Windows Nostalgia - Share it

[ajbritton]

I was originally going to post this on a thread about getting hold of Win 7 pre order where someone was asking why everyone was in such a hurry to spend their money. This got me thinking about why I have personally put money down to by an OS for the first time in my life.

 

After the Vista debacle, I never thought I'd be excited about an MS OS again. Being of a certain age, I remember the anticipation surrounding the releases of various versions of Windows over the years and with a couple of notable exceptions, I've been excited to try every single one.

 

Here then is my potted of history of what got me excited about Windows at almost every version.

 

• Windows 1.0 - Oooh windows! No apps though.
  

• Windows 2.0 - Oooh, overlapping windows. Pagemaker! Yay!
  

• Windows 3.0 - Nice step up from Windows 2.x. Colour! Program Manager!
  

• Windows 3.1, Workgroups etc. - Mmmm networking, Internet.
  

• Windows NT 3 - At the time I was not that interested, but that would change.
  

• Windows 95 - Hugely exciting at the time. I forget how many floppies this came on but at the time it was well worth it. All that desktop customisation - good stuff.
  

• Windows NT 4 - This came along just in time to save me from years of suffering with Novell NetWare.
  

• Windows 98 - Smoothing out of the rough edges and a much nicer OS all around. This is what 95 should have been from the start. (as pointed out elsewhere in the thread, R2 was the version to have)
  

• Windows 2000 - This came along just in time to save me from years of suffering with NT 4. A giant leap forward for Microsoft and a very very solid OS, still running in many places.
  

• Windows ME - Best left alone although some newer stuff did debut here.
  

• Windows XP, 2003 - Despite the solidity of Win2K, it was never an exciting user experience but XP fixed all that and 2003 was a good evolutionary step on the server side.
  

• Windows Vista - Never wanted it, never used it so I suppose I should just keep quiet about it.
  

Anyone else care to share their thoughts / memories at this exciting time...

 

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows[/ame]

Edited July 17, 2009 by ajbritton
Added wikipedia link, updated Win 98 note about R2

[mikeglover]

The leap from Windows 3.1 to 95 was the best!

 

I know that people had loads of problems with Windows 98 First Edition but I found it quite stable on my machine at the time.

 

It's very strange when you load up a VM with Windows 95 and play around with it after all these years.

 

As for today's OS. I am now using Ubuntu at home but do find I have to use Windows now and then for a few games.

[BBeh]

I remember using Windows 3.11 on my first computer, a compaq with the screen built into the computer! I also remember using DOS alot to boot programs.

 

The next operating system I used after that was Windows 98, quite a big step up, and I loved it, no more need for DOS, yay! Used that until windows XP came out, never looked back since

[Spitfire]

Dos 6.22 brings back loads of memories and still in use in some form or other, as are 95 & 98, Ghost springs to mind

[localzuk]

Not really had much experience of OS's before 95, but that worked well enough on my first network. Then we moved to NT4 and it was solid as a rock.

 

Also learnt an awful lot about Linux at the same time as we moved to a Mandrake linux document and domain server. Also solid as a rock.

[K.C.Leblanc]

• Windows Vista - Never wanted it, never used it so I suppose I should just keep quiet about it.
  

 

 

That's a bit harsh, Vista is effectively a not quite complete WIndows 7. I'm running Vista here because I need 64bit. Yes it's resource hungry, but it doesn't give me many problems.

 

However Windows 7 looks like it's going to suppass Win95 as the most anticipated Windows OS ever. Lets hope MS can get it right out of the starting gates. I don't remember a Windows OS where they got it right before the first service pack.

 

As for favourites, it's gotta be windows 2000. True XP has been the king of the desktop for many years now, but I don't see it as having been a big step from 2000. 2000 was the first version of NT that was as friendly as win 9x, XP took that ran with it and took NT into the home.

[localzuk]

As for favourites, it's gotta be windows 2000. True XP has been the king of the desktop for many years now, but I don't see it as having been a big step from 2000. 2000 was the first version of NT that was as friendly as win 9x, XP took that ran with it and took NT into the home.

 

Oh I don't know about that. I'd say NT4 was more groundbreaking than 2000. The managability of NT4 was superb, compare that with it's predecessors...

 

2000 improved on that, sure, but not to the extent that NT4 brought to the game.

[DrCheese]

Windows NT 4

*Shudders*

It was nice for it's day but it was also such a pain... You had to reinstall the entire OS if you wanted to convert a DC to a member server or a member server to a DC. Annoying.

[localzuk]

*Shudders*

It was nice for it's day but it was also such a pain... You had to reinstall the entire OS if you wanted to convert a DC to a member server or a member server to a DC. Annoying.

 

But what was there before it? Compare it to predecessors...

[DMcCoy]

But what was there before it? Compare it to predecessors...

 

NT 3.5?

 

Windows 2000 was the big leap for me, group policies and plug and play! (and directx)

[localzuk]

NT 3.5?

 

Windows 2000 was the big leap for me, group policies and plug and play! (and directx)

 

Not comparable IMO. NT4 came with the interface from Windows 95 - more usable by far than any predecessor OS. Also, DirectX was included in NT4...

[mattx]

*Shudders*

It was nice for it's day but it was also such a pain... You had to reinstall the entire OS if you wanted to convert a DC to a member server or a member server to a DC. Annoying.

 

There was a hack for that which worked quite well - I've still got it somewhere....

 

I long for the day that OS/2 would be the OS of choice as at the time it pi55ed all over anything MS dished out.

[tmcd35]

NT4 came with the interface from Windows 95 - more usable by far than any predecessor OS.

 

please tell me that's I typo - should have read - "any microsoft predecessor OS"

 

Windows 95 was MS catching up with BeOS, NeXT, Arthur, Workbench and OS/2. In terms of GUI. Surpassed them all in sale and software support.

[localzuk]

please tell me that's I typo - should have read - "any microsoft predecessor OS"

 

Windows 95 was MS catching up with BeOS, NeXT, Arthur, Workbench and OS/2. In terms of GUI. Surpassed them all in sale and software support.

 

Well that was obvious! This thread is just about Windows

 

BeOS was *far* superior!

[ajbritton]

That's a bit harsh, Vista is effectively a not quite complete WIndows 7.

 

Perhaps, but my point is that at the time, I was still happy with XP and Vista didn't bring enough to the party to get me excited, especially considering the resources it required. A different matter today as XP is creaking a bit (although I do still love it).

[mattx]

Plus IBM's adverts were better.....

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ObFdRhtx5w]YouTube - OS/2 Warp TV Commercial[/ame]

[tmcd35]

BeOS was *far* superior!

 

Back with the typo's - "*is* far superior! -

 

Any who, back to Windows. Win 3.11 was the first I used. Win95 was a great leap forward in terms of UI and the Win98R2 for stability. That was as good as the DOS based line ever got.

 

XP was important for the home use, moving to the NT kernel and reasonably well executed. Again SP2 bought great stability. Now we have Windows 7, looking good.

 

For the rest. It's hard to show any level of enthusiasm for pre 3.1 windows or ME or Vista. At least pre 3.1 they were 'building towards something'. God knows what there excuses are for ME or Vista

[mattx]

Got 25 mins to waste ?

 

[ame=http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4200302832154452778&ei=-TdgSoLPBMXG-Aaf38EX&hl=en]Computer Chronicles: OS/2 Warp (1995)[/ame]

[localzuk]

Back with the typo's - "*is* far superior! -

 

Nah, not any more. Although I am watching the Haiku project keenly.

[gshaw]

95 was the first Windows I had on a home PC then 98SE (very nice from a clean install )

 

At the time when XP came out I remember thinking how I'd never get to run it as my P166 didn't meet the minimum spec so bought a book on it instead

 

Then a few weeks later I was given a chuckout Simply PC with no case sides and SIMM RAM slots but it had... a Cyrix 233 on board! 64MB of ancient RAM and a 5 1/4" wide 2GB Quantum HD later I installed XP and it actually ran pretty well considering it was on minimum spec lol. Anyone remember the theme song installed on the original XP release "like humans do" hehe

 

Also had an old 486 with 24MB RAM I ran Win95 on, changed all the UI to MacOS X style and modded the Start Menu.. Walk button anyone? Need to get the pic of that up at some point

 

Never liked Vista at any point really, was one of the harshed critics of it then built a new PC Core2DUo, 4GB RAM, gaming graphics so gave it a try on fast hardware ready to be won over... and it still runs like a dog! Never seen an OS with as much HDD thrashing as Vista, it never stops doing *something* and feels so unresponsive... very poor.

 

7 on the other hand seems to run like greased lightning, been very impressed so far... shame MS never changed the awful wireless settings area (miles better in XP) but apart from that some of the UI tweaks are pretty nifty.

 

Hope Windows keeps its desktop dominance, definitely not a Linux fan apart from IPCop firewall appliances BeOS was great, had it installed on the 166 and it flew... shame it never took off in the end.

 

Best OS ever though... Acorn RISC OS... loads from ROM, slick as and it's Acorn! Used to use Win 3.1 on a hardware emulation card as well, ran like a steam train though lol

 

http://toastytech.com/guis/riscosboot.gif

Edited July 17, 2009 by gshaw

[tmcd35]

Best OS ever though... Acorn RISC OS... loads from ROM, slick as and it's Acorn! Used to use Win 3.1 on a hardware emulation card as well, ran like a steam train though lol

 

Don't go starting a RISC OS vs Amiga OS flame war

 

http://www.gregdonner.org/workbench/images/wb_31.gif

[Midget]

Win3.11 was my first introduction to windows and quickly upgraded to win95 on my IBM Aptiva 486 DX4 100MHz, as I had previously only used DOS for AutoCAD and was primarily an Amiga Workbench user.

[Batman]

I had this thought a long time ago, that if Microsoft hadn't diversified the PC market (or "screwed IBM", should I say?!) by allowing "IBM Compatible" hardware into the market then we would probably be paying Apple prices for PCs and they would be made exclusively by IBM.

 

Which would probably mean that Macs would be more popular (because they're far more slick really, even though it hurts me to say so) and most home users would be using some evolved form of the Commodore Amiga! Commodore were at one time very much the kings of home computing IMO, I think the PC was the reason for their demise.

 

On the actual subject of this thread... I used Windows NT for years on my home computer. It was far more stable than 95 at the time, it felt like a downgrade when I moved to 98se but I had to because I bought a USB scanner!

 

If they'd just got USB working I might still be using it... but I doubt it. Windows XP is definitely the best Microsoft OS as far as I'm concerned. But then again, I'm using Linux these days which I think is better than the lot of them

[DrCheese]

most home users would be using some evolved form of the Commodore Amiga! Commodore were at one time very much the kings of home computing IMO, I think the PC was the reason for their demise.

That and hilariously bad management. The Amiga was MILES ahead of the PC in the late 80's/early 90's but terrible management choices resulted in the platform stagnating at the worst possible time.

It's such a shame, if they had survived they would probably be like Apple is nowadays. I really miss Amiga Workbench at times

[tmcd35]

The thing is Windows never took off in the home market until '95 was released and brought proper gaming (Direct-X) support to the platform. By '95 the Amiga as a platform had been dead for a good couple of years. Indeed had CBM had anybody working for them with even an ounce of business sense projects like BeOS and AROS would never haver started up. By '92/'93 the market was Commodores to loose, which they ceremoniously did!