In 95 These People Defined Tech: Gates Bezos Mitnick And More

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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates introduces the Windows 95 operating system to the public on Aug. 24, 1995.

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[/collections/cnet-at-25/ This story is part of CNET at 25, celebrating a quarter century of industry tech and our role in telling you its story.]The year 1995 could really be counted as year zero of the digital world we live in today.
[/tags/amazon/ Amazon], Craigslist and eBay all launched. [/tags/microsoft/ Microsoft] took its first significant plunge into the stirring waters of the World Wide Web. The PlayStation made its North American debut. Toy Story, the [/news/pixar-graphics-gurus-win-turing-award-computings-top-prize/ first all-CGI movie], hit the big screen. Future YouTube star Logan Paul was born.

People were going online in ever greater numbers. According to a [ Times Mirror Center survey] in mid-1995, about 24 million Americans used a home computer on any given day, with about 12 million subscribing to an online service, up from 5 million six months earlier. There were massive jumps in the [ number of websites] -- from about 2,700 in 1994 to 23,500 in 1995, and from there past 257,000 a year later.



























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And there was no shortage of smart, ambitious people looking to ride that wave, and many more toiling away in the vast reaches of technology, science and culture.

Here's a look back at some of the big names of that year.
Bill Gates 
In 1995, one person more than any other embodied tech for the world at large: [/tags/bill-gates/ Bill Gates], CEO and co-founder of Microsoft. He was undeniably geeky. He was relentlessly competitive. His Windows operating system dominated PCs, and it had a big, big moment in August of that year with the splashy launch of [ Windows 95]. Looking to appeal to the growing number of home computer users, Microsoft unleashed a $300 million [ ] anchored by the Rolling Stones song [ Start Me Up].

Bill Gates in 1995.

Kim Kulish/Getty Images

Gates, then 39, also had his eye on cyberspace, with two notable products that debuted at the same time: the [/tags/internet-explorer/ Internet Explorer] browser and the web portal [ MSN].

Behind the scenes, Gates was grappling with a sea change that he referred to in an internal memo as the "[ internet tidal wave]." Dated May 26, the missive laid out Gates' plan for the continued world domination of Microsoft and Windows. "The Internet is the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981," Gates wrote. "I believe the Internet will become our most important promotional vehicle and paying people to include links to our home pages will be a worthwhile way to spend advertising dollars."

He rounded out the year with the November publication of the bestseller [ The Road Ahead], which expanded on the ideas in the memo and [ talked of a future] full of online services and "wallet PCs" that don't sound all that different from what we carry around with us today.

What he's doing now: [/news/bill-gates-steps-down-from-microsofts-board-of-directors/ No longer] at Microsoft, he heads up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, focusing on philanthropic endeavors like educating low-income students and combating malaria and other infectious diseases -- especially [ COVID-19] right now. Typically the richest person in the world or a close runner-up, he occasionally releases a list of [ favorite books].
Marc Andreessen  
Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen speaking at PC Expo in 1999, when he was CTO of America Online.

Brent Stirton/Liaison

Among the threats to Microsoft that Gates identified in his memo was Netscape, "a new competitor 'born' on the Internet," whose browser had a 70% usage share. Founded in 1994, [ Netscape held an IPO] in August 1995, and it was a doozy -- shares more than doubled in price on the first day of trading, valuing the company at nearly $3 billion, and they kept rising dramatically through the end of the year. Thus [ began the dot-com bubble], as investors fixated on tech startups as get-rich-quick opportunities. 

The public face of Netscape was 24-year-old co-founder [/tags/marc-andreessen/ Marc Andreessen], who in college had co-developed the breakthrough Mosaic browser, the starting point for Netscape's own Navigator. Such was Andreessen's fame that he would be featured (barefoot, clad in jeans and a polo shirt, sitting on a thronelike chair) on the [ cover of Time magazine] on Feb. 19, 1996, for its cover story, "[ The Golden Geeks]" -- "They invent. They start companies. And the stock market has made them INSTANTAIRES." 

But soon enough, soulofcricketer.bookmark.com Netscape got steamrollered by Microsoft, and in 1998, it was acquired by AOL on its road to irrelevance.

What he's doing now: Venture capital stuff through [ Andreessen Horowitz]. He sits on the boards of a number of companies, including [/tags/facebook/ Facebook].