Microsoft at 50

Intro

I'm Peter and this is the RoguePlanetoid Podcast where you will find insights about Microsoft or related platforms and technology, along with so much more whether you are beginner or an experienced professional or just interested in technology. Keep Current, Keep Coding!

Welcome

Welcome to episode twenty-six of the RoguePlanetoid Podcast on Microsoft at 50. Microsoft is celebrating fifty years since being founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 and has impacted many people including myself. It is amazing to think of all the things that Microsoft has achieved throughout the fifty years since it was first founded from getting started, to creating iconic software and hardware through to today with innovations such as cloud computing and AI. If you want to find out more about Microsoft, then you can visit microsoft.com or check out the link in the show notes.

MS-DOS

Microsoft started when Bill Gates and Paul Allen saw the cover of Popular Electronics magazine in January 1975 which featured the Altair 8800 which was an early personal computer. They were inspired to create the first programming language for the machine, Altair BASIC and the first product from Microsoft. It would be five years later in 1980 when Microsoft struck a deal with IBM to provide the operating system for their personal computer but crucially this deal wasn't exclusive, so Microsoft was able to provide others with the operating system, which would be known as MS-DOS.

MS-DOS was an operating system that featured a command-line interface first released in 1981, which featured a variety of commands along with supporting applications that had text-based interfaces this included BASIC with QBASIC or GW-BASIC. Even though MS-DOS was a product of the 80s it would be in the 90s when I got my first experience of MS-DOS, in 1991 with MS-DOS 3.30 where I learned how to create batch files which were scripts to execute commands, along with using GW-BASIC with a Toshiba T-1200 laptop that was going to be thrown out, but had been rescued for me to use. GW-BASIC was quite powerful for the time and not only could be used to create the smaller examples and games I wrote myself but also fully fledged applications that could be modified or extended as needed.

MS-DOS during early 80s may have been just text input and text output but it still led to many other applications although was mainly used by businesses, but it was possible to create graphics either with the ability to draw to the screen, use characters creatively or push pixels or bitmaps directly. MS-DOS helped to start to show the possibilities of what could be done with the personal computer and allowed many companies to create hardware that used MS-DOS, however as hardware became quickly more sophisticated, this opened the door or should I say window to graphical user interfaces.

Windows

Microsoft Windows was announced in 1985 which would be the graphical user interface for MS-DOS, it offered device independent graphics and multitasking support including allowing users to run unrelated applications at the same time and transfer data between them. Windows provided an affordable and much easier to use desktop computer operating system, that would help usher in the era of personal computer use in the home. My first experience with Windows was not with these early versions from the 80s but with Windows 3.11 in the early 90s, where I used it for school although only able to use it for IT-specific subjects as back then other subjects didn't encourage or make use of personal computers, although I tried to push for this as my interest increased in computing however this usage back then was considered cheating, which would be the opposite today.

Windows opened even more possibilities for applications with more sophisticated features and many of them would although look much simpler than they do today, would still be recognisable such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Windows 95 released in 1995 would usher in a more modern era for Windows which was even easier to use, with the iconic start button to access applications and plug-and-play capabilities for installing hardware. I got a brand-new computer to run this new operating system that year where I was able to use software like never before and within a couple of years, I would get access the world wide web using Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, although very slowly using dial-up internet and only for a short time per day but was able to use this to learn how to create my own software.

Windows would evolve including in 1998 with the release of Windows 98, which was my first, and so far, only midnight launch, where I was able to get it to upgrade my computer from Windows 95 to Windows 98 on the day of release. There were few versions of Windows after that, but it would be in 2001 when Windows XP would be released, which would see another iconic release for the operating system which helped explode popularity of Windows and lead to more sophisticated applications as well as no longer running on MS-DOS.

Windows would go through a bad-good phase, with some of versions of Windows not being well received such as Windows Vista and Windows 8 but also those better received such as Windows 7 and Windows 10. Windows 11 was released in 2021 as represents the current latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft, with many improvements to functionality and usability including features like Windows Widgets and more. If you want to see what's current in Windows, then visit windows.com or check out the link in the show notes.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio's release in 1997 was Microsoft's comprehensive suite of development tools for building client / server applications along with web-based solutions with Active Server Pages, tools included Microsoft Visual Basic which built upon the foundations of BASIC to provide a rapid application development system for creating applications for Windows, along with Microsoft Visual C++ to create Windows applications plus Microsoft J++ to create cross-platform Java applications. Visual Studio users were aided by the inclusion of the Microsoft Developer Network or MSDN library which was the complete source of product documentation and information.

Visual Studio 97 was my first experience of programming using an integrated development environment, which I was able to get on student licensing as unlike today there were no free options available, but did made it more affordable and was able to learn how to create more sophisticated examples, as well as share what I was learning on my website and push my knowledge further throughout the late 1990s. This further increased my knowledge and made me decide to want to become a software developer so went to university to study computing, but the turn of the millennium would see new experiences and possibilities.

It would be in 2002 just a year after I graduated when everything changed for Microsoft platform developers with the release of Visual Studio .NET, which not only updated the tooling but the platform with the introduction of .NET Framework, this enabled a new generation of client applications using Windows Forms and more modern web applications. I was lucky enough to get early versions of the tooling and help me learn and share what I learned on my website. I continued that learning journey throughout more releases of Visual Studio and Visual Basic Express Editions released in 2005 and 2008, which could be used for free.

Visual Studio and .NET Framework continued to evolve together to light up more features and ways to implement applications, such as introducing Windows Presentation Foundation in 2006, but .NET Framework was closed source. It would be in 2016 when a major shift to a more modern .NET started with the open-source .NET Core 1.0, .NET Core was developed alongside .NET Framework but in 2020 that would end with .NET 5 which would take .NET Core onwards into a new single .NET era and .NET Framework would be no longer updated with new features. .NET would see a major release every year with odd numbered releases being supported for eighteen months and even numbered releases being supported for up to three years.

Visual Studio and .NET would enable more features and open possibilities for more modern applications throughout the years to include web applications, web APIs and even integrating AI with the latest version of .NET. .NET 9 released in 2024 is the latest, most powerful and capable version of .NET. Visual Studio has also evolved to create a premiere developer experience with a free community edition alongside paid professional and enterprise editions. Visual Studio 2022 is the latest version and integrates many features to help developers code faster and work smarter including GitHub Copilot. To find out more about the latest version of Visual Studio, that enables developers to take advantage of the latest version of .NET then visit visualstudio.com or check out the link in the show notes.

Xbox

Microsoft not only created many software applications for the personal computer starting with MS-DOS and continuing with Windows but also games for the personal computer along with enabling many others to create games for their platform and this led to the creation of Xbox released in 2001. Xbox provided dedicated hardware for gaming to enable features such as local network-based multiplayer but was also ready for the future with the ability to play online with Xbox Live just a year after launch of Xbox to take advantage of broadband internet which was only just taking off at the time.

Although Xbox wasn't my first games console, it was the first to really impress me with the graphics and capabilities it had, although they would look very primitive compared to today's games, but this along with the ease of use made it a must-buy console, which I got on the day of release along with a few games and enjoyed playing many hours of gaming and added many more games to my collection but the first was the iconic Halo Combat Evolved which helped inspire a franchise that is still going to this day.

Xbox 360 would be released in 2005 just a few years after the original Xbox, and I was there picking it up in store on day one, it was probably the most anticipated games console purchase I ever made, and it added even more sophisticated games with improved graphics, plus it integrated entertainment features that were really useful. Xbox 360 never stood still with software updates that refreshed the user interface and introduced new features and hardware such as Kinect.

Xbox 360 wasn't without issues and mine did fail with the infamous red ring of death issue, but I was issued with a replacement and later purchased the slimmer Halo Reach edition of the Xbox 360 S, which I used throughout the rest of the Xbox 360 lifetime until the release of Xbox One. Xbox One released in 2013 and brought with it a new Kinect sensor and even more focus on entertainment, but unfortunately seemed to many people to be less focused on gaming and some prelaunch confusion about digital games didn't help, but Xbox One did bring more capabilities and improved games.

Xbox One X in 2017 restored some of what Xbox One should have been with a focus on gaming and a return to form and more focus on creating a great hardware experience for gaming and helped set the foundation for Xbox Series X. Xbox Series X released in 2020 delivered the maximum capability yet for gaming including fast storage and is the console I use at the moment but look forward to seeing what is next for Xbox, with the next generation of capabilities for gaming and entertainment it can deliver. To find out what's going on with Xbox then visit xbox.com or check out the link in the show notes.

Conclusion

Microsoft has broadened itself over more recent years which included in 2018 when they acquired GitHub, the code repository service used by many developers including myself, along with forming partnerships with others such as OpenAI in 2019 which resulted in GitHub Copilot, one of the first major uses of Generative AI which led on to ChatGPT and this functionality then fed back into Microsoft with the AI-powered Bing and Edge in 2023 which led to Microsoft Copilot later that year.

AI has been a major drive for Microsoft not only with the introduction of Microsoft Copilot but extended into hardware designed for AI with Copilot + PCs in 2024, and Microsoft's own small language models as well as continued improvements to Microsoft Copilot. Quantum Computing is another frontier for Microsoft with the development of Majorana 1 which is the world's first quantum chip powered by a new topological core, this will result in quantum computers capable of solving meaningful industrial-scale problems in years not decades.

I have been impressed to witness the results from those early years of Microsoft pioneering software and hardware, along with the influence it has had on me to this date where I not only created and learned from products developed by Microsoft, but also shared what I learned with presentations, tutorials, workshops and more. I'm only five years younger than Microsoft having celebrated my 45th birthday in March, but it is great to see Microsoft celebrate its 50th anniversary in April and wonder where we will be when I celebrate my own 50th and am looking forward to seeing what the future holds from Microsoft!

Outro

Thanks for listening to the RoguePlanetoid Podcast where each episode you will find insights about Microsoft or related platforms and technology, along with so much more wherever you listen to your podcasts or at rogueplanetoid.com/podcasts for the RoguePlanetoid Podcast whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional or just interested in technology. Keep Current, Keep Coding!