1. The History of Computers
The 1980s

2. 1980
Tim Patterson writes 86-QDOS, an operating system for personal computers. Microsoft licenses this program from Patterson and to IBM. It becomes an industry standard under the name of DOS.

3. 1981
IBM introduces its personal computer, which quickly captures a large market.

4. 1983
Apple introduces its Lisa computer, the first with a graphical user interface. The Mosaic Web browser is produced by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

5. 1984
Apple introduces the Macintosh computer. Adobe Systems introduces PostScript, a language for describing materials to be printed. Postscript makes possible sophisticated desktop publishing.

6. 1986
IBM introduces its first laptop computer. NSFNet, which will provide the backbone for the emerging Internet, is created by the National Science Foundation.