At the time when the software industry went through a period of recession in the late nineties, a lot of people thought that it's the end of the road. It was common to see IT professionals being laid off from their comfortable jobs and IT students leaving their courses mid way. During that time, even established software development companies passed through a long phase of reduced turnover and falling profits. The worst sufferers were probably the IT education institutes as they were unable to get any takers for their courses.

However, the real winners were the guys who showed perseverance. A lot of my friends that I know worked at paltry amounts for many years until the IT industry was up and running again. And I really appreciate that spirit. Any intelligent person would have guessed that the software sun can never set for ever.

And there are many reasons for this; the main one being the sheer number of computers in use today. A computer has become such an affordable devise today that even the smallest possible start-up firm is able to afford a computer today. The development of computer technology has been most rapid in the last few decades. This development got triggered by the amazing level of miniaturisation that the electronic components have gone through. It is said that earlier computers were so huge that they occupied a whole building. Their power consumption was so high that the lights of the whole city used to go dim whenever a computer used to be powered on. And needless to say, probably a whole city used to have one computer in those times.

During those times, buying a computer was a big privilege and it was restricted to huge governmental organisations and of course, defence establishments. But all this changed with the advent of the "personal computer". The personal computers in use today are thousand times more powerful compared to the old bulky computers and yet so affordable. The power that it consumes is probably even less than an electric iron that we use at home.

During the late eighties, it was clear to the world that computer technology has now come of age and also the fact that this machine can greatly increase the productivity of individuals as well as organisations. This knowledge combined with the ever falling rates caused a massive proliferation of computers across the world.

Gradually a trend developed in which computers even became a household device. Nowadays in urban areas, it is uncommon to find a home that does not have a computer. And since no computer can run without software, you can well imagine the demand for software all across the world.

A testimony to the importance of software is the success of Bill Gates, who is one of the richest individuals on this planet. His company Microsoft developed an operating system known as Windows as we all know and today it's difficult to find a computer that does not run on Windows. Probably there are millions of computers across the world that are running on Windows and all those consumers have unknowingly made Bill Gates extremely rich and famous. And Microsoft is today the biggest software company ever known.