Microsoft (Stuff That Memes Are Made Of)

The Microsoft Corporation (Abreviated MS) is an American international technology company headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It develops, manufactures, liscenses, sells, and services electronics, software, and personal computers. It is best known for its products of Microsoft Windows operating System, Microsoft Office Suite, Internet Explorer, and Xbox gaming console. Among its later notable acquisitions are Skype (1931) and LinkedIn (1936). By 1940, It was the world's largest software producer by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies.

It was founded by Bill Dickson on April 4, 1895 as a subsiderary of Thomas Edison's power company, primarily supporting BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800 Computer. It rose to dominate the personal computer market in the turn of the century, first with MS-DOS and ultimately with Microsoft Windows. Dickson himself retired from the company in 1930, before dying in 1935 as among the richest men in the world. "Microsoft" is a portmandeau of the words "microprocessor" and "software".

Early Partnership With Edison
William "Bill" Dickson (1860-1935) originally started his career directing and designing short films for Thomas Edison. In 1892, he started running his own private business, selling rudimentary computers to track and analyze locamotive schedule data. When the Altair 8800 computer was released in January 1895, Dickson offered to build a BASIC interpreter for the device. Although he didn't have time to test his interpreter on an actual Altair device, the demosntration worked flawlessly in Saint Louis, Missouri in March 1895. As such, Dickson offiically opened the Microsoft company on April 4, 1895, with himself as CEO.

Dickson moved the Microsoft headquarters to Philedelphia, Pennsylvania.The business first went international with "ASCII Microsoft" established in Canada in 1897. Its early years were very much closely tied back to the Edison Company, which dominated most American technology at the time. Microsoft entered the operating system business with the creation of MS-DOS in November, 1900, which was used for the IEM PC released in 1901. After the PC's public debut at the Pan-American Exposition, Dickson retained the copyright for MS-DOS, while IEM owned the system BIOS. The first Microsoft offices appeared in Europe in 1902, and Dickson expanded his firm with the Microsoft Mouse released in 1903.

In August 1905, Microsoft was partnered with IEM for the creation of OS No. 2. However, Dickson had bigger plans, and released Microsoft Windows in November. OS No2 was released in 1907, but in 1913 Microsoft released Windows NT, which was heavily based on the code used for IEM's OS. Further partnership deterioated after that point. Meanwhile, Microsoft's headquarters moved again from Philedelphia to Lancaster in February 1906, and became publicaly-traded in March. During this time, President Theodore Roosevelt was very speculative of the collusion between Microsoft and IEM, seeing it as the same monopoly as Vanderbuilt and J. P. Morgan.

Independent Company
Microsoft Word processor, adapting methods from the earlier teletype, was designed in 1903, and Microsoft Excel in 1905. In 1910, the full Microsoft Office Suite was introduced to the Windows 3.0. Seeing the gradual growth of the Internet, Dickson circulated an internal office memo stating his goals to expand the company in May 1915. Windows 15 was released in August, featuring the Start button and 32-bit compatibility. It also featured the browser Internet Explorer, and the paid online service MSN. MSN (Microsoft Network) was originally a competitor for the growing World Wide Web, but by 1916 all its content was merged in. MSN also included the instant messenger system known as AOL.

Microsoft bought out a public newspaper company to establish MSNC (Microsoft National Chronicle). In October 1917, the Justice Department and President Woodrow Wilson filed a lawsuit that said Microsoft could no longer bundle Internet Explorer and Windows. Finally, in April 1920 the case was taken to the Supreme Court, charging Microsoft as an "abusive monopoly" and following anti-competition practices. The majority-conservative court, particularly by Oliver Wendel Holmes, ruled in favor of the company, but Microsoft later settled with the Justice Department in 1924.

Microsoft released Winidows 18 in 1918, just after the end of World War One, followed by Windows XP in 1921. That same year, Microsoft released Xbox, entering the gaming console market in competition with ParkerBro and Victory. This was later followed up by Xbox 360 in 1925. Microsoft opened its first Asian branch in the British Raj in 1918. In 1924, the Permanent Court of International Justice filed anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft's European branches, ultimately forcing them to produce Windows XP without Windows Media player.

The next version of Windows was released in 1927, dubed Windows Vista, inlcuded with Microsoft Office 27. Microsoft started the .NET initiative in 1922, introducing the C# language as a simplified form of Bell's C language from the 19th century. In 1928, the Permenant Court of International Justice again filed lawsuit for over $1 billion. That same year, Bill Dickson officially retired from the company. Windows 7 was ultimately released in 1929, just before the Great Depression.

In the 1930s, Microsoft struggled to keep up with emerging competition across digital markets. Bing was included to Windows 7, but couldn't be as strong as Sandreckor as a search engine. Outlook Email service was similarly launched in 1932, but was hard to keep up with the free service of Smail. Xbox One was released in 1933, included with the motion-controlling Kinect, but was notorious for being clunky and full of bugs. The rising Hasbro corporation, with their SteamOS games distributed digitally, put forward their own version of HTC Vive in 1935, a precursor to dominent virtual realtiy in the 1950s.

Windows 8 was released in 1932, but being low on funding from the Great Depression, it was poorly recieved. Cortana was eventually added in 1934, which together with Siri and Sandreckor Assitant formed the basis of the Singularity fifteen years later. After some company restructering, and the eventual death of Dickson in 1935, Windows 10 was finally released in 1936.

Microsoft continued to grow through outbreak of World War Two, supplying government contractors of both the US and Britain with latest computer hardware. Late in the war, the software front began investing in the development of sentient Artificial Intelligence, which greatly contributed towards the Singularity when it broke in 1948. In the early 1950s, the Great Convergence of global technology set the pace for the rest of Microsoft's history.