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Windows 95 Turns 15

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-remember-when dept.

An anonymous reader writes "15 years ago on this day, Microsoft's then new Windows 95 was released. Among other things it moved users away from the archaic file manager and program manager to Windows explorer and the start menu. Compared to today's 'social desktop,' I'd much rather have the simpler and more sparse (pre-Internet Explorer integrated) Windows Explorer, though I do not like the (lack of) stability that Windows 95 offers. Of course if you were alive then, you've probably seen the commercials." I fondly recall downloading build after build and installing them. But within months of the official release, I switched to Linux.

4 of 461 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bland and inoffensive by Gruturo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Indeed. In 1997, I ran my Windows 95 box with a year of Uptime without needing to reboot it,

    Sorry, I call bullshit. A known issue, fixed only in 1999, would prevent Windows 95 and 98 from going over 49.7 days of uptime (2^32 milliseconds). Much hilarity ensued back in the day since "how could anyone have noticed / run into this" :-)

    --

    Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
  2. Re:I finally could tell my friend to go to hell by airfoobar · · Score: 5, Informative

    OS/2 wasn't out-competed by other products in the market -- it was tactically murdered by Microsoft to spite IBM (who had hugely invested in it) and put Windows in total control of the market.

    I kid you not. This played a huge part in the anti-trust lawsuit, and it's well-documented historical fact. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/368660.stm

    So, I wish your buddy could have continued throwing OS/2 in your face, because today we could definitely do with a bit more competition in the OS department.

  3. Re:I finally could tell my friend to go to hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Win95 was 32-bit "OS" bolted on DOS. OS/2 was 32-bit from the ground up.

    Argh, not this again. Windows 95 used DOS basically as a bootloader and not much else.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/12/24/6849530.aspx (Even references Slashdot bait, thanks to myths perpetuated on here).

    Once in protected mode, the virtual device drivers did their magic. Among other things those drivers did was "suck the brains out of MS-DOS," transfer all that state to the 32-bit file system manager, and then shut off MS-DOS.

  4. Re:I finally could tell my friend to go to hell by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, it did use it as a bootloader. Question is: why didn't they write a propper bootloader in the first place then? Also, it damn well could use DOS drivers. The device manager complained about drivers in 16-bit mode, but it use them. It WAS a hybrid and not a full 32-bit OS.