Saturday Open Thread: Windows Edition

BIGGOVERNMENT ^ | 11/20/2010 | Publius

[WVKayaker]

Today, in 1985, Windows 1.0 is released. It turned out to be a big deal.

[WVKayaker]

[WVKayaker]

[pepsi_junkie]

I think MS Windows didn’t really catch on in a big way until Windows 3.0 as I recall. That was the “no going back” moment.

[freedumb2003]

>>I think MS Windows didn’t really catch on in a big way until Windows 3.0 as I recall. That was the “no going back” moment.<<

You recall correctly. It was a sea change in terms of multi-processing and presentation graphics.

Before that it was nothing more than a slightly better version of the PET o/s (as far as look and feel).

[The KG9 Kid]

The release of Windows 3.1 was the version which had PC users lining up at Egghead Software at the break of dawn to get a copy.

[Dan Nunn]

It was a sea change in terms of multi-processing and presentation graphics.

Boy isn't that the truth. It's amazing how much changed in 10 years.

Of course, we're going through the same thing now with cell phones. 10 years ago, even the name "Verizon" was only a few months old. Phones had screens that displayed numbers, sometimes names, and could emit a series of beeps.

Amazingly, in both cases, while they may not have been the first, Apple was the company that brought both industries to the mainstream.

I wonder what the next tech industry to be revolutionized will be.

[The KG9 Kid]

Oh I meant to say 'DOS users' instead of 'PC Users'.

3.1 was the version that seemed to get even the last MS-DOS holdouts onto Windows.

[Tuketu]

WIKI “Windows 1.0 is a 16-bit graphical operating environment that was released on 20 November 1985[1]. It was Microsoft’s first attempt to implement a multi-tasking graphical user interface-based operating environment on the PC platform. Windows 1.0 was the first version of Windows launched. It was succeeded by Windows 2.0.”

As I recall we were just off CPM and messing with DOS 2.0 and the problem with windows, DOS etc at that point were the COST and MONOCHROME monitors. I an sure for $10Gs you could have had Windows with a color monitor and a 30 MEG, not GIG, Hard drive. Hence the name Win-doze

[freedumb2003]

>>I wonder what the next tech industry to be revolutionized will be. <<

True holograms. 3D TV is tiptoeing in that direction.

That is my prediction.

That and the complete confluence of phone/TV/cell/Internet into a seamless whole (we are 2/3 of the way there IMHO).

[Sudetenland]

Yeah and Windows Vista had people lining up at Apple stores for a Mac. LOL

The truth is Vista wasn't really all that bad, it just required more machine than most people had. Win 7 is a real winner.

[CynicalBear]

Windows 1.0 was no big deal. It was a feeble attempt to copy Mac. Not until Windows 3.0 did it get some legs.

[skr]

Wish I’d been able to buy stock then.

[WVKayaker]

The A1000, or Commodore Amiga 1000, was Commodore's initial Amiga personal computer, introduced on July 23, 1985 at the Lincoln Center in New York City. Machines began shipping in September with a base configuration of 256 kB of RAM at the retail price of 1,295 USD. A 13-inch (330 mm) analog RGB monitor was available for around 300 USD bringing the price of a complete Amiga system to 1,595 USD. Before the release of the Amiga 500 and A2000 models in 1987, the A1000 was simply called Amiga.

-Amiga 1000

[The KG9 Kid]

I know that the iPod, iPhone, and iPad have attracted a few PC users over to the Mac.

However, I seem to notice that every time I go into an Apple store, everyone is looking at the ones I listed above and almost nobody except me is looking at the Mac Pro systems.

Apple needs to solve that problem. I think even a simple brand renaming could help. That, and the price of course.

[OldDeckHand]

"Of course, we're going through the same thing now with cell phones."

I was looking at the new Widows 7 phone. To me, it sure seems like it's just as powerful as a better laptop was maybe as recently as 8 years ago - computing power, not necessarily storage.

"I wonder what the next tech industry to be revolutionized will be."

My money is either bio-computing or something else that will break down the physical limitation that are quickly being approached with current semi-conductors, or some next-generation previously unimagined energy source.

[ccmay]

I used it. Garbage then, garbage now.

[martin_fierro]

Marty's first 'pooter (circa 1986)

Sometimes the CRT monitor's internal magnet interfered with the 5.25" floppy disk drives. So one had to separate the two with a stack of phone books.

[brityank]

Windows (n): 32 bit extension and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprossessor, written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition. ~ EmptyV

[From the thread]

[WVKayaker]

[Defiant]

I knew how to use Windows, but it was so crappy, I mainly used Macs until 1999. After that (Windows 98SE), the OS was bearable, but only in part because Mac stagnated for a few years there. I was one of the few lawyers who ran a law office on Macs--much of the time on a Mac 165c laptop using 2 monitors, syquest drives, the whole shebang. I learned how to use Windows and then Windows 95 when it came out, because some programs required it, but they were horrible. F12 this, F8 that.

I had PCs exclusively until 2007. Now I use both, depending on the task.

The anniversary of Windows is bittersweet. Lots of wasted hours, reboots, blue screens. Windows 7 is very good, though. They finally got there.