1969
  UNIX starts at Bell Labs in the USA.

1975
  UNIX Version 6 is the first to be widely available

1976
  The Apple I is shown at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California.

1979
  Apple II+ with improved OS is sold for $1,195.

1981
  IBM starts work on a PC using Microsoft's MS-DOS

1982
  The GNU Project, started by Richard Stallman, lays the foundation for open source software including Linux.

1983
  Microsoft Windows is announced in November and sells for $100.00.

1984
  There are now more than 100,000 unix computers around the world.

1986
  Arabic Macintosh operating system introduced.

1987
  The first multitasking operating system for Macintosh

1989
  UNIX is now on 1.2 million computers.

1990
  Microsoft Windows 3.0 released on May, 22 priced at $149.95

1991
  Linux version 0.01 is released in September

1992
  4 million customers use Apple's System 7 OS
  Microsoft Windows 3.1 is released in April and sells more than 1 Million copies within the first two months
  MS announces Windows NT, the basis of windows 2000 and win XP

1993
  The final release of Unix from Berkeley
  Slackware becomes the first commercial distribution of Linux in June.
  The number of licensed users of Microsoft Windows now totals more then 25 Million.

1994
  Macintosh System 7.5 operating system is launched.

1995
  Microsoft Windows 95 is released in August and sells more than 1 Million copies within 4 days.

1996
  The penguin Tux becomes the Linux mascot.

1997
  There are now many different versions of Unix and companies are fighting in court about who owns what
  The Linux trademark is given to Linus Torvalds on behalf of all Linux users.

1998
  Microsoft Windows 98 is released in June.
  The (Linux-based) Google search engine starts in May.

2000
  Microsoft Windows 2000 is released in February
  A report suggests that Linux is the 'second-most-popular operating system for server computers' with 25% of sales
  Microsoft Windows ME (Millennium) is released on June 19, 2000.

2001
  A new century begins with tablet computing, android operating systems for smartphones and 'wearable tech' such as Google Glass -the story continues ....