On this date (Nov. 20, 1985), Microsoft unleashed Windows 1.0 into the world. When it first came out, the retail price was $100… which, in today’s dollars, roughly translates into your eternal soul, and any free time you might have had for the next century. Roughly. These types of currency conversions are really more art than science…
We have a marketing whiz named Rowland Hanson to thank for the name. Bill Gates wanted to call it Interface Manager. As trippingly as that might roll off the tongue, Gates was finally persuaded that Windows was a better name. Just think how different your favorite geek’s life would have been if they couldn’t spend the late 80s and early 90s making up clever “I don’t do Windows” jokes. Tragic!
Thanks to Windows, there was no more need to type those MS-DOS commands – you could simply move a mouse to point and click your way through various screens, with drop-down menus, scroll bars, dialog boxes, and little representative images called icons.
In other words, it was what Apple was already doing.
When Apple warned Gates that there were serious copyright and trade secret issues, he made the best deal since Peter Minuit bought Manhattan for 2 bagels and a used Britney Spears CD: he licensed Apple features for Windows 1.0 and all future Microsoft software programs… This deal protected Microsoft from several Apple lawsuits as subsequent Windows versions were released. Not bad!
That move set the stage for decades of Microsoft dominance in the tech world, and helped turn Bill Gates into the bajillionaire he is today. And it still impacts my world – yeah, I have an Apple iPad and an Android phone, but I’m typing this on a Windows laptop. In fact, I’m typing this into a little program called Notepad – which was included in the original Windows 1.0 release.
Still, all good things eventually end, right? Microsoft finally quit supporting Windows 1.0 on December 31, 2001 – a 16-year run ain’t bad in the software world.
So, happy 27th birthday, Windows… Press [OK] to continue.
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