Who remembers Windows 1.0 ?

[IMHO]

As for the OP's Q: yep my hand is up. I used it on a few lab PC's, but back then the C64 was the machine everyone had, and the Amiga was the machine they all wanted

[IMHO]

I remember rolling Windows 3.1 out on 1,000-odd computers and it was a darned sight easier than it is now.

I those days all you needed was a batch file!

Not secure at all, but then again there weren't the threats then.

Right, the real threats didn't start until 3.11

[IMHO]

That's an interesting question for me because I was in the epicenter of the PC industry from the start. I guess I missed Window 1.0 as I was using a Radio Shack TRS-80 ("Trash 80") with TRS-DOS operating system at that time. I think so anyway. Perhaps starting with Windows 2.0? But not sure ... the fog of computer wars.

Talking to "kids today" about the early days of personal computing is pretty hilarious. Sure makes me feel old but they're gonna have the same experience later themselves ... with their ancient smartphone memories.

Speaking of memories ... remember when computers didn't connect to the internet? Forget the web ... no connection at all!

Well, it wasn't the internet per se, but I was using 300 baud Commodore 1650 modems to connect to BBS's in Europe over IDD lines 31 years ago

[harrry]

I used a DEC PDP10 at Uni through a teletype interface and later a glass screen. They also had that rather pretty interface that I use to give my punched cards to and always tried to ask out so we could discuss holes.. I had a Texas Instrments TI 99 comp at home (sound and music with good sprites) and then a Commodore 64 and a couple ofSpectrums. The COmmodore ended up having disk drive and a parrallel connection and really sang.Does anyone remember the GEOS program on the 64 which gave a really good Graphical Interface. Geos had a few really good programs running on it. A desktop publishing program which would beat some today comes to mind. Way before Windows which was a poor shadow of it. I am not talking about the poor imitation of it that ran on top of DOS as a shell which was also pre windows.

Edited November 12, 2014 by harrry

[IMHO]

I used a DEC10 at Uni. I had a Texas Instrments TI 99 comp at home (sound and music with good sprites) and then a Commodore 64 and a couple ofSpectrums. The COmmodore ended up having disk drive and a parrallel connection and really sang.Dose anyone rememberr the GEOS program on the 64 which gave a really good Graphical Interface. Geos had a few really good programs running on it. A desktop publishing program which would beat some today comes to mind. Way before Windows which was a poor shadow of it. I am not talking about the poor imitation of it that ran on top of DOS as a shell which was also pre windows.

GEOS happened after I progressed to PC's - I do recall being reasonably amazed by it though - especially given the constraints of the C64 hardware.

[harrry]

I used a DEC10 at Uni. I had a Texas Instrments TI 99 comp at home (sound and music with good sprites) and then a Commodore 64 and a couple ofSpectrums. The COmmodore ended up having disk drive and a parrallel connection and really sang.Dose anyone rememberr the GEOS program on the 64 which gave a really good Graphical Interface. Geos had a few really good programs running on it. A desktop publishing program which would beat some today comes to mind. Way before Windows which was a poor shadow of it. I am not talking about the poor imitation of it that ran on top of DOS as a shell which was also pre windows.

GEOS happened after I progressed to PC's - I do recall being reasonably amazed by it though - especially given the constraints of the C64 hardware.

It made amazing use of virtual memory and was way ahead of its time but then just died.

EDIT

I was wrong, at least the PC version is still alive. http://www.breadbox.com/index.php

There are a couple of good WIkipaedia articles about them too.

Edited November 12, 2014 by harrry

[bdenner]

WHAT!!! Are you saying DOS 3.0 has been replaced with something else? Here's me with my PDP 11 interfaced with a up market IBM AT and a hand built modem, in the middle of the rice paddies, just being told of this new innovation --- BTW --- WTx is Bill Gates?

EDIT: DOS 6.x was released with what was called "Virtual Windows" and used by the Foxboro (US) Instrumentation Company I worked for in the very early 80s who incorporated it into their new Process Control hardware at the time.

Edited November 12, 2014 by bdenner

[IMHO]

BTW --- WTx is Bill Gates?

He's the guy without the sense of humor:

[harrry]

Unwanted. Moderated out of existence....our old banned friend.,

[grabitanrun]

Ha! - I started working professionally on computers in 1974, first mainframe had 4k of memory!

Also remember the IBM Displaywriters, which preceded PC's

Remember spooling jobs down modems to IBM to process and taking several hours to get the print output back again

Does anyone remember John Osborne and his portable computer - I recall the advert with John standing in a telephone booth with a big suitcase sized device using an acoustic coupler onto a BT payphone :-)

It was great fun in those days as few real experts existed, now I manage multi-million dollar projects in time critical phases - were did the fun go to?

[raro]

19706_Clippy3.jpg

Unwanted. Moderated out of existence....our old banned friend.,

oh no, the dreaded paperclip. I remember this was the first thing to turn off on a new installation. It drove me nuts.

First computer was an Amiga 500. I found it far superior to all other computers in the market because it came with a strip poker disk. After a while I realized that there was nothing much to do with that thing other than playing strip poker so I swapped it with a friend's EuroPC. That was a enhanced IBM Pc, had 640 (!!) MB (or was that KB at that time?) of RAM and a 3.5" Floppy. Bought then a 20 GB HDD for it, that has cost me the price of a small used car and made the sound of a jet fighter on afterburners when you started it up. That thing was still under DOS. 5.0 I think it was.

Then a friend of mine said, come to see me, I have here something you couldn't believe it exists! Windows 2.0. It was the first time that I experienced the need of a new computer after upgrading from one Microsoft product to the next. Intel tried to make the computers faster and faster, whereas Microsoft did its best to keep them at the same speed as the old IBM PC.

[CapeCobra]

Microsoft knew little about OS. They paid Jim Peterson $75,000 for the Seattle Computer System's 86-Dos and renamed it MS-Dos. Allegedly, Gate's mother met IBM's chairman at a charity function and recommended her talented son and his partner. They had written a Basic interpreter. So, they were not without credentials. IBM completely underestimated the future of the PC, signed ridiculous contracts and created a monster.

[CapeCobra]

86- Dos was based on Digital Reseach C/PM but adapted to work with the 8086. Jim changed the file system and a couple of other things but, basically, it was a C/PM clone. At the time I worked with a much superior 16-Bit system called AMOS using Western Digital WD16 followed by Motorola 68000. That was fun.

[ETatBKK]

That was a enhanced IBM Pc, had 640 (!!) MB (or was that KB at that time?) of RAM and a 3.5" Floppy. Bought then a 20 GB HDD for it, that has cost me the price of a small used car and made the sound of a jet fighter on afterburners when you started it up. That thing was still under DOS. 5.0 I think it was.

I think I am OLD ENOUGH to comment this :-)

in 1987, IBM PS/2 30 came with 512KB of RAM. I paid USD300+ ( in 1987 ) and upgraded another 512KB, yeah 1MB on board :-) the built-in harddisk was 10MB, with no space and no extension for an additional HDD, I bought something called Harddisk Card with 20MB in 1988. that was screaming hell of money.

P.S. very soon, we will know the age of everyone in this thread ;-)

[maidee]

ah the good old times

2000 baht for 1 mb or ram

[boisian]

my first was a 386 with a math co processor with, if I recall, 4Mb RAM and a 20 Mb hard drive. I used Disk Doubler on the fly invisible compression to make the HDD work as a 40Mb hard drive. This messed with the extended memory manager, so I had to use QEMM386 - a third party extended memory manager by quarterdeck. AutoCAD 9 in DOS whatever. Banging around in Castle Wolfenstein when I should have been drafting.

[sweatalot]

I remember the days well. When you installed windows in that day you did not have to bother installing product keys. You merely got asked if you would like to register your product with Microsoft (entirely optional)

oh good old times

but on the other hand we had to change Disks like a DJ

Edited November 12, 2014 by sweatalot

[CapeCobra]

Microsoft knew little about OS. They paid Tim Paterson $75,000 for the Seattle Computer System's 86-Dos and renamed it MS-Dos. Allegedly, Gate's mother met IBM's chairman at a charity function and recommended her talented son and his partner. They had written a Basic interpreter. So, they were not without credentials. IBM completely underestimated the future of the PC, signed ridiculous contracts and created a monster.

Just rememered that SCP's 86-Dos was known as QDOS, Quick and Dirty OS. Perfect name for all future versions of MS-DOS.

[raro]

That was a enhanced IBM Pc, had 640 (!!) MB (or was that KB at that time?) of RAM and a 3.5" Floppy. Bought then a 20 GB HDD for it, that has cost me the price of a small used car and made the sound of a jet fighter on afterburners when you started it up. That thing was still under DOS. 5.0 I think it was.

I think I am OLD ENOUGH to comment this :-)

in 1987, IBM PS/2 30 came with 512KB of RAM. I paid USD300+ ( in 1987 ) and upgraded another 512KB, yeah 1MB on board :-) the built-in harddisk was 10MB, with no space and no extension for an additional HDD, I bought something called Harddisk Card with 20MB in 1988. that was screaming hell of money.

P.S. very soon, we will know the age of everyone in this thread ;-)

That EuroPC came with said 640 KB, it was dirt cheap compared to the IBM PC. A friend of mine had the IBM original and wrote his own keyboard drivers for it as the dos drivers consumed too much memory.

The 20 MB HDD was an external one, a huge box with its own power supply. I also did that upgrade to 1 MB RAM, and I was running word perfect 5.0, probably the best text processor ever.

Then came a sparkling new 386 with 4 (four!) MB of RAM. I remember some guy let me a fixed frequency 21" monitor, a veritable monster, coming with a gigantic graphics card. My tiny 14" sitting on top of it for the start up, and then vrooommm switch to the huge screen. Looked like Houston control centre.

That was already win 3.0 which we all considered a bit too colourful for professional use...

[sweatalot]

Just remember an old joke:

there was a meeting of the linux people which happened after windows95 came out

One of them said

"Be careful when you play the Windows95 CD backwards it plays satanic music !"

Another one answerd

"Even worse when you play it forward it will install windows"

[eeeya]

wow memory lane... I grew up in a computer house. Dad was using them for work

I remember going to the university and waiting for mum and dad to submit their punch cards, then come back the following day for the results ( i never really understood this technology..might go for a search in the web)

Then my parents bought a Kaypro II back in the early 80's. I think it was roughly the same price as a small car. Dad typed his thesis (PHD) out on it and printed it on the dot matrix printer (8 pin?? cant remember). That printer was so noisy he built an enclosure for it with a perspex door you could lift up.

Twin 5 1/4 disk drives, no graphics only ascii characters.

I still remember the sound this computer made when you started it up. Had a big switch at the back and sounded like you were initiating the launch of a soviet cold war missile.

After that we were IBM computers only...never had a "clone"

started with an IBM XT with a 16 bit 8088 cpu

then a XT 286 16 bit 80286 CPU

then 32bit chips

186, 286, 386,486, pentium

Montiors CGA, EGA, VGA. i still remember screaming in delight as my dad called me into the "computer room" and he had flight simulator running in 4 colour CGA!

VGA may as well have been HD 3d ...amazing!

We also had a 1200 baud modem which id call up the bullitin boards found in the back of pc magazines.

then the internet came..

Id show my friends "High Times" magazine website and we would all be awestruck at photos of dope plants on the internet.. I felt like a hacker..haha

[Chwooly]

I always find it interested that Windows 3.11 for workgroups, Windows NT and NT4.0 are always forgotten.

My first PC that I played on was a Radio Shack TRS-80, I loved playing Star Trek on it. Of course how many remember the Timex Sinclair?

The first computer I bought was a Commodore 128 and if I remember correctly it came with CP/M

I have used every version of Windows and can honestly say even after a year of using Win 8, I hate it and wish I was using Win 7 or even Vista.

[Balance]

if my long term memory intact, Microsoft introduced Windows 286 and 386, in 1986. I switched from DOS to Windows. then Windows 3.0 arrived in 1987, full of bugs :- ) then Windows 3.1 upgrade arrived quickly, more bugs ;- )

surely there was no internet at that age, but BBS ( bulletin board service ) ! it was fun !

not sure if Generation X and Z could understand this discussion !

I was a small health care VAR in the 80's selling and supporting a PC based medical billing system. At first we sold only single user on NEC and Sony boxes. One of those had a 20 mb drive partitioned, half on MS-DOS and have on CP/M. Later we converted to CompuPro and Bill Godbout's version of MPM. Great early multi-user distributed processing system that portended PC networking. And then came Novell, which allowed me to really compete with the mini computers. Mind you all of this was before Windows. I don't think Windows was a stable platform until 98 came out.

[Balance]

I always find it interested that Windows 3.11 for workgroups, Windows NT and NT4.0 are always forgotten.

My first PC that I played on was a Radio Shack TRS-80, I loved playing Star Trek on it. Of course how many remember the Timex Sinclair?

The first computer I bought was a Commodore 128 and if I remember correctly it came with CP/M

I have used every version of Windows and can honestly say even after a year of using Win 8, I hate it and wish I was using Win 7 or even Vista.

Yes, but none of those versions supported file and record locking, which was provided by Novell, among many other cool things. My first computer (1980) was an 8 bit CP/M based Vector Graphic. It came will two 5-1/4 floppies and 32 kbytes of RAM. The printer was a NEC spinwriter hard wired with a parallel cable that was at least an inch thick. When you moved the computer someone else had to pick up the printer at the same time. I eventually had to upgrade the RAM to 64 kbytes, but to do this you needed an S-100 bus static RAM card and then you had to cut a trace on the new card to the bus and then solder a jumper from the new card to the old one, which was connected to the bus.

Oh, the good old days.

[mwbrown]

Yes, I was at the Windows 1.0 launch event in New York City. I worked at a 3-person engineering company in Connecticut and they sent me down to check it out. It was crap of course, and continues to be, but their marketing and monopoly power have gotten us to this point. I'm not a fan of Apple either...

I've used more computers, operating systems and languages than I can remember. I got my TRS-80 Model 1 for Christmas 1977 at age 14 and decided that was the life for me. Got a BSc and MSc in Computer Science, worked at IBM for 22 years. Have now taken early retirement here, write Android software for electric vehicles for fun.

[masuk]

My university Dept in Oz bought a LISA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa

External hard drive took two 5inch floppy disks. The Lisa was obviously a start-up model, and I read sometime later that 20,000 of them were bulldozed. It was rapidly replaced with Macs which had ironed out a lot of Lisa's bugs..

My own computer was a pirated Apple II, direct from Taiwan. The instruction manual had LESS mistakes in it than an original AppleII. The pirated Apples were half the price of the USA Apples, and sold like hot cakes - until Apple sent a polite note to the store involved and they changed allegiance to the IBM type.

That 44 years went by quickly!

[garyinhuahin]

First experience was a KIM-1 'evaluation board' for the 6502 microprocessor (same one as Apple II). 1K of RAM, hand assembly only, 6 digit display and storage only to cassette tape. But the keyboard monitor that ran it was brilliant. 30 minutes after powering it up I understood precisely how microprocessors work!

[garyinhuahin]

Oh, and I actually walked a couple of miles in the snow to get it.

[ViragoRider]

I remember when 3 came out, most computers had to have a bios upgrade. Not a simple flash like now. But, a chip change. Several early computers did not have them socketed. Grab the soldering iron.

I made a good bit of money doing the chip swap in those days.

[Ulic]

I did not touch a computer until Windows 95. I was going to wait until the "Star Trek" talk to the computer and tell

it what I wanted it to do but Windows 95 was simple enough. I am a hunt and peck kind of guy on the keyboard.

To lazy to get "Mavis Beacon"and develop keyboard skills. Somehow I muddle through but most people here on the

TV board have forgotten more than I will ever know.