Windows 95 was definitely better for MS users, but it was really just patching a hole in a single company's product line. Macs were far more solid than Win 95/98/SE at the time, and things like Sun Sparc 5s were more solid than Macs. Before people were getting hit with security problems all the time, they used to go years without rebooting Unix servers.
It was more like one company with a stranglehold on the market was terrible. The intensity of that has waxed and waned, but that's been true from then all the way until now.
>they used to go years without rebooting Unix servers
A coworker was getting ready to do a RAM upgrade on a Solaris system that hadn't been rebooted in multiple years. I suggested to him: Before you do the RAM upgrade, try just rebooting the box to make sure it comes up WITHOUT the RAM upgrade. The day after the upgrade he came to me: "That was brilliant! We rebooted the box and it didn't come back up, it saved us time debugging why the RAM upgrade broke the system."
>it was probably the most absurd, loud marketing event the tech world has ever seen.
I remember watching TV with a friend during this and a Coke ad came on where this guy was shuffling from office to office asking for change for the Coke machine. I chuckled at it and he (a software engineer for like 20 years at that point) said "I don't get it, why was that funny? He was just looking for change." I replied: "That was Bill Gates."
Coke made a Bill Gates commercial for the release of Windows 95.
Not sure about the "last true revolution" claim, but the release was a seminal moment in computing. Growing up in the 90s, for me it feels like the milestone achievements or turning points were:
11 comments
[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 47.1 ms ] threadIt was more like one company with a stranglehold on the market was terrible. The intensity of that has waxed and waned, but that's been true from then all the way until now.
A coworker was getting ready to do a RAM upgrade on a Solaris system that hadn't been rebooted in multiple years. I suggested to him: Before you do the RAM upgrade, try just rebooting the box to make sure it comes up WITHOUT the RAM upgrade. The day after the upgrade he came to me: "That was brilliant! We rebooted the box and it didn't come back up, it saved us time debugging why the RAM upgrade broke the system."
I remember watching TV with a friend during this and a Coke ad came on where this guy was shuffling from office to office asking for change for the Coke machine. I chuckled at it and he (a software engineer for like 20 years at that point) said "I don't get it, why was that funny? He was just looking for change." I replied: "That was Bill Gates."
Coke made a Bill Gates commercial for the release of Windows 95.
- Windows 95
- Broadband Internet
- AI