including Word, Excel, and Works (an integrated software suite). Multiplan for MS-DOS, .
however, faltered against the popular Lotus Development Corporation. In 1985 Microsoft .
released Windows, an operating system that extended the features of MS-DOS and .
employed a graphical user interface. Windows 2.0 released in 1987, improving.
performance and offering a new visual appearance. In 1990 Microsoft released a more .
powerful version of windows, Windows 3.0, which was followed by Windows 3.1 and 3.11. .
These versions which came preinstalled on most personal computers, rapidly became the most .
widely used operating systems.(dates of programs and names= ).
In 1990 Microsoft became the first personal computer software company to record .
$1 billion in annual sales. As Microsoft's dominance grew in the market for personal .
computer operating systems, the company was accused of monopolistic business .
practices.( The New York Times).
Also, in 1990 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating Microsoft .
for alleged anticompetitive practices, but was un able to reach a decision and dropped the .
case. .
In 1991 Microsoft and IBM ended a decade of collaboration when they went .
thier separate ways on the next generation of operating systems. IBM chose to pursue the .
OS/2 operating system (first released in 1987), which until then had been a joint venture with .
Microsoft. Microsoft chose to evolve it's Windows operating system into a increasingly .
powerful system. (Dates = The New York Times).
In 1993 Apple lost a copyright infringement lawsuit against Microsoft that .
claimed Windows was an illegally copied design of Macintosh's graphical interface. The .
ruling was later upheld by an appellate court. And in 1993 Microsoft released Windows NT, .
an operating system for business environments. The following year Microsoft and the .
Justice Department reached an agreement that called for Microsoft to change the way it's .
