There’s a certain rhythm to Microsoft and operating systems if you have been paying attention over the last 15 or 20 years. And yesterday’s (29 July) arrival of Windows 10 to 190 countries around the world for free is in keeping with that rhythm.
Microsoft set the standard with Windows 95, tearing us all away from the DOS era, and it’s been pretty loyal to that mould through the years. There was a confusing period of Windows RT and Windows 2000 before Microsoft once again struck gold with Windows XP in 2001, ironing out all kinds of bugs and issues and making the operating system likeable again. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect in terms of the dawn of the broadband era and how computers weren’t just work tools but entertainment and lifestyle devices too.
You could argue that Microsoft’s Windows Vista was eventually a good operating system. Eventually. The reality for most people at first was abject horror – imagine trying to stuff a Porsche engine into the frame of an East German 1975 Trabant? Settings and drivers were all over the place. I’m still traumatised by the memory of having to manually reconnect my girlfriend’s laptop with Wi-Fi every time she turned on the machine.
