Microsoft Facts

In the 1980s, an IBM computer wasn't considered 100 percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft Flight Simulator.

HP, Google, Microsoft, and Apple have one thing in common — apart from the obvious that they are IT companies. They were all started in garages.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft was a college drop out.

Microsoft made $16,005 in revenue in its first year of operation.

In October 1997, when Internet Explorer 4.0 was released, Microsoft employees placed a giant 10-foot-tall IE logo on Netscape's lawn with a sign reading "From the IE team... We Love You."

Microsoft once sued a student named Mike Rowe for registering the domain 'MikeRoweSoft.com'.

Microsoft built a room so quiet it measures -20.35 dBA - well below the threshold of human hearing. The walls absorb everything. Your body fills the silence: heartbeat, breathing, stomach, the buzz of your own inner ears. Visitors lose their sense of balance. You become the sound.

Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and later said it was 90 days from going bankrupt. He struck a deal with Apple's biggest rival - Microsoft - to survive: they invested $150 million in non-voting preferred Apple stock. When Jobs announced it at Macworld Boston, Bill Gates appeared live via satellite on a giant screen above the stage. The crowd booed. Jobs later called it his worst staging mistake ever.