20th Anniversary of Windows 546
UltimaGuy writes "When Windows first shipped, 20 years ago this month, it was considered nothing more than a slow operating environment that had arrived late to the party, well behind the industry leaders, Apple and Xerox PARC. Now, it's the operating system used on nearly 95 percent of all the desktops and notebooks sold worldwide. Take a look at Window's past and present, and what lies ahead in the future, including an interview with Mr. Bill Gates himself."
Re:There biggest coup (Score:5, Informative)
I bet the discussion did not go like "if you port lotus 1-2-3 to our new graphical interface and help make it popular, in a few years time we will use our position to write a competing app and wipe you off the mat."
I bet the head of lotus wished he had negotiated a non-compete clause.
You are wrong there. Lotus was very slow in getting 1-2-3 to Windows. They concentrated on
OS/2. This gave Microsoft the chance to gain a lead in the Windows spreadsheet market
with Excel.
Where is windows going (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Linux is still too hard for the average user (Score:1, Informative)
Everything to configure X is in xorg.conf. If X won't run, 90% of the time all you have to do is fix xorg.conf. X'll probably tell you exactly what's wrong, too. Everything in most linux distros is like this. I believe this practice coincides with the Unix Philosophy.
If Windows won't load, 90% of the time your safest choice is a clean install. It won't tell you what the problem is. Usually it won't even tell you there's a problem. It'll just die. Theres usually no way to fix it from a command prompt, and "Safe Mode" is a joke. I believe this practice coincides with the totalitarianism. (There's no problem. Use your computer as usual. Anyone who says their computer is not booting is a political dissident, and an enemy of the people!)
People who don't want to know what's going on can use Windows. People who don't want to know what's going on shouldn't actively participate in a democratic government, though. To paraphrase a political party I have the little sympathy for: "The personal [computer] is the political."
(I do of course realize that you can be very much interested in one field of interest (say, politics), while simply regarding another field from a more utilitarian perspective (say, computers). I would prefer if people took less for granted, though.)
Okay, I come off as a total loon here, so AC I go =]
Wikipedia does it better (Score:5, Informative)
...And also KDE's (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Relieved (Score:2, Informative)
And don't forget to ask if they have a "restocking" fee.
FRENCHMAN To the RESCUE!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Quaint, isn't it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Alphon
I live on a street that bears his name, so I'm favored by the stars and granted authority to tell you to stfuplzokthx.
A présent, éloignez-vous avant que je ne me moque de vous une seconde fois!
History lessons (Score:2, Informative)
It wasnt an operating system (Score:2, Informative)
Re:There biggest coup (Score:5, Informative)
20 years... (Score:3, Informative)
Quarterdeck's Desqview [wikipedia.org] was vastly superior at that time. There's even a wikipedia entry for it! I rest my case.
Desqview got a look in only because of Quarterdeck's QEMM. Does anyone even remember that ? The good old days of really needing an expanded memory manager - never to be confused with an extended memory manager ? And that some of the key programs during that period worked with expanded memory and some worked with extended memory? And how the way you loaded your drivers and then your programs *mattered*?
Goddam you young 'uns have it easy.
Screenshots of Early Windows (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why don't they ask... (Score:2, Informative)
Word for Macintosh was ported to Windows (WfW), not the DOS version.
Redmond security-VISTA (Score:1, Informative)
""Veritable Incentive to Switch To Another operating system".-- Brian O' Connell."