5 significant inventions in computer history for the 1990s

By mdpeterson
  • Period: to

    90s

  • World Wide Web

    "Tim Berners-Lee invented the web with help from Robert Cailliau and others at the nuclear physics laboratory Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucleaire (CERN)....they were both communicating with the world’s first web server at info.cern.ch on December 25, 1990." (Source: https://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_lee.htm)

  • e-commerce

    "In 1979 English inventor and entrepreneur Michael Aldrich invented online shopping, or teleshopping, to enable online transaction processing between consumers and businesses, or from business to business. Aldrich's technique later became known as e-commerce; it did not become economically viable until the Internet." (Source: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=4528

  • PDAs

    "The term 'personal digital assistant' was coined on 7 January 1992 by John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, referring to the Apple Newton. The currently major PDA operating systems are: Palm OS - PalmSource, Inc.
    Windows Mobile (based on the Windows CE kernel) - Microsoft
    BlackBerry - Research In Motion
    Symbian OS (formerly EPOC) - Ericsson
    Newton (discontinued) - Apple"
    (Source: https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Personal_digital_assistant)

  • JAVA

    "The initial language, called 'Oak', was first demonstrated on September 2, 1992, in the form of a sophisticated handheld media controller ... which used a graphical user interface and easy-to-follow 'home' metaphor. Now renamed Java, it has become the most popular programming language used today." (Source: https://computerhistory.org/profile/james-gosling/)

  • Linux Operating System

    Linus Torvalds created the Linux kernel and oversaw open source development of the widely-used Linux operating system. The first Linux prototypes were publicly released in late 1991. Version 1.0 was released on 14 March 1994. (Source: https://computerhistory.org/profile/linus-torvalds/#:~:text=Linus%20Torvalds%20created%20the%20Linux,master's%20degree%20in%20computer%20science.)