Microsoft

The world's largest software company and most famous for it's Windows OS. It is hard to use a computer these days without using Microsoft software and this has generated several lawsuits aimed at Microsoft claiming they are trying to create a monopoly. Regardless of what you think of Microsoft they have helped revolutionise the computer industry and the world of software would be notably quieter without them.

Initially founded in 1975 the company dominated the home computer market in the mid 1980s with the MS-DOS (Microsoft Disc Operating System). Microsoft Windows initially started life as an add-on to MS-DOS but has since grown to become the most popular Operating System in the world.

With the newest version of Windows arriving in early 2007 (6 years since Windows XP was released) and expectation will be high.