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In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds (phones) that belong to the same phoneme. A phoneme is an abstract unit of speech sound that can distinguish words: That is, changing a phoneme in a word can produce another word. Speakers of a particular language perceive a phoneme as a distinctive sound in that language. An allophone is not distinctive, but rather a variant of a phoneme; changing the allophone won't change the meaning of a word, but the result may sound non-native, or be unintelligible. (There is debate over how real, and how universal, phonemes really are. See phoneme for details.)

Every time a speech sound is produced, it will be slightly different from other utterances. Only some of the variation is significant (i.e., detectable or perceivable) to speakers. There may be complementary allophones which are distributed regularly within speech according to phonetic environment, as well as notable free variants, which are a matter of personal habit......

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions.

The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (1940–1945), although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers(PC).^[1] Modern computers are based on tiny integrated circuits and are millions to billions of times more capable while occupying a fraction of the space.^[2] Today, simple computers may be made small enough to fit into a wristwatch and be powered from a watch battery. Personal computers, in various forms, are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "a computer"; however, the most common form of computer in use today is the embedded computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are used to control other devices — for example, they may be......

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation, which rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems.

It develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.^[9][8] Microsoft's best-selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.

Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism for various reasons, including monopoly status and anti-competitive business practices including refusal to deal and tying. The U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission, among others, have ruled against Microsoft for various antitrust violations.