Microsoft Windows is 30 years old

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

Yesterday, Microsoft Windows turned 30 years old. Microsoft Windows was announced on 1983. 2 years after the announcement, on November 10th 1985, Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0. A lot of the things that were introduced in Windows 1.0 are still in Windows today like Notepad, Calculator, Clock, Paint, etc! Windows 1.0 wasn't a hit but it was the start of moving away from a text based OS.

Source

http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsofts-windows-operating-system-celebrates-its-30th-birthday

[chrisj1968]

it surely was ahead of its time.but getting hardware to work or new hardware to work required knowledge of your PC's ports. 3.1 gave me hell

[John Callaham Veteran]

Actually,Windows 1.0 was announced 30 years ago..the actual release didn't happen until years after it was first revealed

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

Actually,Windows 1.0 was announced 30 years ago..the actual release didn't happen until years after it was first revealed

Thanks for pointing the error out, I fixed it.

[benthebear]

Look at all of those snapped apps!

[(Account no longer active)]

Steve Jobs may have not just been upset at the fact Microsoft copied Xerox (too), but probably at the fact that Windows had better UI design than Mac OS at the time. Some staple features introduced (that put it ahead of the rest - even today) are:

- a menu bar per window (instead of a static menu bar at the top of the screen)

- color!

- easy switching between apps (via a "taskbar")

 

I wonder if Bill Gates picked out these missing features while using a Mac:

 

[Torolol]

but new touch-y generation hates menu bar, they want the oversized-tabbed-toolbar instead.

[DocM]

Ran AmigaOS/Workbench in the 80's and it ran circles around Windoze for years, multitasking its heart out. I've only used M$ products to operate specific hardware since, and now given the choice I'll take Linux thankyouverymuch. Windows remains an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome of an OS.

[FloatingFatMan]

Ran AmigaOS/Workbench in the 80's and it ran circles around Windoze for years, multitasking its heart out. I've only used MS products to operate specific hardware since, and now given the choice I'll take Linux thankyouverymuch. Windows remains an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome of an OS.

 

All true, but if you want to use mainstream commercial software, Windows is what you end up using. :/  There's no money in Linux.

[Torolol]

All true, but if you want to use mainstream commercial software, Windows is what you end up using. :/  There's no money in Linux.

eh? there was linux in the 80s?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

eh? there was linux in the 80s?

No, but you were free to use one of the commercial UNIX versions if you had the machine and the money for it. 

 

On-topic: My dad actually bought Windows 1.0 sometime in 1986/87. It wasn't too impressive - there was no killer feature, hardly any 3rd party apps and moreover it looked like ass on a monochrome green screen monitor.

[Max Norris]

No, but you were free to use one of the commercial UNIX versions if you had the machine and the money for it. 

 

On-topic: My dad actually bought Windows 1.0 sometime in 1986/87. It wasn't too impressive - there was no killer feature, hardly any 3rd party apps and moreover it looked like ass on a monochrome green screen monitor.

 

One of my first home systems ran Microsoft Xenix, fun stuff.    And was of a same mind about the original Windows.. first impressions was along the lines of "it's a fad, it'll never catch on, can pry DOS out of my cold dead hands, mice aren't productive", etc etc.  How times change.

[FloatingFatMan]

eh? there was linux in the 80s?

 

Why don't you try reading the post I was replying to and putting your brain in gear before hitting the post button, hmm?

[Quillz]

Never actually used Windows myself until 95, although I've gone back and used a virtual machine of 3.x. Would love to find a working 1.x VM somewhere. Either way, it's always neat to see how far operating systems have come since the 1980s. The original versions of Windows were essentially just front-ends to DOS, and now they are their own ecosystem.

[Raa]

Geez that's ancient in computer terms. Time for something new! :P

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

I bet there are pieces of the first Windows NT that came out in 1993, that can still be found in Windows 8. You'd probably have to dig really deep to find them though.

[123456789A]

Windows is the best. Linux distributions will continue to try to copy it, but it seems like they're content with Windows 95 clones and a sprinkle of Mac OS X.

[+DonC Subscriber²]

Never actually used Windows myself until 95, although I've gone back and used a virtual machine of 3.x. Would love to find a working 1.x VM somewhere. Either way, it's always neat to see how far operating systems have come since the 1980s. The original versions of Windows were essentially just front-ends to DOS, and now they are their own ecosystem.

If you want to give Windows 1 a go, try it online at http://jsmachines.net/demos/pc/cga-win101/xt-cga-win101.xml

[vcfan]

Windows runs the entire world. Heres to another 30  :pint:

[Torolol]

Windows runs the entire world. Heres to another 30  :pint:

nah, if ARMs take over x86/64 for desktop, its Android who'll run the entire world.

And linux will be marked as useless cousins.

[+Warwagon MVC]

But will it run Crysis!?

[Dot Matrix]

@Doc_M: "Windoze"? What are you ten? C'mon dude...

[Hum]

XP Forever ! :cool:

[FloatingFatMan]

XP Forever ! :cool:

 

Luddite!

[Arceles]

I don't think windows will continue as the OS for excellence, they began crumbling with Windows 8 which divided people in a ways I couldn't conceive (no, vista was definitely not the same). I'm, for the first time, contemplating a possible Linux candidate that will become norm... but time will tell, another 30 years perhaps.