How Windows Has Evolved Over The Last 30 Years Read

[didymus]

Business Insider:

How Windows Has Evolved Over The Last 30 Years

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 30 years since Microsoft first showed off Windows to the world. It’s changed an awful lot in that time.
Thanks to better hardware, the rise of the Internet, and competition from long-time rival (and occasional ally) Apple, Microsoft has managed to stay relevant by releasing updates that meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people all around the world.

You just have to check out the gallery, it’s a trip down memory lane.
I actually started out with DOS. Now I’m holding onto my Win 7 until the wheels fall off cuz 8 looks like such a train wreck.

 

[John_Lazarus]

Yup. I started out with MS-DOS 2.1 or 2.11 I believe, on 5-1/4" single-sided 512K floppy.

Not only have we seen the evolution of the operating system, but portable media too:

• 8" (eek!) 256K floppy
• 5-1/4" 512K floppy
• 3-1/2" DD 720K disk
• 3/1/2" HD 1.44 MB disk

Next thing I see after that is a 256MB thumb drive. Skip ahead, ship ahead… 64GB thumb drives and micro-SD cards. Each of which has the capacity of over 128,000 of my old DOS disk.

And don’t get me started on portable HDs that measure capacity in terabytes…

 

[catholictiger]

Business Insider:

How Windows Has Evolved Over The Last 30 Years

You just have to check out the gallery, it’s a trip down memory lane.
I actually started out with DOS. Now I’m holding onto my Win 7 until the wheels fall off cuz 8 looks like such a train wreck.

the best OS on that article was the mac one

ok yeah I’m a mac guy

and I changed over to mac when they were on vista.

 

[Razanir]

I’ve been Windows my whole life, but 8 is forcing me over to Linux. (I just don’t like Macs that much )

 

[Lost_Sheep]

changed over to mac when they were on vista.

There is still time for redemption.

 

[JerryZ]

When I was attending College working on my Computer Science degree we had 5.25" flippies that could hold 92K bytes per side.

Yes you had to rotate them manually to be able to use the 2nd side.

The machines we used had a max memory capacity of 64 KBytes and only 1 in the computer lab actually had that much memory, all the rest only had 32 KBytes.

MSDos did not exist yes, but the operating system was called DOS which merely means “Disk Operating System”.

Moved over to Linux quite some years ago around the time XP went obsolete.

–

 

[catholictiger]

There is still time for redemption.

what are you talking about

I’ve already been redeemed.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

what are you talking about

I’ve already been redeemed.

Poor follower of a false prophet. Return to the truth of a superior PC experience.

Can’t stand mac, mostly because of how incapable I am of tweaking the system to my liking… that and I detest Steve Jobs… I’ve always been a windows guy, with some forays into Linux. As soon as Linux takes over as the primary gaming system I’ll probably switch

 

[catholictiger]

Poor follower of a false prophet. Return to the truth of a superior PC experience.

Can’t stand mac, mostly because of how incapable I am of tweaking the system to my liking… that and I detest Steve Jobs… I’ve always been a windows guy, with some forays into Linux. As soon as Linux takes over as the primary gaming system I’ll probably switch

ok if you want a system that isn’t ready to go and needs tweaking to meet your personal preferences go with PC.

but if you want a system that is ready to go, (sure you can’t customize it) and is very user friendly (Just have to get use to it if you switch) go with Mac.

 

[Beryllos]

From the OP: “Thanks to better hardware, … Microsoft has managed to stay relevant.”

Yes. What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away.

I still use Windows XP, but I’m putting Linux on my newer computers and planning my Exodus.

 

[catholictiger]

linux is the ultimate customization OS

but it isn’t user friendly enough for me to use, I tried it on a virtual machine couldn’t get use to it.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

ok if you want a system that isn’t ready to go and needs tweaking to meet your personal preferences go with PC.

but if you want a system that is ready to go, (sure you can’t customize it) and is very user friendly (Just have to get use to it if you switch) go with Mac.

It takes no time to get a computer ready to go, only as long as it takes to install the OS. Drivers and things like that have to be installed on both windows and mac machines, as does any software you intend to use.

As for being user friendly, that’s a matter of opinion… and I happen to disagree entirely with yours

 

[catholictiger]

It takes no time to get a computer ready to go, only as long as it takes to install the OS. Drivers and things like that have to be installed on both windows and mac machines, as does any software you intend to use.

As for being user friendly, that’s a matter of opinion… and I happen to disagree entirely with yours

I guess I need to mess with it more, there is a learning curve to any new system.

 

[Lost_Sheep]

ok if you want a system that isn’t ready to go and needs tweaking to meet your personal preferences go with PC.

but if you want a system that is ready to go, (sure you can’t customize it) and is very user friendly (Just have to get use to it if you switch) go with Mac.

If you know anything about computers, get a PC.

If you only know how to push buttons and click icons, get a Mac.

 

[catholictiger]

If you know anything about computers, get a PC.

If you only know how to push buttons and click icons, get a Mac.

that makes it sound like you think PCS are for people who are smart and apples are for people who are stupid.

could be offensive to some mac users.

I like to poke fun at people sometimes but apple has very many professional features. Final Cut is starting to gain a lot of momentum in the film industry many feature length films are edited on macs.

Logic is another powerful editing software that I know people use this for professional recording studio work.

the days of PC being a computer for people who have to work, and Macs are for people who play is behind us. Apple provides uses programs that are easy enough to use and cheep enough that almost anyone can use them, but have enough features that you can make it your own. (Garage band and iMovie) but also provide a high priced very professional programs that allow advanced users to be limitless in what they can do.

in my own personal opinion Macs provide on average better software options for their users, on the PC you mostly have to trust in third party software options (which I have no problem with, I use adobe for photo editing and video editing, but I hear aperture is a very nice program)

but again your statement is far from false. The computer I have right now could easily handle production grade software and be able to produce very nice looking good sounds videos, or be able to mix large amounts of audio files and make it sound like professional grade music.

 

[ephesians4]

Business Insider:

How Windows Has Evolved Over The Last 30 Years

You just have to check out the gallery, it’s a trip down memory lane.
I actually started out with DOS. Now I’m holding onto my Win 7 until the wheels fall off cuz 8 looks like such a train wreck.

I am not a huge Windows fan, and do not routinely use it, except for testing, but I have 8.1 and if you install one of the many applications available to restore the Classic Start Menu, and really do just want a new version of Windows it’s actually not all that bad as an update to 7.

Thanks for the post, I do love a computer-based nostalgia trip.

 

[Lost_Sheep]

that makes it sound like you think PCS are for people who are smart and apples are for people who are stupid.

Yeah, well I am an Information Technology consultant for the federal government and in my experience that is exactly what I see. Maybe stupid isn’t the word, but computer illiterate.

could be offensive to some mac users.

See my tagline under my sig.

 

[catholictiger]

Yeah, well I am an Information Technology consultant for the federal government and in my experience that is exactly what I see. Maybe stupid isn’t the word, but computer illiterate.

See my tagline under my sig.

I must say I do enjoy that sig quote

but I consider myself very computer literate, maybe not so literate in a way that I can fix a computer or something, but I know enough about computers that I can work my way around issues and such and I’m going beyond a simple point and click.

one last thing Macs can do very high tech things that can only be done by computer literate people. Video editing, Photo editing, audio mixing, just to name a few in a professional and very good way, in as good as a way as similar programs on PC can do.

I’m very bias in my opinion on this but don’t think that all mac users don’t really know how to use the machines they have because many are experts on things of the Mac world. Personally I hope to the opinion that Mac’s software is the top of the field but if I could have PC hardware but MAC OS this is what I would prefer but I haven’t taken the time to find that out yet.

 

[Tenofovir]

Business Insider:

How Windows Has Evolved Over The Last 30 Years

You just have to check out the gallery, it’s a trip down memory lane.
I actually started out with DOS. Now I’m holding onto my Win 7 until the wheels fall off cuz 8 looks like such a train wreck.

Win XP and 2K, are the only decent Windoze releases.

I used 3.1, 95, 98, ME, NT, XP, Vista, 7 and 8. Vista really sucks. 8 also sucks but not as bad as Vista. XP was the best and still use it one one machine.

 

[colliric]

My favourite GUI operating system of all time was the Amiga 500 OS, also known as Workbench(though it was not technically the OS). My first computer, and my favorite operating system of all time. It was easy to run and easy to use. Even a kid could learn how to use it quickly(and did!). I was the only kid in my area that had a 16-Bit computer, and I loved it, Kept using it until 1995/6, when my Mum brought home the first Pentium computer(running at a speedy 90Mhz, geeze! But in terms of character it was not as good a Computer as the Amiga).

Windows ripped off many of it’s concepts from Commodore’s superb Amiga OS GUI, the Clock, organizer, the icons for files… most of the Windows concepts originated with other GUIs and this was defiantly a heavy influence.

I’m still a little frustrated that Commordore made the mistake of trying to break into the Video Gaming market and went bankrupt, as they were obviously the main competition for Apple, and if they were still around today they’d make great competition for Apple in that “niche” market of high-tech products.

The Amiga 500 was a computer that had heaps of character, lots of power(for it’s day), great games and was easier to operate. All you did was put a disk in and a few seconds later your program would load up, you could even put “Workbench” in and do heaps of stuff on it.

That having been said, I’ve used:
Win 3.1, Win95, Win98, WinME, WinXP, WinVista

Never been too unhappy with Windows, and in fact Win98 was the worst one, the OS actually did improve up to Vista.

But after Vista I’ve switched to Mountain Lion and now Mavericks, on Mac of cause.
I got a cheapish secondhand Mac from late 2009 and put in 16GB of Ram, and this is frankly the best OS I’ve had since my Amiga 500 days.