1, 2000, as fears of the "Millennium Bug" come to a head. As airlines, government agencies, financial institutions, utilities, and PC owners scramble to make their systems "Y2K-compliant," some people panic, afraid that basic services will cease operation when the year changes from 1999 to 2000. 2000Shortly after the New Year, computer experts and government officials around the world announce that no major damage resulted from the "millennium date change," when computer clocks rolled over from 1999 to 2000. Immediately, a global debate begins to rage: had the entire "Y2K bug" been a hoax created by the computer industry, as a way to reap huge profits from people's fears? Industry leaders defend their approach to the Y2K issue, stating that years of planning and preventive measures had helped the world avoid a global computer-driven catastrophe that could have brought the planet's economy to a stand-still.Microsoft introduces Windows 2000 on Feb. 17. It is the biggest commercial software project ever attempted and one of the largest engineering projects of the century, involving 5345 full-time participants, over half of them engineers. The final product includes almost 30 million lines of code.On March 6, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announces the shipment of a 1GHz version of the Athlon processor, which will be used in PCs manufactured by Compaq and Gateway. It is the first 1GHz processor to be commercially available to the consumer PC market. Within days, Intel Corp. announces the release of a 1GHz version of the Pentium III processor.In April, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson rules that Microsoft is guilty of taking advantage of its monopoly in operating systems to hurt competitors and leverage better deals with its business partners. Soon after the finding, the Department of Justice recommends that the judge break Microsoft into two separate companies: one focused solely on operating systems, the other focused solely on ...
