What happened to Egghead Software

What happened to Egghead Software

Egghead Software was a US retail store that sold computer software from 1984 to 2001. It declared bankruptcy 24 years ago this week, on August 18, 2001, after an attempted transition to selling online failed.

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When the Internet reached half of US households

When the Internet reached half of US households

August 17, 2000 was a major milestone for the Internet. You could argue it’s the day the Internet went mainstream, completing the transition from something computer science students used in college to something their parents would use to buy books and offbeat collectibles. It was the day Nielson announced that the Internet had reached half of US households.

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Internet Explorer first released August 16, 1995

Internet Explorer first released August 16, 1995

It was 29 years ago this week that Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer. It was almost an afterthought, just one of the components in the Windows 95 Plus pack, along with additional themes and a 3D pinball game. But things change, to say the least.

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Red Hat’s successful 1999 IPO

Red Hat’s successful 1999 IPO

It was 26 years ago this week, on Aug 11, 1999, that Red Hat, the Linux vendor, conducted its IPO. It was not the biggest IPO of 1999, and it wasn’t even the biggest Linux-related IPO of 1999. But Red Hat was one of the survivors of the dotcom era, exiting as a result of an acquisition more than 20 years later. Investors may have initially been divided on the company but in the end the naysayers were wrong.

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How many IBM PCs were sold

How many IBM PCs were sold

When it comes to the question of how many IBM PCs were sold, the numbers I hear are all over the place. I’ve heard 3 million, 60 million, and several numbers in between. In this blog post, I’ll uncover the reason there are so many conflicting numbers.

But if I tell you IBM initially only expected to sell 1,000 units in its first six months after its August 12, 1981 release, you probably won’t believe me.

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The first pirated MP3

The first pirated MP3

MP3 piracy was born August 10, 1996. That day, a pirate using the handle of Netfrack released a copy of Metallica’s Until it Sleeps for free download on IRC, an Internet protocol intended for chat, not file sharing.

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Netscape: The IPO that went boom on its way up and down

Netscape: The IPO that went boom on its way up and down

The early star of the dot-com boom wasn’t Amazon or Ebay, it was Netscape, a company who produced a web browser of the same name. It went boom high and it went boom fast as it rose. And when it fell, it went boom hard and loud. Its IPO on August 9, 1995 launched the dot-com bubble. In this blog post, I’ll explain why it was pretty much doomed by the time it went public.

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Why Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997

Why Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997

It was 28 years ago this week, on August 6, 1997, that Apple and Microsoft reached a truce, to the tune of $150 million. The whole event had a weird vibe to it and probably was just as confusing today as it is now. In this blog post, I’ll explore what was in the deal for both of them.

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Andy Warhol’s lost Amiga art found

Andy Warhol’s lost Amiga art found

Thought lost for 39 years, Andy Warhol’s pioneering Amiga art resurfaced in July 2024. Andy Warhol’s birthday, August 6, is a great day to look back at his pioneering digital art and how it came to be lost and found again. Details of the reemergence help to shed light on an earlier discovery from about a decade ago. And those details come from the very person who taught Andy Warhol how to use a computer. In this blog post, I’ll put these discoveries in context, and offer some thoughts from both an art teacher and a sales engineer.

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Radio Shack’s TRS-80: Introduced Aug 3, 1977

Radio Shack’s TRS-80: Introduced Aug 3, 1977

When Radio Shack announced its TRS-80 Model 1 on Aug 3, 1977, designer Steve Leininger thought they could sell 50,000 units. Tandy executives didn’t believe him. But the response overwhelmed the company, and 250,000 people put their money where their mouth was, paying $100 to get on a waiting list to buy one.

At the time, the median price of a Radio Shack product was $30. A TRS-80 bundled with a CRT display and tape drive cost $599 and was the most expensive product they had ever sold.

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