When did Microsofts 'friendly war' with Apple begin?

Answer 1

The formal relationship between Apple and Microsoft dates back to 1977. Steve Wozniak had written a programming language for the Apple II called Apple BASIC which only used integer (whole) numbers. With the growing popularity for the Apple II there was a need to be able to programme using floating point (decimal) numbers. Apple licensed a floating point BASIC language from Micro-Soft (as they were originally known) which was slow and clunky so Apple tweaked the programming and it was released, combining both companies names, as AppleSoft BASIC.

After Apple released the Macintosh in 1984 they licensed some aspects of the design to Microsoft so they could use it in their Windows system first which appeared in 1986. In 1987 Microsoft released Windows 2 which Apple felt used more of the "look and feel" of the Macintosh than had originally been licensed and so they started legal action against Microsoft at the beginning of 1988. This case rumbled on until 1994. Meanwhile Apple had hired the San Francisco Canyon Company to work on the development of the QuickTime media player. The San Francisco Canyon Company was also working for Intel and Microsoft. In 1995 Apple sued The San Francisco Canyon Company for using Apple's programming code in the Windows video player. Apple later expanded the lawsuit to include Intel and Microsoft for knowingly using their code. The court banned the distribution of the Windows video player and Microsoft had to rework it removing the offending lines of code. In 1997 Apple and Microsoft agreed to drop all outstanding legal disagreements with Microsoft investing $150 million in Apple stock (subsequently sold for a profit) and continuing to develop Office for the Mac while Apple agreed to use internet Explorer as the default web browser on the Mac. They both agreed to enter into a cross-licensing agreement to prevent future "misunderstandings".

Answer 2

In the early 80s