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Here’s a fun fact that may interest you. There was an attempt in the 1990s outside of Microsoft to make the Windows API an official standard to help other operating systems run Windows software, but Microsoft balked, asserting its IP over the Windows API:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_Programming_Inte...

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>Windows 3.1 API

I am always surprised to learn how big Microsoft was by the Windows 3.x era. Bill Gates was already the richest person in the world before the release of Windows 95.

Maybe it's because I am young and I assumed their total dominance emerged in the Windows 98 to XP era with only receiving some pushback with the emergence of Intel Macs in the late 2000s.

The Acquired Podcast has a great episode on the history of Microsoft. Well worth a listen for any one interested.

https://www.acquired.fm/

Can't say enough good things about this podcast!

Should be required listening in business schools and for anyone thinking of starting a company. Its amazing to hear about all these behomoth companies, how they were once startups themselves, how they often lost there way after success, how they changed and morphed through history!

Each time I listen to an episode about a company I think I won't be interested in I'm blown away.

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