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The Long Reach of Windows 95
jfruh writes: I'm a Mac guy — have been ever since the '80s. When Windows 95 was released 20 years ago, I was among those who sneered that "Windows 95 is Macintosh 87." But now, as I type these words on a shiny new iMac, I can admit that my UI — and indeed the computing landscape in general — owes a lot to Windows 95, the most influential operating system that ever got no respect. ITWorld reports: "... even though many techies tend to dismiss UI innovation as eye candy, the fact is that the changes made in Windows 95 were incredibly successful in making the the system more accessible to users -- so successful, in fact, that a surprising number of them have endured and even spread to other operating systems. We still live in the world Windows 95 made. When I asked people on Twitter their thoughts about what aspects of Windows 95 have persisted, I think Aaron Webb said it best: 'All of it? Put a 15 year old in front of 3.1 and they would be lost. In front of Windows 95 they would be able to do any task quickly.'"
As a person who was a Mac user at the time (actually working on Mac support at my college Helpdesk), I can tell you that Win95 had its issues, but it was an order of magnitude better than DOS. In short, it didn't quite catch up in terms of usability to a Mac, but it got to that level of "good enough" combined with the power ramp-up and commoditization of the Wintel hardware that allowed it to bury the old Macs.
Also, the advent of Linux gave the humble Wintel box a legitimately useful UNIX-like OS. So, between Win95 and Linux you had a cheap and potentially powerful platform with a choice of what you'd run.
The Mac was always more innovative, but it stalled and eventually coasted into near-oblivion until Jobs came back and they started working on OSX in earnest.
For my part, I got to the point where I used Macs until just after I got out of college and between being forced to use a PC in the workplace (for Windows and Linux) and the relative lack of games and applications in general, I simply bought a PC after my PowerMac died. I knew enough about computers in general to overcome the rough edges of Windows so it was not a big deal. I really haven't looked back since. I think current Macs are good equipment with a good OS, but they just aren't worth the extra money and the inability to simply replace my own parts if they start acting up. I doubt I'll bother with them again in their current consumer toy incarnation.
I do enjoy my iPhone for what it is worth, though. After all, the iPhone feels like what Jobs was always trying to go for: a walled garden consumer appliance that just sort of worked, which I think they've succeeded at for the most part.