Re: tlug: Success of Windows

[Scott Stone <sstone@example.com>]

On Thu, 25 Jun 1998, Jonathan Byrne - 3Web wrote:

> On 25 Jun 1998, Felix Morley Finch wrote:
> 
> >I don't remember when Windows 3.1 became available, but up until then
> >Mickeysoft success rode the DOS wagon.  I don't see the Windows GUI as
> >being any kind of key to success, other than being *a* GUI.  It could
> 
> Windows 95 probably shipped more copies in its first year of
> distribution than all other flavors of Windows that went before it
> probably ever did.  In the Windows 3.x era, there were still quite a few
> people using just regular DOS, or 4DOS, or DOS and Desqview.  Windows 95
> killed of everything else, and drove a stake through the heart of the
> Mac as well, which was still pretty popular in the Windows 3.x era.
> The interface of Windows 95 is worlds better than the 3.x interface, and
> that's what drove it.  Go around and ask some Windows 95 users what
> 32-bit means and see how few can tell you.  It wasn't being (more or
> less) 32-bit that sold them.  It was the interface early-on.  Now it's
> the interface, the applications, and the fact that for most people,
> there really isn't any other choice (Linux or any other flavor of UNIX
> is still pretty far from being a realistic choice for most people).

Actually I think it was more the application compatibility than anything
else.  The mac, arguably, has a better interface than Win95, but it
doesn't run as many programs as Win95... I think that the software support
is really what sold people on Win95.

--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@example.com, sstone@example.com>
               <sstone@example.com>
Linux Developer/Systems Administrator for Pacific HiTech, Inc. 
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com


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