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Windows 95: 10 years on
To be honest, this is one anniversary I hadn't thought about a whole lot (unlike the 10th anniversary of Netscape's IPO, which has received megahype), but it just so happens that today is the 10th anniversary of the release of Windows 95. While most users of subsequent Windows versions may not care, the fact is that the Windows 95 release really was something of a watershed event. It was the first version of Windows that sported a truly usable GUI, it was a 32-bit OS, and it marked the true beginning of the Windows juggernaut that has kept Microsoft going to this day. Sure, Windows 95 had major problems, some of which we're still living with (does anyone really like the Start menu or taskbar?), but it still deserves credit for making Windows a viable alternative to the Mac, OS/2, X11 and other GUIs. So, happy birthday Windows 95 – and thank goodness you're gone.
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsNilson Santos F. Jr.Aug 24th 2005 11:12PM
I actually like the start menu and taskbar. ;)
Paul SpeharAug 25th 2005 12:23AM
Try putting the taskbar vertical against the right or left. It's life altering.
hafaAug 25th 2005 3:04AM
back in the days of win31, having a bar down there and easier access to multi applications was a big thing!
and, I think the root of BSOD should be credited to win95, you know, back in win31 if system gone bad, it just froze up, but 95 pops this blue shit out randomly really gets annoys me
~J~Aug 25th 2005 3:28AM
Kinda off topic(ish), but here's what happened 10 years ago today in Doncaster, South Yorks, England.
Dixons (an electrical store) announced they were opening at 23:00 with a party for people to purchase Windows95 at midnight.
I arrived with a friend, we drank, ate those silly little cocktail sausages, hotdogs, burgers, and at midnight, the tills opened and we all rushed to buy our copy.
I think I was the 20th person to get served and by 00:30, all copies had been sold.
Got home about 2:00, installed Win95 on my machine (a state of the art DX2/66 with 4 (FOUR!!!) speed CD-ROM) and spent the next few hours learning all of it's new features!
So there you are, 10 years ago today, I was stuck by worshipsbillgateitus!
ZelidarAug 25th 2005 8:45AM
10 years already... Ouch! Time does fly
Win95, being largely 32-bit strong, was somehow the holy grail of all win 3.1 programmers, getting rid of all the 16-bit DOS painful limitations.
The normal users just wanted to be able to keep running all of their buggy and sluggish 3.1 applications. Remember the first 5 versions of Corel Draw! They've quitted beta testing with us only a couple of years ago.
Ensuring that upwards compatibility has been, IMHO, the greatest achievement of that OS thus the instant commercial success.
Wikipedia has a nice rundown about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_95
jwonAug 28th 2005 12:24PM
That MSN icon is taking me back. I might tear up.
David ChartierNov 2nd 2005 3:15PM
How about "The Internet", that's just killer. What the heck was "My Briefcase" for anyway?