Computer history - 2004
Major computer events in 2004
Mark Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook on February 4, 2004, which became Facebook.
Google announced Gmail on April 1, 2004. Many people took it as an April Fools' Day joke.
Ubuntu was released on October 20, 2004.
Blizzard's World of Warcraft game, the most successful MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game), was released on November 23, 2004.
2004 computer and technology top terms
The following are some top computer and technology-related terms in alphabetical order that were introduced or popularized during 2004.
New computer products and services introduced in 2004
Intel released the ATX (advanced technology extended) 2.2 revision in February 2004.
Intel released the BTX (balanced technology extended) 1.0a revision in February 2004.
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero was released in March 2004.
VIA introduced the Mobile-ITX motherboard form factor in March 2004.
UC Browser was released in April 2004 as a Java application.
Intel released its first 64-bit processor, the Xeon Nocona.
AMD released Socket 939 architecture in June 2004.
Apple introduced macOS X 10.4 code-named Tiger and Spotlight at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) on June 28, 2004.
AMD released the first Sempron processor on July 28, 2004, with a 1.5 GHz to 2.0 GHz clock speed and 166 MHz bus speed.
Apple introduced AirPlay in 2004.
Confluence was introduced by Atlassian in 2004.
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 was released on October 12, 2004.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released on October 26, 2004, by Rockstar North.
Firefox 1.0 was introduced on November 9, 2004.
EverQuest II launched on November 9, 2004.
Half-Life 2 was released by Valve Corporation on November 16, 2004. Successor to the original Half-Life game, over 12 million copies were sold by February 2011. The game won 39 "Game of the Year" awards and was named "Game of the Decade" by several magazine publishers and at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards.
Greasemonkey began development on November 28, 2004.
Counter-Strike: Source was released in November 2004.
The PSP (PlayStation Portable) was released on December 12, 2004.
Cave Story was released for PC (personal computer) in 2004.
Microsoft released Excel 2004 and Word 2004 for Mac in 2004.
Fortran 2003 was published in 2004.
Sony released the UMD (Universal Media Disc) format for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) in 2004.
The final version of FoxPro (Visual FoxPro 9.0) was released by Microsoft in 2004.
AddThis was started in 2004 by Hooman Radfar, Austin Fath, and Dominique Vonarburg.
GarageBand was introduced with iLife by Apple in 2004.
IBM introduced the eServer i5 (later rebranded as the P5), the first systems to be powered by the much anticipated POWER5 microprocessors.
In 2004, GoPro sells its first camera that used 35mm film.
Hamachi was introduced in 2004 by Alex Pankratov.
Kodi was introduced in 2004.
Markdown was developed by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz, and released in 2004.
Nintendo DS was released in 2004.
Palm OS (operating system) Cobalt, was released in 2004.
Vudu was introduced in 2004. The service would later be purchased by Walmart.
The first version of the video editor DaVinci Resolve was released by da Vinci Systems.
TrueCrypt was released in 2004.
Dell released the XPS Gen 3 in 2004.
Computer and technology-related events in 2004
MySpace's official site was launched in January 2004.
Google jumped into Social Networking with the release of Orkut in January 2004.
The IBM Eclipse project became a not-for-profit foundation in January 2004.
MyDoom worm was released on February 1, 2004, and spread to thousands of computers through e-mail and peer-to-peer networks. MyDoom started many Denial of Service (DoS) attacks against the SCO site, but it shut itself down 11 days later.
The Netsky computer worm appeared on February 18, 2004.
In February 2004, Google was indexing six billion items, including 4.28 billion web pages and 880 million images.
GameSpy and IGN merged on March 4, 2004.
WPA2 began being used in 2004.
The last official release of NEdit was in 2004.
The hacktivist group Anonymous was created on 4chan in 2004.
Roblox began being created in 2004.
Comcast purchased TechTV on March 25, 2004, to form G4TechTV.
Intel introduced XScale in 2004.
Sasser worm was created by Sven Jaschan and released in April 2004. Sasser infected computers by exploiting a vulnerability in a Microsoft Windows called as LSASS. Sasser altered parts of the operating system, making it difficult for users to shut down their computers. The damage that Sasser caused wreaked havoc in the commercial market, causing Delta Air Lines to cancel several flights and various financial companies to close offices.
In 2004, TARGA changed its name to TARGA GmbH and expanded its products and services to include consumer electronics and online photo services.
The Cabir, aka SymbOS/Cabir virus and the first known cell phone virus discovered on June 14, 2004, and could spread to other Symbian phones over Bluetooth.
Google opened its Googleplex headquarters in June 2004.
The first five were reported killed in South Waziristan by UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) on June 18, 2004.
COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) was enacted on July 1, 2004.
Google's IPO (initial public offering) of 19,605,052 shares became available at $85 a share on August 18, 2004.
Google has more than 100 domains.
The term grayware was coined in September 2004.
Internet site Yelp was launched on October 13, 2004.
Ubuntu was released on October 20, 2004.
Soyo announced it no longer manufactures motherboards and changed its name to Hao Teng Technology in November 2004.
80 Plus certification for power supply units in computers was launched by Ecos Consulting in 2004.
Google now indexes 8 billion web pages.
Grouper was released in 2004. The service is now known as Sony Crackle.
Google developed and introduced Bigtable internally in 2004.
Intel's audio codec AC'97 was replaced by Intel HD Audio in 2004.
Flickr was introduced in 2004.
Nginx was released to the public in 2004 by Igor Sysoev.
NTT DOCOMO first proposed the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology in 2004.
QNX was sold to Harman in 2004.
The first functional version of ReactOS was released, featuring compatibility with programs compiled for Windows Server 2003.
Computer companies and organizations founded in 2004
Tilera was founded in October 2004.
Business Machines was founded in 2004.
Doceo was founded in 2004.
EaseUS was founded in 2004.
FireEye was founded in 2004.
GrubHub was founded in 2004.
Mindtouch was founded in 2004.
Moz was founded in 2004.
The NFC (near-field communication) Forum was founded in 2004.
NZXT was founded in 2004.
Oppo was founded in 2004 by Tony Chen.
Promisec was founded in 2004.
Rosewill was founded in 2004 by Newegg.
Vigor gaming was founded in 2004.
Vimeo was founded in November 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein.
GiQuila (now Vivante) was founded in 2004.
WidowPC was founded in 2004.
Woot was founded in 2004.
The non-profit organization X.Org Foundation (X.Org for short) was founded in January 2004.
YoYo games was founded in 2004.
ZoneAlarm was founded in 2004.
Computer company events in 2004
On January 30, 2004, Gateway Inc. announced plans to acquire eMachines Inc. for about $200 million.
ABS announced on April 30, 2004 that it would partner with Nutrend.
The PC maker Gateway closed all its retail stores on April 2, 2004.
Lindows changed its name to Linspire on April 14, 2004.
On June 8, 2004, the same day Interplay reopened, Titus the primary share holder of Interplay declared bankruptcy.
Bethesda obtains rights to the Fallout game series and announced on July 12, 2004 they were working on Fallout 3.
Kelkea purchased the assets of MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention Systems).
Freescale was spun-off from Motorola.
Google acquired Picasa on July 13, 2004.
Computer Associates acquired the antispyware software company PestPatrol on August 16, 2004.
Acclaim filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on September 2, 2004.
Google acquired Keyhole in October 2004, which became Google Earth.
Roxio acquired MGI Software in a deal valued at $32.8 million on December 4, 2004.
IBM sold its computing division to Lenovo Group for $1.75 billion on December 08, 2004.
Microsoft purchased the software developer GIANT Company Software, Inc. on December 16, 2004. The companies software would later become Windows Defender.
Sonic Solutions acquired the software division of Roxio on December 20, 2004. This deal includes Easy Media Creator, PhotoSuite, VideoWave, Easy DVD (digital versatile disc) Copy, Toast, and others.
Chinon became a fully owned subsidiary of Kodak Japan in 2004.
GECAD Software changed its business structure and focus in 2004, including a name change to GECAD Group.
Discontinued products and services in 2004
The last version of Red Hat Linux, version 9.0, reached its end of life on April 30, 2004.
Adobe PageMaker was discontinued in 2004.
AMD discontinued the Duron in 2004 and introduced a new processor as a replacement, called the Sempron.
The Wi-Fi security algorithm WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) was discontinued in 2004.
Computer pioneer deaths in 2004
Herman Goldstine passed away on June 16, 2004 (Age: 91).
Bob Bemer passed away on June 22, 2004 (Age: 84).
Paul Cress passed away on August 20, 2004 (Age: 65).
Bob Evans passed away on September 2, 2004 (Age: 77).
Alain Glavieux passed away on September 24, 2004 (Age: 55).
Kenneth Iverson passed away on October 19, 2004 (Age: 83).
David Wheeler passed away on December 13, 2004 (Age: 77).