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The technology stories of the 1980s have a lot to do with the dawn of the PC era. IBM was about to license its personal computer technology to the open market (leading to the rising popularity of Microsoft) and Apple's computers were a hit-or-miss proposition with consumers as el-cheapo PCs made their entrance and became the dominant force in many homes and offices. Remember 1,200-bps modems and bulletin boards, folks?

Microsoft's arguably illegal tactics made it flourish in the 1990s under CEO and company cofounder William H. Gates, and the debate continues to this day whether the Windows 3.0 and Windows 95 operating systems were in part copies of Apple's MacIntosh operating system. Suggested viewing: Pirates of Silicon Valley.

Apple seemed dead in the water in the mid '90s, and Microsoft was growing by leaps and bounds. Bill Gates became the richest person in the world on paper (which would last more than a decade), and Steve Jobs came back in 1997 to try and resurrect a floundering Apple that had not done much in terms of innovation or growth under then-CEO Gil Amelio. Gates seemed on top of the world; Jobs, not so much.