During the 2001 earthquake, the Microsoft employees in Seattle only left the building when they got a message on their computer screens saying, “Alarms going off! Please evacuate the building! Have a Wonderful Day!,” ignoring the vibrations, klaxons and flashing lights of the alarm system. 1)
Since 2019, Microsoft is earning more from cloud services (mostly Azure) than from Windows or any other traditional product group, including hardware. Moreover, Azure revenue grew 48 percent, while Windows OEM licenses fell 5 percent for the quarter ending September 2020. 2)
Linux is currently the most often used operating system image in Microsoft's Azure platform. 3)
Each work anniversary, a Microsoft representative is expected to bring one pound of M&Ms for every year they've worked. That implies if Bill Gates observed the tradition, he ought to have turned up with 33 pounds of M&Ms on June 27, 2008. 4)
Microsoft is a software and hardware company founded in 1975. 5)
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In 1977, the company moved to Bellevue, Washington, only to move again in 1986 to its current headquarters in Redmond. 6)
In 1981, Microsoft bought 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products and renamed it MS-DOS. Its great advantage was its operational efficiency and simplicity, which was appreciated by many manufacturers installing this system on their computers. 7)
In 1985, Microsoft released Windows 1.0. However, it was not a new operating system, but only a graphical overlay on MS-DOS. 8)
In 1989, the first version of MS Office was created, which did not have quite easy on the market, as it had quite strong competition in the form of, for example, WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3, but gradually the Microsoft suite began to dominate. 9)
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 NT, which was based on a completely new kernel. 10)
In 1995 Windows 95 was released. 11)
Although Bill Gates and Steve Jobs competed with each other for decades, in the early days of the two companies they were friends and worked together during the development of software for the first Macintosh computer, but they became enemies when they began producing similar software for their companies. 12)
In 1997, Apple was facing bankruptcy when Microsoft invested $150 million in the company, bailing out perhaps its biggest competitor. 13)
Microsoft's strategy for getting rich includes buying up patents at an almost frenzied pace. Microsoft now owns more than 100,000 of them, the vast majority of which it does not use, but buys them up only to stymie its competitors and collect fees. 14)
The famous Windows XP desktop photo is probably the most viewed photo in history, and it was taken in 1996. It was taken by photographer Charles O'Rear, and Microsoft bought the copyright from him. 15)
Microsoft currently has about 150,000 employees. 16)
At Microsoft, factors such as race, gender, or sexual orientation play no role, and the company itself actively promotes diversity around the world. 17)