Microsoft and History of Windows

Microsoft and History of Windows

“CHICAGO (CNN) -- Microsoft chairman Bill Gates tried to demonstrate his company's latest product Monday, but the product -- Windows 98 -- didn't cooperate. Gates was demonstrating the newest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system when it crashed during his presentation at the Comdex Spring 1998 Convention. The software is supposed make computers simpler to use.”
April 20, 1998 -Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9804/20/gates.comdex/

The news excerpt above is familiar to most of you especially if you have been dealing with computers for sometime. Bill Gates, departing from IBM which had built the most commonly used “Operating System” DOS, decided that users needed graphical interface to improve the usability of the systems. It was going to increase the computer “literacy” ratio and also the sales. So there started his journey with the mythical Windows 1.0 and went on with success and sometimes failures until the most stable product of Microsoft: Windows XP. Now all users are waiting for the 64 bit supported Longhorn.

The first graphical interface operating system was Windows 1.0 which was released in 1985. It gave great advantages to users including the use of the cursor and the pointing devices. Before, users had to type the commands in the DOS environment. With this improvement, they could simply click on a program and use several different programs at the same time. The next versions of Windows, namely 2.x and 3.1 were slightly improved using the advantages of the improved processors of Intel (286 and 386). The programmers started talking about extended memory and also about Windows software development kit (SDK) which caused the new releases of Windows to be much more popular. By then everybody was programming Windows based programs and users did not have any other choice but use Windows to access these programs.

The next innovative add-on to this system was the networking support. A superset of Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 added peer-to-peer workgroup and domain networking support. For the first time, Windows–based PCs were network-aware and became an integral part of the emerging client/server computing evolution.

Then came the great New Technology of Microsoft: Windows NT. It was the completion of a 10 year project and a completely new operating system which was built from scratch. The most distinguishing aspect of this system was that unlike other windows products, this operating system was 32-bit. It offered solutions for high-end users and also for personal purposes. The following NT versions came with higher security updates for the networks and powerful program support.

In parallel to the developing NT products, Microsoft released also the successors of MS-DOS and Win 3.x products: Windows 95 and 98. These were also 32-bit operating systems which were optimized for multi-media users. Especially, the later versions of 98, with the Direct X, internet features, high hardware capabilities, met the requirements of most of the users. The crash of Windows 98 on TV in front of Bill Gates was already forgotten and the sales of Windows 98 – Service Pack 2 satisfy both the company and also the users. However, the issue of monopolization came up again with the integrated internet browser of Windows 95 and 98. Most people claimed and argued that this integration was an attempt to monopolize the internet and it was against the antitrust rules: “Antitrust laws prevent monopolies from tying two products together to force customers to take one product when buying another.”

Year 2000 was the year of both satisfaction and disappointment. For the new millennium, Microsoft released two products: ME and 2000. Millennium Edition was a total disaster from the point of users. It was much less stable than 98 and it was creating so many problems with different hardware installations. The security bugs caused a lot of home users to lose their data and open the doors for viruses and crackers. On the other hand, with the applied technology of NT and improved capabilities Windows 2000 was a great solution for professional users. Its stability reminded many of the users the older and much slower, 16-bit OSs of Microsoft.

Seeing the great success of the new NT based operating system (Windows 2000 professional) and the great disappointment with ME, Microsoft decided to unify the business world with consumers by means of optimizing Windows 2000 for personal use, adding new features to support the multimedia equipment. By doing the last retouches on the general graphics of the OS, Microsoft released its most popular OS in two different editions: XP Home and XP Professional. The "XP" in Windows XP stands for "experience," symbolizing the innovative experiences that Windows can offer to personal computer users. You and most of the world are now using XP and none of us can complain much after the security updates and the release of the second service pack.

At this point, Microsoft is working on their new product called Longhorn. They claim, it is going to be their most secure and efficient product, supplying the programmers with improved capabilities to create functions and also serving a much more concrete wall of protection for network users.

Overall, Microsoft has been doing their job for over two decades and extending their experience about the operating systems, creating better products with “less” bugs or security holes. One can say that Bill Gates was the biggest loss a company like IBM could ever have.