Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Secret Origin of Windows

Posted by Soulskill on from the sounds-like-a-comic-book-character dept.

harrymcc writes "Windows has been so dominant for so long that it's easy to forget Windows 1.0 was vaporware, mocked both outside and inside of Microsoft — and that its immediate successors were considered stopgaps until OS/2 was everywhere. Tandy Trower, the product manager who finally got Windows 1.0 out the door a quarter century ago, has written a memoir of the experience. (He thought being assigned the much-maligned project was Microsoft's fiendish way of trying to get rid of him.) The story involves such still-significant figures as Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, and Nathan Myhrvold; Trower left Microsoft only in November of 2009 after 28 years with the company."

7 of 402 comments (clear)

  1. Still mocked, and rightly so. by newdsfornerds · · Score: 0, Troll

    Your Windows box is a fun playground for criminals of all stripes, from script kiddies to mafiosos. Always will be.

    --
    Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.
  2. Once again Inigo Montoya says: by ClosedSource · · Score: 0, Troll

    You keep using that word "vaporware". I do not think it means what you think it means. ...

  3. You 1nsensitive clod... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Raci5t? How is bunch of gay negros

  4. I thought the story went something like this: by Enderandrew · · Score: -1, Troll

    I thought the story was something like this:

    Gates saw demonstrations from Xerox and wanted to copy what they were doing. He was also stealing some concepts from Apple. He asked IBM to bank-roll him, promising to develop OS/2 for IBM as the operating system to end all operating systems.

    Secretly, they were working on Windows, while also semi-sabotaging OS/2. So they were basically defrauding IBM of money to fund Windows production, which didn't really turn into much of a real product until Windows 3.1.

    Is there some other secrets to the origin story I'm missing?

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  5. Re:I never could get it load on my Timex-Sinclair by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 0, Troll

    Oh, bit shift your A2 register, you MSFT shill.

    Seriously, you probably don't even know that China owns Lenova (IBM thinkpad) now.

    I was hand-soldering S100 bus computers and tuning my floppy drives with a screwdriver before you were in diapers.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  6. Re:I never could get it load on my Timex-Sinclair by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 0, Troll

    So you admit you're not old enough to actually have been working in the field back then?

    LOL. You microserfs are fun.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  7. Re:Windows history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    No Windows, no apps. Nothing but a C:> prompt.

    Uh huh. Sorry, but the applications you mentioned were readily available to DOS systems back then.

    The DOS box won (go figure) and we all figured that the fix was in.

    Personally, I would have been thrilled. I've done for more productive stuff on a DOS machine then I had playing around with any Mac computer.

    So we could watch the little cursor blink, I guess.

    Couldn't figure it out without a mouse, eh?

    that damned machine just sat on my desk next to my Mac

    I'd certainly rather have the DOS machine than any damned Mac.

    winking its stupid cursor at me.

    Wow, you people didn't even want to try to use it. Sad.

    By the way, Microsoft wasn't the only supplier of DOS. Digital Research had their own out and it was far superior to anything Microsoft released as DOS.