How time flies... From The Verge:
WINDOWS TURNS 35: A VISUAL HISTORY
From Windows 1.0 to Windows 10
The PC revolution started off life 35 years ago this week. Microsoft launched its first version of Windows on November 20th, 1985, to succeed MS-DOS. It was a huge milestone that paved the way for the modern versions of Windows we use today. While Windows 10 doesn’t look anything like Windows 1.0, it still has many of its original fundamentals like scroll bars, drop-down menus, icons, dialog boxes, and apps like Notepad and MS paint.
Windows 1.0 also set the stage for the mouse. If you used MS-DOS then you could only type in commands, but with Windows 1.0 you picked up a mouse and moved windows around by pointing and clicking. Alongside the original Macintosh, the mouse completely changed the way consumers interacted with computers. At the time, many complained that Windows 1.0 focused far too much on mouse interaction instead of keyboard commands. Microsoft’s first version of Windows might not have been well received, but it kick-started a battle between Apple, IBM, and Microsoft to provide computing to the masses.
It has been a long and fun (and prosperous) ride - Windows was not the first graphical environment manager - GEM was widespread and was released five years previous.
The article also has this wonderful commercial from Steve Ballmer:
I still have a couple "shelf talkers" - empty boxes of Windows 1.1 from my first store. Sold a lot of them. And who can forget this photo of BillG:
The birth of an era...
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