Technology
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Bill Gates Accomplishments
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Technology
August 16, 1995
Launched Internet Explorer and Ignited the Browser Wars
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 1.0 and bundled it with Windows 95, directly challenging Netscape Navigator's dominance of the early web. Gates had authored his famous 'Internet Tidal Wave' memo just months earlier, and IE's bundling strategy rapidly eroded Netscape's market share — rising from zero to over 90% by the early 2000s. The tactic was central to the landmark U.S. antitrust case United States v. Microsoft, in which the DOJ argued that bundling a free browser with the OS constituted illegal monopoly maintenance. The browser wars reshaped how software was distributed, priced, and bundled for a generation.
