Microsoft Windows

[HmC_RaNgEr]

Hey there.....this is probably one of the dumbest questions I have ever asked, but who originally designed the Windows operating system? Or where did it comes from? Way back when.....!!!

later guys,
Ranger

[grandslammer]

Did you ever watch "the Pirates of Silicon Valley?" If not, take a look at that one.

Billy G. and his buddies bought DOS from a guy for 50 large, the "licensed" it to IBM for............ well, the rest is history.

IBM's best decision ever, "sure, we'll let you retain the rights to this DOS, the real money's in hardware anyway!"


DOH!

M

[HmC_RaNgEr]

Thanks grandslammer, I will have to take a look at that movie, but what I was wondering, is who actually designed the Windows operating system. Was it Bill Gates? IBM?? Who?

Thanks
Ranger

[krusty]

It was an AppleMac thing. Microsoft copied the concept & called it windows.

[This message has been edited by krusty (edited 04-04-2000).]

[daveleau]

Well they copied everything except the stability. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif (I am NOT a mac guy though.)
Dave

[grandslammer]

Yeah, billy g has a real affinity for taking others ideas and making them his own.

Apple did have the first gui, right?

But, they took they "mouse" from an IBM team, right?

HA!

After a while it's easy to lose perspective on everything isn't it? Or then again, does it just bring things in to perspective?

M

[happyhamster]

AFAIK the concepts of modern GUI were developed at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in the 70s. Later Apple employed several researchers from there, as well as adopted and implemented their ideas. Microsoft took some time to catch up. They definitely "borrowed" many ideas from Xerox and Apple and put those in Windows. Apple even tried to sue(unsuccessfully). There's an excellent historical article (http://home.san.rr.com/deans/lisagui.html) about desing of Lisa, Mac first computer with GUI. Also, take a look at brief History of the Graphical User Interface (http://www.mackido.com/Interface/ui_history.html).

If you're interested in Windows only, it was designed by Microsoft Windows Team (doh). Operating system is a huge project, they probably had hundreds of programmers working on different parts of it, altough Gates was one of the main inspirers, and had the power to shape the development. Also, Windows isn't a single product. There's at least 3 major OSes, all with different design: Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT. Finally, here's a A Brief History of Microsoft Windows (http://www.primenet.com/~jforbes/windows.html).

The history of the mouse and its inventor is amazing on its own. His name is Douglas Engelbart (http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/special/engelbart/). The man envisioned modern networked(!) computer in the early 70s! He invented the mouse in 1963. Here's the first rodent:
http://personal.paclink.net/~oleg/oldmouse.gif
Another good article (http://www.ul.ie/~childsp/elements/issue4/bannon.htm) about his work.


[This message has been edited by happyhamster (edited 04-06-2000).]