Posted on 04/20/2018 12:35:28 PM PDT by dayglored
Relive that sphincter-loosening Blue Screen of Death
Video Let us pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that 20 years have passed since Windows 98 memorably fell over during Bill Gates' presentation at Comdex.
A nervous-looking Chris Capossela, now chief marketing officer at Microsoft, attempted to plug a scanner into a Windows 98 PC while Gates looked on. The intent was to demonstrate the plug-and-play abilities of the upcoming OS. The result was an all-too-familiar Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), and a "whoah..." from Capossela.
"That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.
As Windows 10 Springwatch approaches its third week, one can only imagine that something similar must have happened somewhere in a Redmond meeting room shortly before the update was due to be unleashed on an expectant public. The latest version of the operating system, unofficially dubbed the Spring Creators Update, is unexpectedly BSoDing for some testers, we're told.
As folks await the release, comfort can be drawn from the fact that while the world may have changed in a variety of distressing ways over the past 20 years, and the Comdex IT conference itself is long defunct, Windows 10 can still point the way back to simpler and happier times.
By generating a BSoD when you least expect it. ®
You’re sort of misunderstanding me. We do all of that using Microsoft, as does 95% of the work world. We even use Microsoft for all of our email, calendaring, etc. But yet, Microsoft has zero market share in mobile phones. And when we want need the cloud, we use Google. And when we buy our own PC’s, it’s probably a Mac or Chromebook. Just seems like they haven’t leveraged their total dominance of the office work environment very well.
You cannot disable all updates to Windows 10, except by unplugging it -- permanently -- from the internet. Otherwise, it WILL update.
The people you know might be working with Win7 or 8.1 or earlier, where you CAN disable updates.
Win10? No such luck, if you're a normal user (not a volume-license business customer).
Smiling and laughing at the crash may have made them feel better, but not me.
ALL programs can crash, but Microsoft seemed to rush their op systems to the public before they were ready.
“Windows XP was the best operating system Microsoft ever made.”
Yup
Maybe, but ya gotta admit it was funny.
Wait.... Steve Ballmer, is that you? :-)
Win10 is unstable after every other update. Win98 rarely broke down and if it did, it was usually a driver problem that was the fault of the peripheral device producer.
I don’t remember plug n play capability in Win 98. At the time I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard to do.
*** ““Windows XP was the best operating system Microsoft ever made.”
Dittos. ***
Win 7 for me
It was new stuff, especially to Microsoft, and they hadn't figured it out yet. Apple had it figured out better in 1998, but it was still not really good until OS X.
PnP is difficult if your underlying operating system is a hodgepodge of stuff thrown together on top of MS-DOS during a period of 15 years without a good technical design or plan.
Windows NT was a great step forward, and WinXP and Win7 were a huge improvement over Win95/98.
We won't mention WinME or Vista or Win8 because I just ate and I don't need to taste it again.
Me too. XP was very good for its time, but its time has faded. When I go back to it now it's still quite usable, but obviously dated.
Win7 is mature. It just works. OTOH, Microsoft is pulling the plug on Win7 updates in Jan 2020, less than 2 years from now.
Win10 is a rowdy youngster, full of p*ss and vinegar, and hasn't yet figured out what it wants to be when it grows up.
I think Win10 will be fine for a lot of consumer-grade customers, the ones who would actually do just fine with a Chromebook but they think they need Windows (they don't). Business customers generally find Win10 annoying and restrictive, but they'll be forced into it eventually. System administrators (like me) generally find Win10 a royal PITA, and often switch to Linux with a Win7 VM for Windows-only tasks.
The crash was a staged event, a hoax, designed to give the corporation “safe harbor” against claims of unwarranted high expectations for the product, should it fail. BG pulled that trick more than once.
I tried. Lord, I tried.
I haven't heard that before about this one. Got a link? Or is that just hearsay?
Saw it live myself and was most amused. I must admit that Bill Gates keep his composure. I would have loved to hear what he said after he was off camera.
Saw it live myself and was most amused. I must admit that Bill Gates keep his composure. I would have loved to hear what he said after he was off camera.
In my opinion, it was the greatest OS of all time. I don't know why Microsoft just didn't keep it and sold it as a lower-tiered OS for people who use computers for basic stuff.
Thank you for that info - I do believe they are operating on Windows 7 or 8 or whatever... Wish I still had 7 but I’m growing used to 10..not that I’ll ever know all there is to know about it. I know I hate Solitaire...took me forever to find it and takes nearly that long just to get the game going.
I still have a windoze 98 box in my spare room. I should hook it up sometime and see if it still works. Maybe play some Sam & Max. :)
I also have a machine with Windows 98 on it, best thing about it is the animated Far Side screen saver. I would love to have that on my Windows 7 machine.
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