We already brought you parts one through three of our list of 40 things you didn’t know about Microsoft, and now we’re back with our fourth and final installment! Check out 10 more fascinating facts about the software company below. You might be surprised by what you find out!
Number Ten: It Took Them 11 Years to Go Public. It’s true! As a company, Microsoft didn’t go public until 11 years after it had formed.
Number Nine: They Value Art. Microsoft executives strongly believe that art can reduce stress in the workplace, and because of this, there are more than 5,000 pieces of art throughout the 150 campuses the company has.
Number Eight: Gates Would Have Been Happy With a Salary of $15,000. Gates was a freshman at Harvard when he put on his resume a requested starting salary of just $15,000. The very next year, Gates dropped out of Harvard to begin Microsoft with Paul Allen.
Number Seven: Microsoft Office Was Designed for Macintosh. The first version of Microsoft Office wasn’t designed for Windows – it was originally designed and released in 1989 for the Macintosh.
Number Six: They Sued a High Schooler. Microsoft sued high school student Mike Rowe after he registered the domain “mikerowesoft.com.” They sued him on the grounds of copyright infringement, but rather than get into a long-standing legal battle, Rowe agreed to give them the domain for a free trip to Washington, Microsoft certification training, and a brand-new X-box.
Number Five: They Started Manufacturing Hardware in 1983. As a company, Microsoft began manufacturing hardware in 1983, and the very first piece of hardware they released was the MS Mouse 1.0.
Number Four: They Have Dash Trash. Temporary employees and contractors are given special email addresses that have a dash before the “@” sign. Full-time Microsoft employees joke that these employees are “Dash Trash.”
Number Three: MS-DOS Was Quirky and Dirty. Microsoft bought a program called Quirky and Dirty Operating System in 1981. They renamed the program MS-DOS, and it ended up becoming IBM’s preferred operating system for PCs.
Number Two: There’s a Story Behind BEAR35 and PIGLET12. You might know that Windows 95 has system function names such as BEAR35 and PIGLET12, but do you know why they have these names? Well, Windows 95 developers carried stuffed animals with them as a sort of mascot for the transition, and so the animals found their way into the system.
Number One: They Were Almost Overtaken by Rabbits. Someone once brought a few rabbits onto the corporate campus, and what ensued can only be described as pandemonium. The rabbits were somehow allowed to reproduce, and eventually, there was a giant group of rabbits running around the campus.