Maples, who oversaw the development of the Windows 95 operating system at Microsoft, is now an adviser.

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Later he also said that developing software for the Apple Macintosh computer led Microsoft into graphics-intensive software, setting the stage for Microsoft applications and its breakthrough Windows 95 operating system.

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That court overturned a previous ruling by Jackson that barred Microsoft from requiring PC makers licensing Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system to also take the software vendor's Internet Explorer Web browser as part of the license.

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The court hearing stems from an anti-trust suit the US Government filed last October, accusing Microsoft of using its dominance with the Windows 95 operating system to gain an unfair market share for its Internet browser, Internet Explorer, over its competitor Netscape Communications Corp.

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Homes and offices were filling up with personal computers sold by the likes of Dell or Compaq, with CPUs from Intel, running on Windows 95 and later iterations of the dominant operating system from of Microsoft, and connected to the Internet with networking equipment from Cisco Systems.

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Back then, Microsoft was just about to release Windows 95, a much-anticipated and much-delayed new operating system, but the effort had distracted it from understanding the significance of Netscape's arrival with the first commercial web-browser.

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Microsoft's Windows 95 has dominated the U.S. desktop market because of its compatibility: users buy the operating system that has the most software available, and third-party developers produce software for the system that has the most users.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia