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By Julio Franco
on August 30, 2011
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Earlier this month the original IBM PC model 5150 celebrated its 30th anniversary. Although it wasn't the first personal computer ever sold, it was largely responsible for shaping the industry in the years to come -- and still to this day -- by eschewing proprietary components in favor of off-the shelf parts. IBM even contracted out its operating system to Microsoft and decided on an open architecture so that other manufacturers could produce and sell compatible software and peripherals. The result was an ever expanding industry and a new model for computer manufacturing.
Many years have passed and plenty of milestones were met along the way, from the first PC clones in 1982, to the Internet revolution in the 90s and the so-called post-PC devices hitting the market today. We didn't want to let the occasion go by without paying our respects to the legacy that the 5150 brought. Here are some of the most important developments in the industry over the last 30+ years.
Feb 1975
The Altair 8800 assembly kit sports Intel's 8080 CPU, gets sold through mail catalogs.
Jun 1977
Apple launches the Apple II.
1979
WordStar becomes the first commercially successful word processing software.
Jul 1981
MS-DOS is born after Microsoft buys the rights to QDOS for $50,000.
Aug 1981
IBM PC 5150 is released, helping spark the personal computer revolution.
Jan 1983
The Compaq Portable is the first IBM PC compatible portable computer.
Sep 1983
Richard Stallman announces the GNU Project.
Oct 1983
Microsoft Word for MS-DOS would become a market leader with the arrival of Windows 3.0.
Nov 1983
First known proof of concept code for a computer virus was demonstrated.
Jan 1984
The Apple Macintosh is the 1st commercially successful PC to feature a mouse and GUI.
Jun 1985
CD-ROM is invented by Philips and co-produced with Sony.
Oct 1985
Intel releases the i386, a 32-bit x86 microprocessor.
Nov 1985
Windows 1.0 was released.
Jan 1986
Brain becomes the first IBM PC compatible virus.
Nov 1988
Morris worm is one of the first computer worms distributed via the Internet. It affected ~10% of all computers connected to the Internet, about 6,000 machines at the time.
1989
Critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, SimCity, launches.
Apr 1989
Intel's 25MHz i486 DX microprocessor, the first x86 chip to use 1+ million transistors.
Nov 1989
The Sound Blaster audio card launches, becomes a runaway success.
Jun 1991
To promote OS/2, Bill Gates took every opportunity after its release to say 'DOS is dead'. It didn't die.
Aug 1991
Linus Torvalds posts a "hobby" project on Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix, Linux is born.
Aug 1991
Tim Berners-Lee announces the World Wide Web project and software on the alt.hypertext newsgroup.
Apr 1992
Windows 3.1 is launched, sells more than 1 million copies in two months.
May 1992
Wolfenstein 3D released by id Software
Jan 1993
Mosaic is the world's first web browser leading to the Internet boom.
Mar 1993
First Pentium chips running at 60 and 66 MHz.
1993
IBM Simon: the 1st commercially available smartphone. It had no keys and used a touchscreen.
Jul 1993
Windows NT 3.1 released with support for 32-bit programs.
Dec 1993
id Software releases Doom, popularizing the first-person shooter genre.
Mar 1994
Intel releases 100 MHz version of Pentium chip.
Oct 1994
Netscape launches the first version of its web browser called Navigator.
Jan 1995
Yahoo pioneers the web search engine boom, for long considered the web's largest portal and web directory.
Jul 1995
Amazon.com opens its virtual doors as an online retailer of printed books.
Aug 1995
Windows 95 sports key technologies for connecting to the Internet, and introduces the Start button.
Sep 1995
eBay is founded (originally called AuctionWeb)
Jan 1996
Google is founded
Jun 1996
Dell begins selling computers via its website
Jul 1996
Microsoft bundles Internet Explorer with an operating system for the first time (Windows NT 4.0).
Jul 1996
Hotmail launches free webmail service
Oct 1996
3dfx Voodoo launches 3D gaming into the limelight
Jan 1997
Quake introduces support for 3D graphics acceleration cards
May 1997
IBM's Deep Blue defeats the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov.
Sep 1997
Steve Jobs returns to a near bankrupt Apple (share price $5.48)
Jun 1998
Microsoft releases Windows 98
Sep 1998
Upstart eMachines announces two home PCs priced at $399 and $499, creating the sub-$600 market.
Nov 1998
Valve launches Half Life, wins over 50 GOTY awards
Jun 1999
Napster is born, shakes up the music industry
Jul 1999
Microsoft IntelliMouse becomes the first commercially successful optical computer mouse
Aug 1999
Blogger launches as one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools
Dec 1999
Quake III Arena excludes single-player focusing on multi-player action.
2000
Internet Explorer (IE4/5) becomes the most popular web browser with over 80% market share.
Feb 2000
Windows 2000 released, highly regarded, leaves a solid foundation for the next generation Windows OS (not ME).
Mar 2000
NASDAQ index reached its peak during the dot-com bubble. By 2001 stocks were falling hard as the bubble was deflating at full speed.
Mar 2000
AMD and Intel launch their first 1GHz processors, Athlon and Pentium III, respectively.
Sep 2000
Windows ME launches with severe compatibility issues, turns into a flop.
Jan 2001
Wikipedia is formally launched.
Mar 2001
Apple gives birth to Mac OS X, the beating heart of today’s Macs, iPhones and iPad.
Sep 2001
HP buys Compaq for $25 billion to become #2 computer company (in revenue terms) only behind IBM.
Oct 2001
Windows XP is successfully released using the more robust Windows NT kernel.
Oct 2001
Apple launches the iPod, soon to become the world's best selling portable music player.
2002
Microsoft releases the Tablet PC, fails to catch on.
Mar 2003
Intel Centrino (Pentium M) laptops go to market, help push Wi-Fi proliferation.
Feb 2004
Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Moskovitz, Hughes and Saverin launch Facebook from their Harvard dorm room.
Apr 2004
Gmail launched as an invitation-only beta with a record storage capacity of 1GB.
Nov 2004
The Firefox project reaches version 1.0.
Nov 2004
World of Warcraft launches, redefines the role-playing genre.
Dec 2004
Lenovo buys IBM's PC division.
Apr 2005
First video uploaded to YouTube, sets the stage for the web video revolution.
May 2005
Intel and AMD launch first dual-core processors.
2006
Intel looks to the future of efficient computing leaving the Pentium behind and focusing on the new Core processors. These are loosely based on the P6 microarchitecture that dates back to the 1995 Pentium Pro.
Sep 2006
Facebook opens to anyone with an email address.
Apr 2007
Hitachi begins shipping 1TB desktop hard drive.
Jun 2007
Eee PC is announced, first commercially successful netbook.
Jun 2007
Original iPhone is launched, revolutionizes smartphone market.
Jan 2008
MacBook Air launches to (eventually) set the standard for ultraportables.
Jun 2008
Bill Gates steps down as CEO of Microsoft, Ballmer takes over.
Jul 2009
Windows 7 hits retail, big comeback from Vista's cold reception.
Apr 2010
iPad launches as Apple talks up the post-PC era.
Feb 2011
IBM supercomputer Watson wins Jeopardy, calculates hundreds of algorithms simultaneously to parse human language complexities, a milestone in A.I.
Aug 2011
The PC turns 30!
Aug 2011
Steve Jobs, one of the most iconic personalities from the computer industry, resigns his post at Apple.
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