share
databases, files and provides advanced e-mail
capabilities. It is also called groupware. It
facilitates collaboration by communication and sharing
of information between groups of people. This software
was one of the significant reasons for IBM to purchase
Lotus Development Corporation in 1995.
Mosaic
In 1993, Marc Andreessen a young undergraduate
student and Eric Bina, developed a graphical browser for
the World Wide Web (WWW) called Mosaic at the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) located at
the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of
Illinois . Mosaic provided a more visual form of WWW
hypertext presentation, support for images and an
intuitive user interface for a non-technical user. The
software was developed for use on a UNIX operating
system then translated into versions for the Apple
Macintosh and IBM PC computer platforms. The program was
Software m the 1990's 15/11
distributed free over the Internet and received
widespread use.
In August 1994, a small company located in
Illinois, called Spyglass, Inc., that was founded by Tim
Krauskopf in 1990, obtained the exclusive rights to
license Mosaic software.
Netscape
when James H. Clark was leaving Silicon Graphics
in January 1994, he told a friend that he wanted to
start a new high technology company. The friend
suggested he contact Marc Andreessen, who had just
graduated from the University of Illinois in December
1993, where he codeveloped the Mosaic browser. Clark met
Andreessen and after considering various ventures, Clark
decided to finance a new company to exploit the
commercial possibilities of a Mosaic type browser. Clark
founded Mosaic Communications Corporation in April 1994.
Andreessen and Clark had recruited the other key
team members from NCSA that developed Mosaic and a few
personnel from Silicon Graphics. They then completely
recreated the Mosaic browser with additional features,
improved performance and stability for the UNIX, Apple
Macintosh and PC computer platforms. The company
released the beta version of the browser they named
Mosaic Navigator in October 1994. This beta release was
available free by downloading from the Internet.
In the fall of 1994, the University of Illinois
demanded that Clark provide financial compensation for
using their technology or intellectual property and to
stop using the name Mosaic. This resulted in the company
name being changed to Netscape Communications
Corporation in November. Then to avoid litigation, an
agreement was reached with the university that provided
an undisclosed financial settlement in December. The
first production version 1.0 of the browser was shipped
in December with a new name, Netscape Navigator. "By
spring, more than 6 million copies had been downloaded
by users all over the world" [134 -page 4] .
James L. Barksdale joined the company as president
and chief executive officer (CEO) in January 1995 and
the company went public in August. Other products that
15/12 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
became popular tools for server and authoring Web data
were also developed. Navigator 2.0 with integrated e-
mail was released in September and version 3.0 with
Internet telephone in April 1996. The Communicator
Professional with HTML authoring and group calendar was
released in June 1997.
Since the founding of the company, Clark had
misgivings about future competitive actions by
Microsoft. Between September and December of 1994 there
was an interchange of communications for Microsoft to
license the Netscape browser. However, Microsoft decided
to license Mosaic from Spyglass. In the spring of 1995,
Clark stated that Microsoft was withholding application
programming interface (API) information applicable to
Windows 95 that Netscape reguired for release 2.0 of its
browser. In June, Microsoft advised that the API's would
be provided if they could obtain an eguity position and
a seat on the board of Netscape. Clark rejected the
offer and obtained legal counsel. This and other
uncompetitive activities led to the antitrust action
against Microsoft by the Department of Justice in 1977.
Clark' s concern for the future viability of Netscape led
to his consideration of forming an alliance or sale of
the company in 1997. America Online completed the
acguistion of Netscape Corporation at a cost of $4.3
billion in March 1999.
Novell
After acguiring Digital Research in 1992, a new
version of DR-DOS with improved networking capabilities
was released as Novell DOS 7 in December 1993. Novell,
Inc., sold its WordPerfect word processing program and
related suite software to Corel Corporation in January
1996. Corel paid $10.75 million and 9.95 million shares
of its common stock for the acguisition.
Software m the 1 990's 15/13
Sun
In 1991, a small research group was created at Sun
Microsystems that conceived the development of a new
system for the consumer market. The system would include
a portable consumer device and an operating system that
could interact with any other system. James Gosling was
assigned to develop the operating system that became a
project code-named Oak. Project Oak evolved into a
platform-independent programming language and operating
system for consumer electronic products. In 1994, the
language design was repositioned so it could be used to
build interactive applications for the Internet. The
language was named Java and was introduced in May 1995.
Java is based on the C and C++ languages that has
evolved into a general purpose language. It is portable
to a variety of hardware platforms and operating
systems. It is supposedly a "write once, run anywhere"
language. Java is both a programming language and an
environment for executing Java programs that has
received wide spread use. This use has been increased by
Sun posting the language on the Internet for free
downloading by programmers. The language has also been
licensed by a number of large companies such as Apple
Computer, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape and Oracle.
Microsoft licensed the Java programming language
technology from Sun in March 1996. Then in October 1997,
Sun started litigation against Microsoft regarding its
implementation of the language and the compatibility
requirements of the license agreement. This action was
supported by the court with a preliminary injunction
siding largely with Sun in November 1998 .
In mid 1998, Sun introduced a sister technology to
Java called Jini . Jini was developed by a Sun research
group led by William Joy. Jini enables a digital device
to be connected into a computer network, identify itself
and its parameters. It allows for a group of electronic
devices to collaborate and combine to form a complex
system.
15/14 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
WordPerfect
WordPerfect Corporation introduced DrawPerf ect , a
business presentation graphics program in February 1990
and a smaller version of WordPerfect named LetterPerf ect
in June. In May 1990, the company announced a change in
emphasis to release a version of WordPerfect for
Microsoft Windows ahead of a version for the IBM OS/2
operating system. The company had misjudged the market
acceptance of OS/2 and Windows. WordPerfect for Windows
was not released until November 1991 and an OS/2 version
was delayed until 1993.
Yahoo!
David Filo and Jerry Yang were graduate students
at Stanford University, when they created a web site and
a free guide to the World Wide Web (WWW) in early 1994.
The guide began as a list of their favorite Web sites
and by the summer had tens of thousands visitors daily.
As the list grew it was broken into a directory of
search categories, then subcategories. Filo and Yang
manually designated the categories as compared to
computer generated indexes being created elsewhere. This
resulted in an intuitive and a more selective means of
locating information.
It was in the summer that they selected the name
Yahoo! for the search engine. Yahoo! is a whimsical
acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."
By the fall the number of Yahoo! users had increased
dramatically, but they had no revenue.
In the spring of 1995, Filo and Yang approached
Don Valentine' s venture capital company, Seguoia
Capital, and obtained $4 million of finance capital for
Yahoo! Inc. Shortly after they started to hire a
business team and Timothy Koogle was recruited as
president and chief executive officer. Koogle guickly
moved to correct the revenue side of the business that
resulted in a new look for Yahoo! in August. This
included the addition of advertising, a major change in
the hierarchy with a reduction in the top level to 14
major search categories and the addition of a Reuters
news service. Other services such as weather information
and stock guotes were subsequently added.
Software m the 1 990's 15/15
In the fall of 1995, a second round of investment
financing for $40 million was arranged. Two of the
strategic investors were Reuters and the Softbank
Corporation. In early 1996, Masayoshi Son of Softbank
increased his investment in Yahoo! to obtain
approximately 3 0% ownership. The company went public in
April 1996 and Filo and Yang each ended up with over 15%
of the company. Koogle has built Yahoo! into a powerful
portal for e-commerce.
15.4... The Road Ahead
Gates book The Road Ahead, [89] articulates the
future direction of software and new technology as seen
by the chairman of the dominant supplier of software for
personal computers. Terms such as cable-TV, information
highway, information utilities, intelligent agents,
interactive TV, multimedia, networks, social interface
and video on demand all suggest a future direction for
software development. Programming languages dominated
the 1970' s, application programs and operating systems
the 1980' s. The 1990' s is adding significant
capabilities for communication of information. Research
to facilitate the use of computer technology will
provide an extension of the mass consumer market to
include novice home users . Software will be the
technology that provides the synthesis to extend
personal computing.
15/16 Part IV 1990's - Current Technology
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