Microsoft releases Microsoft Flight Simulator version 1.0, and marks the beginning of one of the longest-running PC video game series of all time.Ĭompaq releases its first PC-compatible machine with IBM compatible clones, which hurt IBM but helped Microsoft (as it had to license DOS from Microsoft), but any application developed to run on the PC could still run on Compaq machines. Microsoft formally launches its International Division and sets up subsidiaries in Europe and elsewhere, finding local agents to handle its business interests As DOS was the only operating system available on the PC when it was introduced in New York City, this paves way to the future domination by the MS-DOS operating system. IBM announces the release of the IBM Personal Computer, which becomes the dominant personal computer. Microsoft buys the rights for QDOS from Seattle Computer Products (without telling SCP that it had a lucrative contract with IBM). Having purchased a license for Version 7 Unix from AT&T in 1979, Microsoft announced on Augthat it would make it available for the 16-bit microcomputer market, named Xenix. This, in turn, was the beginning for both the Bundling of Microsoft Windows, and Wintelism, as IBM personal computers and Intel were also bundled with each other. Microsoft signs a contract with IBM to develop an operating system for IBM's first personal computer. The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan"). Microsoft released its first product which is called the Altair BASIC. As a result of Microsoft's founding, Traf-O-Data became defunct. This is a timeline of Microsoft, a multinational computer technology corporation.īill Gates and Paul Allen first founded Traf-O-Data, which only exists from 1972 until 1975.īill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. Timeline of notable events in the history of Microsoft