The reason why Microsoft favored GUI system was because Apple's first GUI operating system, Apple Lisa, was born that year. Although the GUI system was not perfect at that time, Microsoft, with a keen business sense, accurately predicted that GUI would become the future operating system, so it began to turn its attention from the MS-DOS system at that time to the Windows system, and the Windows dynasty officially kicked off.
198511.01released in October, with the initial price of 100 USD. At that time, people's favorite GUI computer platforms were GEM and Desqview/X, so users' evaluation of Windows 1.0 was not high.
1987 65438+February 9, released by Windows 2.0, with the initial price of 100 USD; This version of the windows graphical interface draws lessons from some design concepts of the Mac OS of the same period in many places, but this version has not been recognized by users.
Later, windows 386 and windows 286 were introduced and some improvements were made, which laid a good technical foundation for the success of Windows 3.0.
1990 On May 22nd, Windows 3.0 was officially released. Because of the great improvement in interface/humanization/memory management, it finally won the recognition of users.
Later, Microsoft released the multilingual version of windows 3.0 on June 199 1, which played an important role in the promotion of windows in non-English-speaking countries.
1April 1992, released by windows 3. 1 In the first two months of release, sales exceeded one million. At this point, Microsoft's capital accumulation/research and development has entered a virtuous circle.
1992 10, Windows for Workgroups 3. 1 released. It seems that Microsoft, unwilling to be lonely, blew the horn to enter the enterprise server market.
Windows NT 3. 1 published in 1993. This product is based on OS/2 NT and is jointly developed by Microsoft and IBM.
Later, collaboration was separated, and Microsoft changed the name of the software to their version, MS Windows NT, and changed the main API to the 32-bit version.
Microsoft hired a group of people from digital equipment company to develop this new system.
Many elements of the system reflect the VMS and RSX concepts of early DEC.
Because it is the first product that truly corresponds to the server market, it is more stable than the desktop operating system.
1994, the Chinese version of windows 3.2 was released. I believe that many pioneer users of windows in China started to contact the windows system from this version. Because it eliminated the language barrier and lowered the learning threshold, it quickly became popular in China.
1995 The most sensational event was the release of windows95 in August, when the release of Microsoft Windows 95 was very offensive, including the commercial song "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones.
Many customers who don't have computers are affected by publicity and queue up to buy software, but they don't even know what Windows 95 is.
With strong publicity and good reputation of Windows 3.2, windows 95 sold more than one million copies in just four days. Excellent multimedia function, humanized operation and beautiful interface make windows 95 an unprecedented success.
The industry also regards the launch of windows95 as an important milestone in the development of Microsoft.
1August, 996, windows NT 4.0 was released, which added many corresponding management functions and was quite stable. This version of Windows software is still used by many companies.
1 1 month, published by Windows CE 1.0; This version is a compressed, efficient and upgradeable operating system (OS), which is specially designed for various embedded systems and products.
Its multi-thread, multi-task and full priority operating system environment is specially designed for limited resources.
This modular design enables embedded system developers and application developers to customize various products, such as household appliances, special industrial controllers and embedded communication equipment.
Microsoft's front has gone from desktop system to server market, and then to embedded industry. Here, the embryonic form of the Microsoft empire has basically taken shape.
1997 windows operating system is not too exciting. Another fist product developed by Microsoft this year, office series office software, we can't press the table here.
1 1 month, released by Windows CE 2.0.
Under the still water, the torrent is surging, and the industry has speculated what the next move of this enterprising company will be.
1June 25th, 998, released by Windows 98; This new system is based on Windows 95, which improves the support for hardware standards, such as MMX and AGP.
Other features include support for FAT32 file system, multi-monitor, Internet TV and Inter Explorer integrated into Windows graphical user interface (called active desktop).
1June 999 10, released by Windows 98 SE, provided support for Inter Explorer 5, Windows Netmeeting 3, Inter Connection sharing, DVD-ROM and USB.
Microsoft keenly grasped the coming Internet tide, and the bundled ie browser finally sounded the death knell of Netscape in a few years. At the same time, lawsuits keep coming, because it touches sensitive areas such as monopoly and illegal competition.
Win98 is so excellent that many users still can't put it down after 6 years.
After the Millennium bell, Windows NT 5.0 came. To commemorate this special new millennium, this operating system was also named Windows 2000.
Windows 2000 includes new NTFS file system, EFS file encryption, enhanced hardware support and other new features, which has launched a strong impact on the server market which has been monopolized by unix system.
In the end, he abruptly grabbed a large piece of territory from ibm, hp and sun.
In contrast, in the same year, some radical improvements of Windows me failed to gain the recognition of users.
The important modification is that DOS is deleted from the system and replaced by system restore.
Conceptually, this is a great improvement: users no longer need to know the mysterious DOS command line commands to maintain and repair the system.
But in fact, removing DOS function is an obstacle to maintenance, and the system restore function also brings some troubles: the performance is obviously reduced, the hard disk space is consumed a lot, and it is not necessarily effective for some common error restores.
200111released on October 25th, Windows XP.
Windows XP is an attempt by Microsoft to integrate all user requirements into one operating system. Compared with the previous Windows desktop system, the stability has been improved, but the price paid for this is the loss of support for DOS-based programs.
XP has been severely criticized for integrating many softwares previously provided by third parties into its operating system.
These softwares include firewall, Windows Media Player, instant messaging software (Windows Messenger) and their close integration with Microsoft Pascal network services, which are considered by many computer experts as security risks and potential threats to personal privacy.
The increase of these functions is considered as the continuation of Microsoft's traditional monopoly behavior.
In June, 2002, 165438+ 10, Windows XP Media Center Edition for personal computers was released. At the same time, Windows XP Tablet PC version specially designed for notebook computers/laptops supporting touch screen handwriting was released.
In April 2003, Windows Server 2003 was released; Active directory, group policy operation and maintenance management, disk management and other server-oriented functions have been greatly improved, and the perfect support for technology has further expanded the application scope of servers.
Looking back at the development history of windows, it is not difficult to see.
The reason why Microsoft is great is that it can always maintain a cautious attitude of "being prepared for danger in times of peace"; We have to marvel at Microsoft's unique business vision when we are optimistic about the X86 PC, the GUI platform in the command line era, the multimedia prospect outside the scientific research field and the Internet craze in the stand-alone era. Desktop system, server system, embedded system, notebook computer, tablet computer-I remember the old joke: someone asked, "Which field will Microsoft never set foot in?" The answer is: "No!" No one knows which region Microsoft, which will never rest on its laurels, will target next; If the first edition is not ready, do the second edition, and if the second edition is not ready, do the third edition until it is ready-Windows Window is accepted by the world in 3.0, ie blooms in 4.0, and the media player is not familiar until after 7, so it is the most respectable or terrible thing to continue to invest time and energy until the user agrees.
The legend of the Microsoft empire continues, and no one knows which field this behemoth will enter next time.
However, it is foreseeable that no matter what Microsoft does, his opponent will have a headache in the face of this strong enemy.