On February 3, 1998, a small meeting in Palo Alto coined the term 'Open Source' — replacing ideologically charged 'free software' with a business-friendly brand that convinced corporations to embrace collaborative code, powering virtually all modern technology infrastructure.
On February 7, 1998, the V.90 modem standard arrived — the 56k protocol that ended the format war between competing standards, negotiating the best possible speed by 'handshaking' between your modem and the ISP, and defining the peak of dial-up internet before broadband took over.
On May 6, 1998, Steve Jobs presented the iMac — Apple's first major product since his return. An all-in-one machine in translucent plastic with no floppy drive and a single USB port, it looked unlike anything else on the market and became a symbol of Apple's revival.
