Microsoft Windows first announced Nov 10, 1983

Microsoft Windows first announced Nov 10, 1983

It was November 10th, 1983 that Microsoft first announced Microsoft Windows, a graphical environment for IBM PC and compatible computers. It arrived late and without all of the promised features, so it was very much like future Windows versions like Windows Vista and Windows 8 in that regard.

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What happened to Transmeta, the last big dotcom IPO

What happened to Transmeta, the last big dotcom IPO

Transmeta was the last big IPO of the dotcom era, launching Nov 7, 2000. Some analysts call its $273 million IPO the last successful tech IPO until the Google IPO in 2004. Transmeta didn’t completely fit in to the dotcom era, because they were a hardware company. But they were still a technology company, and if their plans had gone well, they would have sold their product to dotcoms, but it didn’t work out that way for them. In this blog post we explore what happened to Transmeta.

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Micron Computers’ rise and fall

Micron Computers’ rise and fall

Micron Computers was a moderately successful attempt by Micron Technology, a maker of computer memory chips, to market PCs. First released in 1995, the venture succeeded very well at first, and survived in the marketplace until November 6, 2008. Although not widely remembered today, Micron made dependable, reliable PCs at a fair price.

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The first Compaq computer

The first Compaq computer

The first Compaq computer was its eponymous Compaq Portable, announced November 4, 1982. It was a suitcase-sized clone of the original IBM Personal Computer, with an Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77 MHz running Microsoft MS-DOS. It was hardly the first non-IBM computer to run MS-DOS, but it was the first legal IBM PC clone with a high degree of compatibility.

Compaq shipped the first unit about four months later, in March 1983. It originally cost $2995 for a single-drive unit. A dual-drive unit, which was much more useful, cost $3,590.

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Monorail: Pioneering $999 PCs from 1996

Monorail: Pioneering $999 PCs from 1996

Monorail was a short-lived PC vendor from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Founded November 2, 1995, they were the first company to sell a Pentium-class PC including a display for under $1,000. And Monorail PCs were the first desktop all-in-one computer that included an LCD rather than using a CRT. On top of all that, they assembled their computers in the USA, utilizing a facility in Kansas City, Mo. So what happened to Monorail? Why did it fail?

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Etoys.com and its rapid rise and fall

Etoys.com and its rapid rise and fall

So it’s November 1997. The Internet is catching on and you want to start an online business. You just need a big idea. How about selling toys on the Internet? That could be big, right? Hence etoys.com, a short-lived Internet retailer founded November 3, 1997.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration. While etoys was founded in November, the idea dated back to February 1997. That’s when former Walt Disney VP Toby Lenk joined up with Bill Gross, founder of a net startup incubator called Idealab, to start building etoys. They secured financing by September and launched in November, just in time for the 1997 holiday season.

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When Federico Faggin left Intel

When Federico Faggin left Intel

It was 51 years ago today, on October 31, 1974, that Federico Faggin, the mastermind behind the early Intel CPUs, left Intel to try something else. His next big thing was the legendary Zilog Z-80 CPU.

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Intel’s Pentium FDIV bug and recall

Intel’s Pentium FDIV bug and recall

On June 13, 1994, a mathematics professor discovered a bug in Intel’s then-new Pentium CPU. Intel’s new CPU was fast, but it couldn’t divide correctly. The bug became known as the Pentium FDIV bug. It resulted in Intel recalling 60 and 66 MHz Pentium CPUs in stepping levels prior to D1, and 75, 90, and 100 MHz Pentium CPUs in steppings prior to B5. The recall cost Intel $475 million and might have caused reputational damage if more viable competitors had been available at the time. Collectors prize a surviving Pentium CPU with the FDIV bug today.

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IBM’s 2018 Red Hat acquisition

IBM’s 2018 Red Hat acquisition

It was seven years ago, on Oct 28, 2018, that IBM announced its intention to acquire Red Hat, the Linux vendor, for $34 billion. Its Aug 11, 1999 IPO had been the 8th largest first-day gain in the history of Wall Street at the time. The acquisition closed in July 2019.

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TI-99/4A discontinued October 28, 1983

TI-99/4A discontinued October 28, 1983

42 years ago today, on October 28, 1983, Texas Instruments announced it was discontinuing the TI-99/4A computer and withdrawing from the home computer market. It was a stunning admission of defeat for a company that had everything it took to absolutely dominate the home computer market: vertical integration, name recognition, pre-existing relationships with retailers, and a compelling design. Let’s look at what went wrong.

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