35 years of Windows. From irreconcilable enemies to close friends

35 years of Windows

At previous article, we had begun to review the three and a half decades that Microsoft's operating system has been with us. Windows set the pace for personal computing from the early 90s until the advent of smartphones, a market to which Microsoft, despite its attempts, could never make a foothold.

35 years of Windows. From success to failure

We had left this story with the release of Windows XP, an operating system that remained in force until very recently and that is still more used than its successor Windows Vista. And if Microsoft, the most popular web sites and app developers hadn't gotten tough and stopped supporting it, it would probably still be the most widely used.

Windows XP had some security tools but they were disabled by default. That made you the target of cybercriminals, Like the Internet Explorer browser, successive Services Packs were released, but many didn't even bother to install them.

Windows Vista

Windows Vista

Windows Vista was the great failure of 35 years of Windows

First version of the operating system to be distributed in DVD format.

Probably the best thing Microsoft did for Linux was not its Windows Subsystem for Linux, but to release this version in January 2007. From the graphical interface side, Vista updated the look of Windows with a lot of use of transparent elements.

Seeking to improve security, the only thing it did was anger the user. It bombarded him with constant requests from "User Account Control" to give permissions when he wanted to run an application.

The intention was good, but the psychology was bad. People clicked "Yes" to everything without reading Another problem was that many computers did not have enough capacity to run it. Including several that included the label "Vista Ready"

Windows Vista included Microsoft's DirectX 10 graphics technology in Vista, Windows Defender antispyware program, speech recognition, and new versions of Media Player and Internet Explorer.

Windows 7

Microsoft put the batteries and in October 2009 released this version that fixed everything bad about Vista.  Personally, it was my first legal version of Windows since, due to an agreement with different universities, students could download it and use it for free.

7 was more stable, faster, and easier to use than its predecessor, and it wasn't as annoying with permission requests. Handwriting recognition and automatic window adjustment were added.

The great novelty of this version was provided by the European Union, which forced the inclusion of an assistant to choose a browser in all versions that were distributed in member countries.

Windows 8 / 8,1

Here Microsoft adopts a custom of Linux distributions, the trial versions of public access. Anyone could download the development versions of Windows 8, test them, and report bugs.

Windows 8 was released in October 2012 bringing a radical modification of the Windows interface in which the button and the start menu disappeared and were replaced by a start screen with colored blockss.

Windows 8 was much faster than previous versions of Windows and included support for newer USB 3.0 devices. A new (for Windows) way of installing programs was introduced, the Universal Windows Applications that were downloaded from an application store and they worked only in full screen mode. Meanwhile, the programs could be installed from the traditional way and only accessed the traditional Windows desktop1

As happened to Ubuntu 12.10, released around the same time with the Unity desktop, many users did not welcome the change. Desktop users used to controlling Windows with a mouse and keyboard weren't comfortable with an interface that they thought was more suitable for a touch screen.

PTo respond to user complaints, in October 2013, Microsoft released Windows 8.1 m

Windows 8.1 reintroduced the Start button, which made the start screen appear from the desktop view of this update. It was also possible to choose to boot directly into this interface mode

At final article From this review of 35 years of Windows, we are going to dedicate ourselves to Windows 10, a version with such radical changes that it deserves a post all by itself.


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