The Silicon Underground

IBM 5170 PC/AT

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 11:00:23 +0000

The IBM 5170 PC/AT, launched August 14, 1984, is a very popular retro PC, for several reasons. It was the last of the open architecture IBM PCs. And from 1984 to about mid-1987, it was the fastest and most expensive

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IBM PC introduced, August 12, 1981

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:00:03 +0000

45 years ago today, IBM introduced the original IBM PC. This computer changed the industry and change the world. There is no shortage of analysis about its impact, but I find a lot of it self-serving and, in some cases

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Red Hat’s successful 1999 IPO

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:00:29 +0000

It was 27 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

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The first pirated MP3

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:00:44 +0000

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. It’s appropriate

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

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:00:25 +0000

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

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Why Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:00:40 +0000

On August 6, 1997, Apple and Microsoft reached a truce, to the tune of $150 million. At an Apple event, the two companies announced Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple, leaving everyone wondering why. The whole event had a weird

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Ebay’s 1995 debut

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:00:21 +0000

The eBay domain name was registered 31 years ago today, on August 4, 1995. But the site we know today as Ebay didn’t launch until almost month later, September 3, 1995, under a different name. Auctionweb, the original name for

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

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 11:00:05 +0000

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

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The Caldera-SCO merger of 2000

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 11:00:02 +0000

On August 2, 2000, a second-tier Linux vendor acquired a struggling Unix vendor. The merger received some press, but if you weren’t really following Linux at the time, it would have been easy enough to miss. But the merger of

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Windows NT 4.0: Released to Manufacturing July 31, 1996

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:58 +0000

It was 30 years ago this week, on July 31, 1996, that Microsoft released Windows NT 4.0 to manufacturing. The workstation version appeared on store shelves a month later, with the server version following in September. In many ways, version

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