-
Windows 3 Released
Windows is the most used operating system today, but this was not always the case. Windows 3 paved the way by being the first critically acclaimed and commercially successful operating system produced by Microsoft. With roughly 10 million copies sold, the core advancements of color integration within the GUI and an advanced memory management protocol called Dynamic Data Exchange or DDE, allowing users to update information across applications in real time. -
Linux released
Linus Torvalds creates the first release of his custom operating system kernel originally called Freax. The impetus of this project was based on the freedom of selecting hardware components and the lack of availability of software compatibility at the time for custom machines. Linux is notable for its licensing under the general public license meaning it is open source and highly adaptive to users' needs. Because of these factors, Linux versions are widely employed commercially. -
QR Code System
Masahiro Hara in 1994, while working for Denso Wave, a contractor for Toyota, developed a system for expedited automobile parts recognition based on barcodes and was inspired by a game he played at lunch called, "go". QR stands for 'quick response' and allows for identifying information associated with something to be assigned a specific "matrix barcode", or two-dimensional barcode. QR codes allow us to simply scan an image and be given the requested information, saving time and resources. -
Wi-Fi is introduced
The adaptation of wireless technology we see today took off seriously in 1997 but was the product of years of work across the World. The protocol in question is IEEE 802 allowed for wireless communication between consumer devices and connects to the ethernet at a maximum speed of 2 megabits per second (Mb/s) over a 2.4GHz band. The implications of this advancement today are beyond obvious, for better or worse. "Wi-Fi" was first used as a term commercially in Fall of 1998. -
Mac OS X Public Beta
While not being as common as Windows today, many are familiar with Apple and use Mac OS on their computers. Some prefer the features, and security - or just the overall look of it compared to Windows & Linux. The Mac OS X Public Beta is important because it was able to shift the perception of failure Apple had at the turn of the century within this field and set the stage for what we see today and saved the company from bankruptcy while also introducing features like protected memory for OSes.