Windows Oddities: 25 Years of Microsoftian Weirdness
Posted by Benj Edwards | Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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Contrary to popular belief, Windows is far from boring. Dig below the surface, and you’ll discover a stranger side to the world’s most popular operating system. It’s filled with twisted homages, forgotten platforms, and dead ends. In a word, it’s full of oddities.
On the eve of Windows’ 25th birthday–version 1.0 shipped on November 20th, 1985–let’s explore this underground. When we’re done, tell us about the Windows oddities you’ve encountered.
November 17th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Actually, Apple was supposed to build common hardware reference platform (CHRP) Macs that could run NT, but Apple quickly abandoned CHRP. The only CHRP machine that ever really made it to market was the R/6000, and IBM wanted it to run AIX, not Windows.
April 27th, 2011 at 2:32 am
Actually, it was Motorola that wrote the original NT port for the Power PC platform. They even had systems running NT in a Motorola branded box. Motorola pulled out because they didn't want to damage the "corporate partnership" with Apple.
April 27th, 2011 at 4:34 am
That's true, but I don't think the Moto box ever actually shipped. I remember seeing it at Comdex in probably 94 or 95.
November 17th, 2010 at 8:21 am
I love ToastyTech GUI gallery. I just wish the guy would tone down his hatred for Internet Explorer. I mean, I'm no fan of IE either, but geez.
November 17th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Windows 3.1 on the iPad. I was fortunate enough to snag iDOS before it got pulled, and installed Windows on it simply because it was possible. Played a game of Minesweeper for kicks.
November 17th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
An interesting oddity to profile would have been Windows Neptune, which was supposed to be the consumer version of Windows 2000. Neptune was put together and tested prior to Whistler, and then cancelled after (I believe) two builds due to the “OS X threat” and MS’s need to add a few features (i.e. font smoothing, theming) that the 2000 engine didn’t support. One of the builds can be found “in the usual places.”
The only differences I can find between 2000 and Neptune were preliminary login and multiple user interfaces that didn’t really work yet, but the experiment was fascinating nevertheless.
November 19th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Whistler was named after a ski resort. The red parts of the logo form a stylized skier.
November 22nd, 2010 at 11:16 am
What was that Compaq all-in-one computer called? I remember that!
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:22 am
I think is was simply called the Compaq Portable (because it had a handle to carry it with, still weighed 40 pounds!)…. Remember the Kaypro ? I think it ran CPM (control program for microprocessors).
December 3rd, 2010 at 11:24 am
Noticed how absolutely they failed at graphical design? I mean this stuff is seriously deficient in aesthetics. The colors, the fonts, the icons, everything seems to be DESIGNED to be consistently butt ugly from one version to the next.
It’s no wonder that Steve Jobs said something to the effect that “Microsoft has no sense of design”. He was being charitable. It could have been so, so much better – and still could.
In fact, I’ve grown to hate the whole GUI concept that Microsoft and Apple still tout as the epitome of design. Give me a list of programs that always run, that always retain their state, no file management, no hard drive letters, and NO UI, thanks.
July 27th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
"Give me a list of programs that always run, that always retain their state, no file management, no hard drive letters, and NO UI, thanks"
That would be OSX Lion in full screen mode. A little way to go with the elimination of file management, but that will be sorted when iCloud comes out if you use compatible apps
December 5th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
That was in "Triumph of the Nerds" … Microsoft has no taste…. http://www.pbs.org/nerds/
December 6th, 2010 at 2:48 am
@Esteban Yeah that guy at toastytech is really really into bashing Microsoft for everything, even nowadays that IE doesn't even represent a treat to openness like it did then.
@Dave It was a presario model from the mid 90's not a Compaq Portable like the other user said
@Windows Pain.. Well.. I'm going to be honest here, when Windows95 hit the market it really looked gorgeous, the backgrounds, the way you could customize the colours, a lot of people say that it was the only time when Windows looked better than Mac OS, and I agree, MAC OS at that time looked like shit, and to be honest it still looked outdated until they came out with OS X
March 26th, 2011 at 11:53 am
"Windows95 hit the market it really looked gorgeous". http://tinyurl.com/64acnen Heavens. What on earth are you smoking?
May 28th, 2011 at 3:07 am
Windows 95's look was copied from NeXT. Also, the "My Computer" hierarchy is from NeXT.
December 6th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
@Windows Pain: Most of these are alpha/beta releases…
May 28th, 2011 at 3:09 am
That's when you should see early design directions, but instead you see pixels that look puked up.
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Remember that Microsoft revived Windows for PowerPC with special versions running on PowerMac G5s for demoing/developing XBox 360 games?
May 28th, 2011 at 3:08 am
Not really. The XBox runs PowerPC, so they used Power Macs as development workstations.
December 30th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Wasn’t Windows 3.11 actually known as Windows for Workgroups?
April 26th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Late to the party here, but man, I am in love with that gal in the BSoD shirt…
I’ve been working with Windows since 3.1. It’s wild to see some of this behind the scenes stuff.
May 27th, 2011 at 7:49 am
He was being charitable. It could have been so, so much better – and still could，Played a game of Minesweeper for kicks.
August 23rd, 2011 at 6:23 pm
I had a "tablet" PC that ran the PEN Windows OS that I carried around for a semester back in grad school (2000ish). Until someone stole it. But I had picked it up in the lab so it probably just wandered around campus some more. It had a HUGE wifi add-on that I used to no great advantage. Still, it was fun to sit in class and pretend to be taking notes with the chunky stylus while I was really surfing the net. Of course you had to use the stylus (no cap touch), it was about 2 inches thick, was only about a 7 inch screen and had about 12 or 13 colors it could display. I'll bet resolution was maybe 640 x 8something. Maybe less. Still, the OS had some interesting features that are still around today.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
“John Says: December 30th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Wasn’t Windows 3.11 actually known as Windows for Workgroups?”
They were essentially the same but WFWG was a separate product marketed to business users. On the WFWG product, file sharing on but nothing is shared so that users could set that up without rebooting. there were some other chenges as well. The reason file sharing worked was it used Microsoft’s NetBEUI networking protocol.
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November 22nd, 2011 at 1:19 pm
It was called the Compaq Transportable, and it was closer to 60 lbs. Started using windows 1.03 and eventually graduated to Geoworks Ensemble.
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December 1st, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Noticed how absolutely they failed at graphical design? I mean this stuff is seriously deficient in aesthetics. The colors, the fonts, the icons, everything seems to be DESIGNED to be consistently butt ugly from one version to the next.
It's no wonder that Steve Jobs said something to the effect that "Microsoft has no sense of design". He was being charitable. It could have been so, so much better – and still could.
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I use mostly Server 2003 (mostly converted to desktop OS), and XP Pro on a few machines… I find them MUCH faster and more compatible with my programs than Vista / 7. There are themes available to make 2003 / XP look just like, or better than Vista / 7.
If you open a command prompt, and type VER, Vista AND 7 are both WinNT 6.xx
7 is not really 7. I'm suprised that the PC vs Mac commercials didn't bring this up 🙂
Vista is a (well known) PIG, 7 is a *little* better, but XP (or 2003) will out-perform them every time.
Please try this for yourself.
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December 13th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
A scheduled task to reboot at 2am once a week would have been a simple fix in your circumstance.
December 19th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
On the WFWG product, file sharing on but nothing is shared so that users could set that up without rebooting. there were some other changes as well. The reason file sharing worked was it used Microsoft's NetBEUI networking protocol. bed bath and beyond printable coupons
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They were essentially the same but WFWG was a separate product marketed to business users.
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