By Rich Robinson for Windows Guides
8 Steps to Get Windows Right ?
Windows “version 8″ is upon us. Bringing changes to the old, the safe, the familiar. Some say the changes are for the best. Others dread them, swear to keep the Seven (or XP) for a long time to come. Some even say they will never abandon XP as long as there’s hardware to support it. That is how changing things affect us.
However, things that seem new and daunting will undoubtedly after a period seem like the most natural thing in the world – something you just can’t imagine life without. Do you think that the changes in “Version 8″ are something you can live without ?
Some 20 years ago when Windows had reached the age of 3, people had not yet gotten used to the expressions “Double-click” or “Right-click”, “Drag and Drop”, “Minimize”, “Maximize”. Common users also were quite skeptical to this new fancy gadget called a “Mouse”. Very few people could imagine using this “contraption” for work and even fewer seeing it as a time-saving device. Can you imagine life without it today? Maybe you have to – the introduction of smart-phones, tablets and the upcoming Windows 8 – might force you to re-imagine life – without it… back to square one as it were.
Windows – PRE-history
In 1976, two friends (which set out to revolutionize the computer industry) had already introduced their new invention; the APPLE-1. Back then if you wanted to get a Personal Computer you would have to buy all the parts and assemble it on your own. The two Steve’s (Wozniak and Jobs) – changed that and sold their Apple Computer with fully assembled circuit boards (with over 60 integrated circuits). You would still need to assemble the box, power supply, power switch, keyboard, and monitor, but it saved the user a whole lot of work and frustration.
About two years later, two highly enthusiastic friends, Bill and Paul (Gates and Allen) founded Micro-Soft (today known as Microsoft). In 1980 they signed a contract with IBM to deliver the operating system for their line of Personal Computers. Microsoft bought the distribution rights to an OS named 86-DOS. Added a few features (like the FAT-filesystem) and renamed it MS-DOS. At the time there were many different OS’s on the market, most of which were very similar to the other. My first encounter with the PC ran an OS called TOS (Tandberg Operating System) which only a few today would remember.
IBM named it PC-DOS and it quickly became a popular and widespread system. Luckily for Gates & Co; IBM forgot to deny them the rights to co-develop MS-DOS which they licensed to competing PC vendors. Microsoft had begun their rise. When IBM in 1985 wanted Microsoft to help develop a new operating system, the OS/2 (workname NT / OS 2) Microsoft agreed. While back in their “lab” secretly developing their new battleship, that would grow to conquer the world.
This excerpt appears with the permission of Windows Guides.
