Windows 1.0: The flop that created an empire

IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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Windows 1.0: The flop that created an empire

"Two years later than planned, Microsoft's new graphical operating system went on sale November 20, 1985. It wasn't worth the wait. But a bigger story was soon to unfold."

Reminds me of the latest W8/W8.1/Surface drama to be honest.
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  • xp95xp95 Posts: 2,439
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    I never knew Windows 1.0 had been a flop.... :o
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    The first one I used was Windows 3.1 I think.
  • stu0rtstu0rt Posts: 946
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    I've seen/used Windows 2.0 on a very old PC that a friend had at uni in the early 90s. My first install of Windows on my own PC was 3.0, which I think came on about 7 floppy disks! Plus another 3 disks for MSDOS that had to be installed first.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    I never used Windows 1.0. Earliest Windows I used was 3.1. I've also used 95, 98, NT4, 2000, XP, the dreaded Vista and 7. I saw some pics of Windows 1.0 though, it looked terrible but still better than Windows 8 :p Ever seen this advert for it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk :D
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    Ever seen this advert for it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk :D

    Almost 30 years later and Balmer is still as hyper as back then :D
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    IvanIV wrote: »
    Almost 30 years later and Balmer is still as hyper as back then :D

    Yep :D One thing I don't get about it though - why was Windows 1.0 not available in Nebraska? :confused:
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    Yep :D One thing I don't get about it though - why was Windows 1.0 not available in Nebraska? :confused:

    http://www.quora.com/Microsoft-History/Why-did-Steve-Ballmer-say-except-in-Nebraska-at-the-end-of-the-Windows-1-0-ad
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    Ha-ha! A 30MB HDD. Unless they just used memory back then. That OS looks absolutely basic. No life to it whatsoever.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    IvanIV wrote: »
    The first one I used was Windows 3.1 I think.

    I was very late in the computing world with XP being my first OS.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    zx50 wrote: »
    Ha-ha! A 30MB HDD. Unless they just used memory back then. That OS looks absolutely basic. No life to it whatsoever.

    I know. It has all the charisma of a wet fish. At least the Mac OS back then (and even now!) had a bit of life to it.
  • JeffG1JeffG1 Posts: 15,243
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    zx50 wrote: »
    I was very late in the computing world with XP being my first OS.

    Probably due to being very late into the world itself :D
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    JeffG1 wrote: »
    Probably due to being very late into the world itself :D

    Wrong assumption.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    I know. It has all the charisma of a wet fish. At least the Mac OS back then (and even now!) had a bit of life to it.

    Sure about that?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Macintosh_Desktop.png
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    zx50 wrote: »
    Ha-ha! A 30MB HDD. Unless they just used memory back then. That OS looks absolutely basic. No life to it whatsoever.

    30MB was a lot. I think XT I used as my first PC had 20MB and you could fit _everything_ on it :D
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    zx50 wrote: »

    In the age of ASCII art that was magic.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    zx50 wrote: »

    Well at least it had decent graphics, which for 1984/85 was very impressive :D I watch a Youtube video series called OSFirstTimer. It's done by an Australian who gets his mother (who uses Windows XP) to try out all sorts of different OSes, new and old. He got her to try out Windows 1.0 and she said it looked like it was still booting up :p Check it out. It's at youtube.com/user/osfirsttimer.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    Well at least it had decent graphics, which for 1984/85 was very impressive :D I watch a Youtube video series called OSFirstTimer. It's done by an Australian who gets his mother (who uses Windows XP) to try out all sorts of different OSes, new and old. He got her to try out Windows 1.0 and she said it looked like it was still booting up :p Check it out. It's at youtube.com/user/osfirsttimer.

    I suppose.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    zx50 wrote: »
    I suppose.

    Well if I had been around in the 80s I would probably have used the Macintosh or some other OS rather than Windows 1.0. Not much has changed now. I prefer my Macs to anything running Windows 8 :p Of course running Windows on a Mac doesn't count and it's handy to have a Windows partition/VM :D
  • Ulysses777Ulysses777 Posts: 741
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    One word.

    Workbench. :cool:
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    Well if I had been around in the 80s I would probably have used the Macintosh or some other OS rather than Windows 1.0. Not much has changed now. I prefer my Macs to anything running Windows 8 :pOf course running Windows on a Mac doesn't count and it's handy to have a Windows partition/VM :D

    Of course it does. It's still Windows.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    zx50 wrote: »
    Of course it does. It's still Windows.

    Yes but it runs on Apple hardware. Of course if you use Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run it Windows is essentially just another Mac program :D What I don't get is people who spend over £1000 on a Mac and wipe it and install Windows on it because they're too lazy to learn the Mac system. Why spend all that money on a Mac just to run Windows on it? :rolleyes: Dual boot I can understand because it's useful to have it for games or other Windows-only software someone might need for work, but I don't understand having only Windows installed on a shiny Mac. It's a form of blasphemy IMO.
  • StigStig Posts: 12,446
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    Wow, 19 posts before the mention of the Mac in a Windows thread. It must be a record.
  • PsychoTherapistPsychoTherapist Posts: 2,687
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    Windows 1 was pretty dire and Windows 2 was not much better.

    Imo, Digital Research's GEM was much superior on the PC, even after it was forced to strip down it's GUI due to being sued by Apple.

    It wasn't until Windows 3.0 where Microsoft finally started to get their act together.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    Yes but it runs on Apple hardware. Of course if you use Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run it Windows is essentially just another Mac program :D What I don't get is people who spend over £1000 on a Mac and wipe it and install Windows on it because they're too lazy to learn the Mac system. Why spend all that money on a Mac just to run Windows on it? :rolleyes: Dual boot I can understand because it's useful to have it for games or other Windows-only software someone might need for work, but I don't understand having only Windows installed on a shiny Mac. It's a form of blasphemy IMO.

    So it's not Windows you hate, it's just hardware that hasn't been made by Apple that you hate then?
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    zx50 wrote: »
    So it's not Windows you hate, it's just hardware that hasn't been made by Apple that you hate then?

    Well I still hate Windows Vista (who doesn't?) and I think Windows 8 is a steaming pile of dung, but Windows 7 is strangely usable sometimes. It's the best OS for gaming still :p As for the hardware, there's no denying that Apple hardware isn't quality. It's certainly better than some pile of dung from PC World. The more expensive Windows laptops are probably of similar quality to a Mac but if you pay nearly £1000 for a Windows laptop you're better off getting a Mac and dual booting it. It works out cheaper and you can use OSX as well.
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