Who remembers Windows 1.0 ?

[Thaimaishoe]

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!

You're as old as I am if you remember this.....

Ahhh, the heady days of dialing into the WOPR for a nice game of "Global Thermonuclear War"!!! :-)

Lemme guess your phone made the dialing noises like the dial was spinning, even though you pressed one button right!! :-)

Hell I remember we had to walk to school and back home... up hill... both ways!

But seriously, I remember the phone! (never used a sonic coupler type modem though!)

[MAJIC]

Yep! I remember Windows 1.0 and Dos 3-4-5 and 6.

In that era you really had to learn about computers and operating systems, at work and in the Bars,the talk would often revolve around how much Ram you had installed,and the size of your hard Disk,not forgetting the crap programs guaranteed to give you 35% extra speed. I could go on but windows 1-0 was certainly a milestone,even if the idea of windows was nicked from apple!

[MAJIC]

Was using GEM at home and CPM at work in the 80s, I was a datacomms engineer for BT, using the old modem 13a and upto 9600baud for fixed link high grade leased lines. I was also working on X25 packet switching network, Telecom Gold (fprerunner to modern Email and Prestel......come on, who remember those ?

My love at home those were the old BBS, my house at the time had a party line with the next door neighbour.......fill in your own blanks about my cheap phone bills considering the amount of time I spent on line even back then on my trusty BBC micro and C64 ;-)

Pioneering, halcyon days.....

As for the ops original question, i started with win 2.0, i dont remember 1.0 being on general release tbh....i still cant believe its 20 years since the seminal win95 release !!!

damn we're old....Leo anyone ??

Yes it's all of that! and another Leo too, I remember going to a ticket only Microsoft Roadshow at the Alexandra Palace in North London at the launch of Windows 95, they had computers on stage running a whopping 32 mg of Ram that where crashing left right and centre!

I have been through all the MS operating systems,and in my opinion the most reliable and easy to use OS was windows 98. Which I still have an original copy!

Edited November 12, 2014 by MAJIC

[MAJIC]

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.

And the commodore 64,and later the Commodore 16 which died from want of software!

[NamKAheng]

At the beginning we use a Commodore 64 that we programmed in BASIC to calculate our network engineering project and it work perfectly. My boss bought a IBM 286 with DOS (don't remember the version) and Lotus 123 to make the same calculation but when we input the numbers in Lotus 123 we had to wait for the answer, with the Commodore we hit enter and we got the answer right away so we kept the Commodore for the network calculation, lollll

[NamKAheng]

Yes it's all of that! and another Leo too, I remember going to a ticket only Microsoft Roadshow at the Alexandra Palace in North London at the launch of Windows 95, they had computers on stage running a whopping 32 mg of Ram that where crashing left right and centre!

I have been through all the MS operating systems,and in my opinion the most reliable and easy to use OS was windows 98. Which I still have an original copy!

I still have my BASIC programs, originals DOS 6.22, Windows 3.1, Windows 98, Windows 95, did not fall for ME, Vista (I got it with a laptop) this one I should put in the trash, and finally Windows 7.

[NamKAheng]

Still remember with Windows 3.1?

• FidoNet for the BBS
• Compuserve first internet connection, first e-mail service, first chat service, I still remember my first chat with a girl in California from here (Quebec)
• Gopher
• Archie
• WAIS
• Kermit and FTP
• Mosaic first browser
• Pain it was to configure an internet connection until TCPMAN and Trumpet Winsock
• Netscape Navigator with a nice dial up interface, easy to configure
• Webcrawler the first web search engine, then Lycos

We were amazed looking at the sunrise in New Zeland with pictures refresh at 1 minutes interval, lollll

[Chwooly]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Yep! I remember Windows 1.0 and Dos 3-4-5 and 6.

In that era you really had to learn about computers and operating systems, at work and in the Bars,the talk would often revolve around how much Ram you had installed,and the size of your hard Disk,not forgetting the crap programs guaranteed to give you 35% extra speed. I could go on but windows 1-0 was certainly a milestone,even if the idea of windows was nicked from apple!

Apple stole it from Xerox PARC so is stealing from a thief really stealing? :-))

[horsewell]

I never knew Windows 1... Used Windows 3.11 for animation at high school and that was because it was the only thing they had. Used a DOS powered program with a custom mouse driven GUI to make the graphics because Windows just couldn't cut it in those days. Mind you I had an Amiga 500 at home that was very advanced for the early 90s. I haven't and wont waste my time reading the article. You can't look at Windows without looking at what it came from, and what the company (microsoft) crushed in order to be the status quo. A dominate position that the company is now frittering away. Microsoft makes most of it's money form lots of server and seat licences, not sales of Windows to the masses. it was hardly the first GUI and never the best. I think Xerox was messing with GUIs since the 60s with a mouse to boot and that begot the Macintosh and thus Windows and so on.

[horsewell]

Apple stole it from Xerox PARC so is stealing from a thief really stealing? :-))

i think Apple paid for it... They made an investment and got the VIP tour which they took Microsoft on too... Microsoft was hired by Apple to create the Office apps which was the "Killer" Windows 2.0 apps that killed Lotus 1-2-3 and Apple in the business world at the time. If anything it was the later company that took the ideas for free (and some fancy contract language)... but then we will have to wait a few more years before all this plays out to see how we are going to write the story. Still very early days.

[Paul888]

I joined the Windows party at 3.0 although I was using MS Dos and DR Dos before that. Can't recall even hearing about Windows 1 or 2

Users nowadays are totally spoiled. Buy a pc get it home and you are online or doing stuff within a minute. When I bought my first pc, I got it home switched it on and found that until I could get a game copied onto a floppy from a mate at work, all I could actually do with this thing was type "dir" at the c: prompt over and over.

[horsewell]

Multiple post... removed.

Edited November 13, 2014 by horsewell

[snairb]

I built my first computer Z80, 1K of Ram, 4 K of eprom ,video adapter feeding television,

PIA to drive keyboard and printer(which was a teleprinter) converted 8 bit to 5bit murray code

used an ultraviolet light to erase eproms then blew them using machine code to drive the Z80

and used hexidecimal code for the eproms which was converted to 8bit

then used a bootstrap program to start up then repaged the memory by using the mirror registers of the Z80

saved all my software on a tape recorder never managed to fill a tape

Windows 1 sorry I dont remember that

[Daffy D]

Seems like most of you guys/gals had university or work computers to play with in those early days.

Us ordinary mortals had to buy our own and though I can't remember the prices I know they were not cheap.

My first BBC Micro used the TV as a monitor but after a while I had saved enough to get a proper monitor and the difference was amazing. Nothing compared to todays resolutions but awesome for the time.

The Internet was something that was hinted at but did not interest me at the time I was just bowled over with the things that the computer could do who needed the Internet .

Eventually did get the "acoustic coupler" and joined the world, and the rest is history

[WhizBang]

I remember seeing Winows 1.0 (and 2.0), but it wasn't until Windows 3.0 and 3.1 that I started to use it.

[ViragoRider]

Seems like most of you guys/gals had university or work computers to play with in those early days.

Us ordinary mortals had to buy our own and though I can't remember the prices I know they were not cheap.

My first BBC Micro used the TV as a monitor but after a while I had saved enough to get a proper monitor and the difference was amazing. Nothing compared to todays resolutions but awesome for the time.

The Internet was something that was hinted at but did not interest me at the time I was just bowled over with the things that the computer could do who needed the Internet .

Eventually did get the "acoustic coupler" and joined the world, and the rest is history

My first two was a DEC PDP 8 with paper tape and a Timex Synclair "mini computer".

Later used the Timex to watchdog a early PC that was running a bbs. If the computer stopped responding to the timex's ACK requests, the Timex would toggle a relay rebooting the PC.

[CharlieH]

My first interest and use came with the Sinclair Spectrum zx81, then the Commadore Vic20, my first proper computer was Windows 95

[technologybytes]

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 ;-)

I too owned a PS2 Model 30, it supported VGA which was very new at the time.. I only had IBM's greyscale monitor but it looked sharp on the PS2 /30.

I believe mine came with a 20mb Hard drive and 640k or memory, I updated it with a memory card which would work with Windows 3.0 but was not compatible with Windows 3.1. It was a 8 bit computer, or more accurately it was a processor that was internally 16 bit but with only 8 bit connections to the busses. Either a 8088 or a 8086, but by then computers were being built with the '286 or '386 processors.

Every upgrade to Windows basically needed more memory and faster processors.

I switched from the IBM PS2 to a Mac and stayed with Macs, even through the bad years in the early 90's when they were turning out crap .

[harrry]

I had one of these too. Had to fly from Turkey back to to Australia once. The thing weighed about 20kg. I had to carry it as hand luggage.

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/commodore-sx64.html

Edited November 14, 2014 by harrry

[CapeCobra]

Anybody remember the Osborne 1? I think I first saw this portable monster at the NCC in Chicago. It came with C/PM, 2 SS/SD 5 1/4" floppies and a tiny screen. That bastard was heavy. The Compaq Portable using MS/DOS followed some time later. Still 13 Kg to schlepp around. I gave up the idea of developing portable apps. Also remember buying Cromenco RAM boards for my exclusive S100 bus Alphamicro system. This beauty didn't have the 640K memory boundary and AMOS supported multiple dumb terminals, e.g. from Televideo, haha.

[Chicog]

c64.jpgI had one of these too. Had to fly from Turkey back to to Australia once. The thing weighed about 20kg. I had to carry it as hand luggage.

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/commodore-sx64.html

That's why the name "Portable" was swiftly changed to "Luggable".

[harrry]

c64.jpgI had one of these too. Had to fly from Turkey back to to Australia once. The thing weighed about 20kg. I had to carry it as hand luggage.

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/commodore-sx64.html

That's why the name "Portable" was swiftly changed to "Luggable".

Osbourne did that for theirs...I think Commadore was still portable.No need for weight training at the gym in those days.

[dddave]

By the time Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corp (Once the 2nd largest computer maker, behind IBM) saw the writing on the wall and finally produced a "PC" (The Rainbow), he made the mistake of using CPM as the OS. The cost of writing off the losses from the 2 million machines they couldn't sell and had to junk was one of the nails in their coffin.

Speaking of fails; anybody remember IBM's PC Junior, chiclet keyboard and all?

I also remember that though Commodore's Amiga was overshadowed by the Mac, it's MIDI music interface was way ahead of it's time and was used for many years after by recording studios.

How many also remember pouring over COMPUTER SHOPPER (big as a phonebook) magazine for cheap components. A friend and I built our first '386 machines with off the shelf parts...couldn't believe how easy it was, and cheap:...about half the price of buying an assembled machine.

[ETatBKK]

I too owned a PS2 Model 30, it supported VGA which was very new at the time.. I only had IBM's greyscale monitor but it looked sharp on the PS2 /30.

Every upgrade to Windows basically needed more memory and faster processors.

I switched from the IBM PS2 to a Mac and stayed with Macs, even through the bad years in the early 90's when they were turning out crap .

I still keep that PS2/30 286, but not working anymore.

I also bought a 14-inch NEC MultiSync VGA monitor, it was about USD600 in 1987, I was mad. together with the applications, all together almost my half year salary :-(

then I ran both Wins and Mac till 1998. well, mr Macintosh and the Apple OS, eating up all the expensive HHD space and the RAM. seems there was not such word - sustainable :-(

[CapeCobra]

By the time Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corp (Once the 2nd largest computer maker, behind IBM) saw the writing on the wall and finally produced a "PC" (The Rainbow), he made the mistake of using CPM as the OS. The cost of writing off the losses from the 2 million machines they couldn't sell and had to junk was one of the nails in their coffin.

Speaking of fails; anybody remember IBM's PC Junior, chiclet keyboard and all?

I also remember that though Commodore's Amiga was overshadowed by the Mac, it's MIDI music interface was way ahead of it's time and was used for many years after by recording studios.

How many also remember pouring over COMPUTER SHOPPER (big as a phonebook) magazine for cheap components. A friend and I built our first '386 machines with off the shelf parts...couldn't believe how easy it was, and cheap:...about half the price of buying an assembled machine.

DEC in the 70s could not be convinced that their mini computers were suitable for commercial apps. PDP11 with RSX11 and followed by the 32bit VAX with VMS were powerful machines. They seemed to move into the primitive PC market with disgust. The salesmen hated dealing with that junk.

I remember Amiga. For my private recordings, I bought an Atari ST with the great Midi Software Notator. Should be in the basement somewhere.

[raro]

I remember the atari St. Friend of mine had it and it did something with the 9 needle printer that made much better printouts than the PCs those days. It also had a much nicer screen to look at than those ugly green or amber monitors.

[ozsamurai]

Started with card reading DOS IBM's, we had to start feeding the stacks of cards to run whatever game/program a the beginning of our 1 hour lunch break forgoing food, to maybe get 10mins of use time, if the card didn't have a peanut butter stain in it. Windows 1 was heaven in a box, it only crashed every 2 days. You kids don't know how lucky you really are.....

ATARI, waaay down the track, but FROGGER, WAVY NAVY and one of my all time favs KARATEKA!!!

Oz

[ETatBKK]

how sweet, no one OWNS a computer those days ! in school time, even in work, we have to BOOK your own time slot, early in the morning, hungry lunch hour, late at night . . . yeah, on a dusty black board. you have to make sure everything well prepared, before go into the computer room. well, computer is a 'room' !

the birth of Apple II, Atari, IBM PC . . . changed our life though.

[dddave]

Just remembering how, during the 50's and 60's, punch cards tagged every aspect of our lives...and God forbid you should tear, staple or fold or allow to get wet. Every form you filled out was also a punch card and trying to write legibly around the punch holes was an art. Damage a punch card and your University class schedule evaporated, your health records gone and bills paid got posted to the wrong account.

One of my first jobs was in the "Tab" room of a major corporation, sorting and compiling tens of thousands of cards a day. The machines were old and read the cards mechanically, with pins, and would frequently jam, often mutilating a bunch of cards in the process. Trying to recreate those cards was a chore.

At the end of each day, we'd toss out a bin full of the tiny paper bits resulting from holes being punched. It wasn't until the notorious 2000 US Presidential election; wherein the result hung on the outcome of the Florida absentee vote tally that I learned that those little hole pieces had a name as "Hanging chad" forever became a part of the American political lexicon.

Edited November 15, 2014 by dddave

[ravip]

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