From Professional to Home and Back Again: The Microsoft Ecosystem

No worries: I am alive and well (better on the latter, actually...now that I am exercising again after all the wild weather around here). What a BUSY spring it has been, and not even over yet! Family life with kids the age of mine can be loaded but it IS a joy, and this blog being a personal side project anyway I would not be too concerned about the frequency of updates since I know there are few views.

They also did games...eventually, lots of games.

Today I will strive for another one of my comprehensive while concise-on-each-entry coverage topics on a company whose ruthlessness is no secret. I know it is more of an EGO-system since Microsoft seemed to constantly be on the lookout for new ways to conquer the world. Yet, even if their takeovers were not always on the level, the dominances they achieved were not a given (in some cases a competitor yielded the market fair-and-square), and one has to give Bill Gates and his partners credit for understanding the importance of diversifying a company portfolio [which did have its share of failures, like BOB].

For us traditional PC gamers (which, for a time in the 1990s, was the only kind that really counted when it came to computers) Microsoft defines our greater computing perspective, for better or worse. It is part of our nostalgic history (whether that affection extends to the modern day is a different matter; I believe I have been that clear I am no fan of today's Microsoft, to the point that my next anticipated daily driver will be a Steam Deck), as I have touched upon before with operating systems a while back. After all the classic 8-bit & 16-bit choices from the 1980s had their day but before the Macintosh line reformed in the 2000s happened to be concurrent with the same point in technological history that home computing for all the pertinent tasks we know it for today really took off.

DOS

Everyone who cares already knows the history of how DOS came to be, improved in its various iterations over the years, and even inspired competition compatible with its applications, so that level of detail will be saved today. Its lack of accessibility belies the fact that it originated back in the day computers were still niche devices for trained operators, most of whom were more technically-minded than today hence the capacity to exploit the deeper workings of their systems as the situation warrants (why they included BASIC: it was a standard for computers in the early 80s). Extended DOS, giving new life to the OS which led to it lasting until the late 90s, may have been a boon for gaming but was a happy accident stemming from the disparate efforts to overcome the 640 kilobyte base memory limitation inherent to DOS.

Programming Languages

When DOS first released Microsoft had already been the primary driver of BASIC in computers for years. In addition they had been marketing more advanced development programs on certain systems, not all of which were even produced by Microsoft. For the IBM PC and compatibles in particular there were the following available, most of which continue to be accessible today in the latest editions of Visual Studio.

MASM: assembly is typically the most advanced (but most effective) means of programming a system; as the Intel/AMD series of processors have amazing backwards compatibility, upgrades over the years were essentially for coverage of new processors and extending compatibility first with OS/2 then Windows

Pascal: early but short-lived, it probably made a fine alternative to BASIC back in the day but would not see an upgrade past the 80s (and its final edition was the sole entry of the more limited QuickPascal)

BASIC: all releases of the IBM PC line & MS-DOS in the 80s included a BASIC interpreter; upgrading to a compiler was a popular choice for those needing more than entry-level programming capability, and this may have been the first Microsoft product to offer a limited cost-effective alternative (QuickBASIC) to the full-featured corporate-geared original (which eventually became BASIC Professional Development System before its functions merged into VisualBASIC)

FORTRAN: like BASIC, this was originally available for other computers before its adaptation for the PC line; come the 1990s its new PowerStation iteration eventually was offered in Standard and Professional editions

COBOL: adapted from Micro Focus (who still exists and continues to market their COBOL product as an add-on to Visual Studio), it was able to survive to near the end of the DOS era but never transitioned to Windows

C/C++: exclusive to PC (at least so far as Microsoft was/is concerned) and released after the IBM 5150 and clones had been on market for a few years, it has such a dizzying variety of editions (including entry-level QuickC which had separate releases for DOS & Windows) with various OS compatibility issues that it necessitates consulting with an outside source to sort through them...it gets simpler come Visual C++ which is Windows-only

Flight Simulator

The original was made for first-generation 8-bit computers (Apple II with a weaker port to TRS-80) and quite the honest effort to capture the sensation with the limited technology of the time. Microsoft came into the picture with DOS and the IBM PC, in time gaining a greater association with the franchise than the original company that made it (which, eventually, Microsoft bought anyway). Up through version 4.0 are more-or-less ports (albeit geared to take good advantage of the unique capabilities of the PC), then with 5.x (the last for DOS) Microsoft took it in its own direction.

MultiPlan

Microsoft's first spreadsheet product is known well enough, but it is also among their early productivity applications for PC that originated on other platforms. Later PC versions got augmented by Microsoft Chart which was a visual diagram supplement before being completely merged in version 4.0. The OS/2 release is also interesting: a Family API program (runs natively in DOS but enhanced in OS/2), thus able to run in OS/2 1.0 unlike Excel.

Mouse

While openly-questioned for some time, Microsoft acknowledged early how useful a mouse could be on the PC and pioneered their own protocol to that end (including a proprietary bus card in early releases). The drivers are the own thing, but the driver disks included demonstration programs (a Microsoft staple) such as a graphics drawing one soon enough deemed so limited that it got replaced in version 4.0 with ZSoft's Paintbrush...yes, the same bitmap editor adapted for inclusion with 16-bit Windows. Microsoft's drive to support mice in DOS PCs may or may not have had anything to do with their development of Windows, but the timing coincides perfectly.

Word

Outside of operating and development systems, Microsoft Word may be the most impactful productivity application ever to come from the company. The DOS line corresponded with that for Macintosh, while the first Windows version was for 2.x and a sibling to the OS/2 release. Despite being augmented with available add-ons for spell checking and print preview, the DOS releases kept the non-intuitive interface for too long causing WordPerfect to prevail on top of the DOS word processing market...only for that to flip as Word for Windows was able to rocket due to a WordPerfect Windows port arriving too late.

Project

Still alive today as the standard team & task management system for Microsoft Office (yet never bundled with any release thereof), its early days are somewhat more interesting. Originating on DOS in the mid-1980s, it took a pause after that final version (plus one for Macintosh) before starting anew for Windows in 1990. The first release was made for Windows 3.0 (but compatible with 2.x), and it split into its local-scale Standard and network-enabled Professional editions starting with the 2002 (Office XP) release.

Windows

Wrought in its early days with memory drags, legal issues surrounding the interface, and limited market acceptance until 3.0 put Microsoft on the world map for good, the history of Microsoft Windows is worth its own book (and I believe several books' worth have been written). The first releases from 1985 to 1987 are little more than graphical task managers, which proved more liability than asset without the capacity for expanded memory, offering so little without VGA graphics and significant application support, and a real drag to use except with a compatible mouse. With 2.x Microsoft themselves signaled belief in the possibilities by producing Word, Excel & Project for Windows, developing different editions to take full advantage of the unique capabilities of more advanced processors (in fact, better than OS/2 was doing at the time), and the rest became history.

OS/2

This was supposed to supersede both DOS and Windows while retaining compatibility with applications for both; the reality, as history knows, proved very different. IBM would ultimately take charge and helm this operating system which is still fondly remembered by a few (and exhibited superior compatibility for 16-bit Windows applications better than 32-bit Windows itself), reaping the greater benefits of its tinier market share. On the end user side it proved a disappointment, its development systems never getting the nice graphical interfaces of IBM's while its Word & Excel editions are mere ports from Windows; on the systems administration side, OS/2 was a vital stepping stone as the first host of Microsoft SQL Server and field testbed of the network and management protocols which would culminate in Windows NT.

Excel

Originally the successor to MultiPlan on Macintosh, its breakthrough performance began when 2.0 was ported to Windows. While Lotus 1-2-3 dominated spreadsheets in DOS, in a parallel to WordPerfect vs. Word its slow-walking of a Windows adaptation left that market wide open for Microsoft. Also like Word for Windows, its initial versions were for Windows 2.x but are backwards compatible either with updates made to bring it in line for Windows 3.0 or, alternatively, Windows 3.0 can accommodate older Windows applications fairly well when run in real mode (the drawback, of course, being the tight memory limits of that mode).

Works

Before the comprehensive office application suite (which there was never really one for DOS, let alone from Microsoft), various companies like Borland or PC-compatible OEMs offered more basic integrated productivity suites that were a level above desk accessories (like Windows Write) while lacking features relative to full-fledged professional word processing, spreadsheet and/or database applications. Works was Microsoft's offering, which started on DOS before making the jump to Windows where it survived all the way to the early Vista days. It is remarkable on two opposite fronts: 1) that it continued as long as it did, in its closing days little more than a means of getting a discount to upgrade to Microsoft Office; 2) in its early days this was probably the best option for end-users since it was more cost-effective, usually the more advanced features were not missed for home tasks, and its database was for a while the only consumer-level one of its kind from Microsoft.

Bookshelf

Microsoft's first product made specifically for CD-ROM initially released for DOS way back in 1987, using the pre-ISO format that dogs emulators. The progenitor of Microsoft's CD-ROM reference productions, its hypertext protocol was remarkable for such an early time and became a staple of their other digitized information repositories like Microsoft Programmer's Library. Some editions were part of OEM bundles, took early advantage of Multimedia Windows, and were often associated with both the Office & Encarta families until its final 2000 version.

SQL Server

Microsoft's derivative of the Sybase development, its earliest versions were tied to server-oriented OS/2 packages before becoming permanently associated with the server editions of Windows NT.

PowerPoint

Over the years Microsoft would grow its empire through acquisition by hook or by crook. PowerPoint by Forethought was an early example, the first version of which Microsoft was not even involved with. One thing led to another, the color 2.0 version was made for Windows 3.0 (but would demand Windows 3.1 before reaching version 3.0), and it was among the core staples from the first release of Microsoft Office.

Entertainment Pack

These were not games in the commercial sense: many entries were developed by individuals or teams of two and they were often compensated with stock shares or a lump cash sum instead of royalties. These were, as if it was not obvious enough just looking at them, showcases for the capacity of Windows 3.0 to be more than just a productivity environment. Considering the veritable horde of shareware efforts that followed (many of which make Microsoft's own offerings look humble) culminating in the path that led to WinG until DirectX made Windows the PC gaming platform of choice (not to mention the basis for the whole Xbox line), to say it succeeded would be one of those understatements of the century.

Office

The first edition, once again, was for Macintosh (and on that platform it was also on CD-ROM). At first it was basically a shovelware compilation (technically they are still independently-run applications), but the integration of installation routines and cross-collaboration began to really exhibit its potential by version 3.0 (it helped that Windows had embraced object linking & embedding, or OLE, of which Office took full advantage).

Productivity Pack

Not quite what it sounds like, the fact that there was more than just a cottage industry to enhance the usability of Windows showed it was only so intuitive hence why Microsoft developed these interactive tutorial programs included with certain OEM release of Windows 3.x.

Money

Developed to compete on Windows where Intuit's products prevailed in DOS (and are still alive because they ultimately adapted better), the growing wealth (no pun intended) of options and features over its annual releases until it [literally] Sunset in 2010 kept it successful up to the point that more sophisticated online banking through the financial institutions themselves rendered it redundant.

Publisher

Originally released for Windows 3.0 as part of the short-lived Microsoft Solutions Series (which included Works & Money), it is probably best remembered for its association with Microsoft Office even though it was not tied to that family until the 97 release. Another of its lesser-known associations was the late-90s vintage Microsoft Graphics Studio family which would explain why certain independently-packaged (not included with Office) releases bundled a feature-limited edition of Picture It! (those that boast of photo-editing capacity). Reportedly its feature set has not been significantly upgraded since 2010 (which was probably more adding the Ribbon interface than anything else), ultimately leading to its discontinuation as there is little capability left in Publisher not already in Word.

Mail

Before connections to the internet became commonplace, electronic mail was within managed networks at the company level which necessitated the proper software for servers and clients. While simplification of interfaces has opaqued the process, the idea is essentially the same for today's iterations of Microsoft Exchange Server via any compatible client program (generally Microsoft Outlook for Windows users). A few variances are notable in the early days as servers were initially DOS-based, moved to OS/2 in certain forms, and lived on Windows NT leading up to the transition from Mail to Exchange. A special network-enabled variant of Windows, Windows for Workgroups 3.x, took the concept to new ground by enabling mail exchange via peer-to-peer so that a dedicated server was unnecessary (great for smaller operations) while the Exchange client (an unintended misnomer following the release of Exchange Server since the two programs were incompatible) included with Windows 95 carried similar capabilities which would be succeeded by Outlook Express (ANOTHER misnomer since it is NOT a limited Microsoft Outlook).

FoxPro

Another significant product that did not start in the Microsoft camp, when it came on board it filled a key gap in the product line: relational database as pioneered on computers by Ashton-Tate's dBase series. Like SQL it also functioned as its own programming language for advanced capabilities, but it was more accessible to end-users out of the box and could operate independently unlike SQL which was made for server-client network architecture. It filled a niche for a good long time, a great way for small-to-medium businesses to customize such functions as menu systems for their customer information, but something different would soon take over at the workstation level for Windows users.

Home

After Windows 3.1 released with multimedia PC support out-of-the-box Microsoft made a new endeavor to showcase their operating system's capabilities in audiovisual learning as well as fun and productivity, the brand encompassing virtually all consumer-level Microsoft products from 1993 through 1995 neither Windows nor Office, preexisting (Encarta, Money, Works) or original (most of the multimedia reference & children's products). There was even a color-coding system in the rooftop-shaped front art design (black for games, for instance) and the consumer orientation was not limited to software. Microsoft Home is a fascinating microcosm of portfolio expansion to the individual and family levels at a time in history home computers really began to proliferate, and other than console gaming (with Xbox) has never really been repeated by them since.

Profit

What Money is to Quicken this was supposed to be to QuickBooks, yet this take not even developed by Microsoft themselves (the copyright clearly credits Great Plains Software) only survived a single iteration.

Golf

The other "class" game Microsoft enhanced from another company's original (the first being Microsoft Flight Simulator), this started simply as the Windows 3.1 port of Links by Access Software which could be the most sophisticated golf simulation of its time [if light on stock content, as covered in a prior post]. A multimedia CD version added unique video features under the Microsoft Home branding, and the same was on the CD release of Golf 2.0 (designed for Windows 95 but backwards compatible) as well as the Pinehurst Championship Course, all with similar flyby functions but different video clips to contemporary Links 386 CD. In the late 90s Microsoft acquired Access and would publish both "consumer" Microsoft Golf alongside "professional" entries in the Links series until retiring both in the 2000s.

Arcade

For the longest time on the gaming front Microsoft was content to straddle the line between casual and sophisticated: Bill Gates enjoyed games but they were more marketing showcases than actual potential to him (even Doom95 was promoted for DirectX & Windows 95 more than anything else). Yet there was never discouragement to experiment at Microsoft, and the success of a series of compilations of ported (not emulated) classic Atari & Namco titles give insight to that mindset. The final entry, Pinball Arcade, took classic to another level by simulating historical tables through the ages.

BackOffice

Once the initial humps were overcome and Windows NT found a welcome home in business networks, in its characteristic show of generosity (in actuality just another ploy to undercut competition) Microsoft compiled its server tools under a new accessible branding. Initially geared towards corporate customers (SNA Server is wasted space without an IBM mainframe to connect to), discounted Small Business Server editions followed which are worth a note since they preceded the Small Business editions of Windows Server that came in the 21st century. The full versions, which only lasted until 2000, show what Microsoft considered would help drive business in the early internet age.

Internet Explorer

Perhaps the most infamous web browser in the world despite having been discontinued for years, there is insufficient space here to do its history justice.

Streets & Trips

Originally separate products Automap (for North America) or AutoRoute (for Europe) Streets Plus & Trip Planner, in the late 90s they carried the Expedia branding which would be successful enough in enabling people to be their own travel agents that it continues as its own independent company today. After the merger comes another interesting note: while Streets & Trips carried on as its own thing, a new variant geared towards business travel (initially associated with Microsoft Office) called MapPoint would be the "professional edition" and not release as frequently as "standard" Streets & Trips. Otherwise both are essentially two sides of the same coin, and both wore out their welcome in the 2010s as smart GPS apps became the primary means of consumers and professionals alike for navigation.

Terminal Reality

With the arrival of WinG and Windows 95 on the horizon came Microsoft's first real push towards serious gaming. Their first attempt was not a bad one considering: an arcade-style aerial vehicle first-person shooter that was more-or-less a Windows-native take on Terminal Velocity that premiered the 3D Realms brand of shareware giant Apogee Software that same year. Fury3 was a successful showcase that would garner a direct sequel in the form of Hellbender, then Terminal Reality would launch the first 2 Monster Truck Madness games along with CART Precision Racing for Microsoft before going back on their own to compete against Microsoft Flight Simulator with their Fly! series.

FrontPage

The web page creator originally by Vermeer but picked up by Microsoft early initially associated with the BackOffice line before becoming part of Microsoft Office instead (though some releases of BackOffice included FrontPage). Its inclusion with Office was not that consistent, and demand may not have been that high because it was not most people's top choice for the task. It last released as FrontPage in 2003, after which its general capabilities were succeeded by the Web component of the Microsoft Expression series before online-based tools (such as Wix) superseded the need for such software.

Picture It!

Microsoft Photoshop essentially, and it came right as digital photography revolutionized they way most people take pictures. There are so many editions over so many versions it is difficult to track what covers what functions, but there was no denying that the picture editors included with Windows or Office were ill-suited to the unique needs of photo editing. The Picture It! branding was used to succeed Microsoft Home Publishing in the early 2000s to that line's end, then transitioned into Microsoft Digital Image until no longer finding a place to compete against Photoshop or editing applets on camera-equipped smart devices.

Greetings

The non-exclusive collaboration of Microsoft with Hallmark was the independent Great Greetings for its first couple versions before becoming a subset of Microsoft Home Publishing under the new Microsoft Graphics Studio family (which also encompassed Picture It! & Publisher). That was the key distinction of use: Greetings/Home Publishing was for family & community, while Word & Publisher were for business publication needs. Both Greetings & Home Publishing only got 99 & 2000 iterations, then its functions carried over into Picture It! Publishing for a couple more years before it was discerned that the internet preempted the need for those multiple CDs of clipart and templates.

Rainbow Studios

Diversifying the Microsoft game portfolio in the DirectX era sometimes involved helping developers find their footing. Rainbow Studios would become known for their racing games over the years (such as Star Wars: Racer Revenge for LucasArts), but their first offering for Microsoft was the video-based rail shooter Deadly Tide. They would give Microsoft the Motocross Madness duology before moving on to bigger & better things.

Atomic Games

This Texan developer was always about wargames (though diversifying a bit in the 21st century): making the V for Victory series published by Three-Sixty Pacific, keeping to the specific historical theme with the World at War trilogy for the computer games division of Avalon Hill, then being tasked by Microsoft to raise the level of sophistication for Close Combat. It went on to spawn a franchise, only the first three of which Microsoft published, then a couple entries via Strategic Simulations before falling under tutelage of Matrix Games where it resides today. They no longer exist today but, between Close Combat and an association with the USMC that shifted their focus to modern battlefields, their legacy still stands.

Team Manager

Associated with Office 97 (yet only available separately), this was Microsoft's sole delving into managing time and tasks for small teams in the corporate realm. There was apparently a time such software was in demand: not quite project management (though it could link with Project 4.1) nor quite task scheduling (though it could link with Outlook 97), but something to link it all together in a more basic level form for mid-level managers. As it had just a single release and apparently only on floppy disk (unusual for 1996) it was not well-disseminated [even through abandonware channels] for some time.

Ensemble Studios

Microsoft scored itself a gaming coup with Atomic's Close Combat, but that would be miniscule relative to the best-selling performance of Age of Empires: like the concept of Sid Meier's Civilization (so lots of historical education value) focused specifically on the warfighting aspect then executed in real time. The game's engine would even be adopted to help LucasArts out of their strategy gaming rut for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, the first of Ensemble's two non-Age special projects (the other being their swan song, Halo Wars). Like MicroProse following Civilization, Microsoft would spin off the historical context into many different directions, and in more recent times the original games of the Age of Empires series have been given the HD-remake treatment which is how they remain most available today.

This is not even a comprehensive list, but it gets across the scope of Microsoft experimentation in their first quarter-century...and that is all before Xbox came along, throwing off all bets as not only was being a game console maker a new realm for them, but Microsoft had no qualms about exploring multimedia capabilities of such systems for the home (as certain accessories and accompanying software for original Xbox show). Seriously: if only it could print, with all tasks doable via web browser these days an Xbox console could possibly replace the home computer (not that Microsoft would ever enable undercutting Windows & Office sales like that). But that gets way ahead of ourselves, and sometimes it helps to recall that Microsoft was once in a much more humble place even if they failed to realize it at the time.