# Does Microsoft recognize or celebrate a specific anniversary date for Windows? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464 "2014-11-12T18:05:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/1 "2014-11-12T18:05:06Z")
We should be approaching the 25th anniversary of Windows. IIRC Windows 3.0 came out in 89 or 90. It didn’t perform very well and 3.1 is the version that really sold. Especially Windows for Workgroups which had Networking except for TCP/IP. Microsoft screwed up there and didn’t include it. Microsoft had their own networking protocols that no one liked. We installed TCP/IP on every pc at my job. Remember creating PIF files to run DOS software in Win 3.0? There was a period when the DOS programs had no support for Windows. That quickly changed in Win 3.1 It came with pif files for the popular word processors, spreadsheets, databases etc. Has Microsoft said anything about celebrating the 25th anniversary of Windows? Firefox is celebrating their 10th anniversary right now. They’re pretending Netscape never happened. 😉 > **[Celebrating 10 Years of Firefox | The Mozilla Blog](https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/celebrating-10-years-of-firefox-2/)** > > 10 years ago we built Firefox to give you a choice. The Web was a monoculture and the only way in was through the company that controlled your operating sy ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/2 "2014-11-12T18:13:47Z")
Feb. 30th. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/3 "2014-11-12T18:28:25Z")
:eek: I had no idea there ever was a release of [Win 1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0) or[Win 2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2.0). I certainly never saw it… I bought my first PC in 86 and it came with DOS 2.2. No mouse, no hard drive, and certainly no windows. [Win 3.0](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_3.0) is the one I first saw and it came out in 1990. My dept bought 5 Zenith 386’s with Win 3.0 preinstalled. > [@](#): > > Windows 1.0 is a graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft. First released on 20 November 1985 as the first version of the Microsoft Windows line, Windows 1.0 ran as a graphical, 16-bit multi-tasking shell on top of an existing MS-DOS installation > [@](#): > > Windows 2.0 is a 16-bit Microsoft Windows GUI-based operating environment that was released on December 9, 1987 [1] and is the successor to Windows 1.0. > [@](#): > > Windows 3.0, a graphical environment, is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, and was released on May 22, 1990. It became the first widely successful version of Windows ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/4 "2014-11-12T18:43:28Z")
I played around a little with Windows 1 and 2, but this was well after Windows 3 came out. You are correct that Windows 3.1 is where things really took off. Not very many people used Windows before then. I used Windows 3.0 for a while and there wasn’t that much of a difference between 3.0 and 3.1 at least from a look and feel point of view. Windows 3.1 obviously had some added capabilities but I didn’t really need any of them at the time. Before Windows 3 I just used Dos. I didn’t have any need for Windows. Windows 1 and 2 were more like Dos shells than real user interfaces. Microsoft celebrated the Windows 25th anniversary back in 2000: > **[ITPro Today | Leading the Charge in Digital Transformation and IT](https://www.itprotoday.com)** > > Gathering the right people, content and resources. ITPro Today gives professionals insight into the technologies and skills needed to take on challenges. > [@](#): > > Microsoft’s 25th anniversary celebration in September 2000 included a call to action from executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who challenged employees to make the next 25 years “even more innovative and exciting” than the first 25 I remember pif files. I guess that makes me an old fart. I also remember NetBUI, as much as I would like to forget it. ETA: I actually started out on punch cards, then went to the TRS-80, then Commodore computers, then PC. That Windows stuff was new-fangled tech. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/5 "2014-11-12T18:50:08Z")
According to [Microsoft Windows is now more than 30 years old. Here's how drastically it's changed over the years.](http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/11/11/microsoft_windows_is_now_more_than_30_years_old_here_s_how_drastically_it.html) Windows 1.0 was first publicly demonstrated on Nov. 10, 1983, although it “wasn’t officially released until 1985”. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/6 "2014-11-12T19:08:14Z")
I got a computer for high school graduation the summer of 1992 that came with Windows 3.0. It was an IBM PS/2 and it was originally configured to launch on boot into a very simple IBM program manager, of which, Windows 3.0 was an option. I “upgraded” from the PC DOS that it shipped with to DOS 6.22 down the way and that blew away the autoboot to the IBM program manager. All through school I used that computer with 3.0 but for most of my college years “Windows” meant 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups), which was the first Windows with built-in networking support. Got to see/work with a beta version Windows “Chicago” (95) during a summer job while in school. Memorable moment! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/7 "2014-11-12T19:13:35Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > … I guess that makes me an old fart. I also remember NetBUI, as much as I would like to forget it. … You’ve already forgotten at least part of it … how to spell it. 😉 It was/is NetB **E** UI. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/8 "2014-11-12T19:44:39Z")
I guess Microsoft just celebrates their company anniversary. I would have thought the launch of windows was worth making a fuss over too. Maybe even issue a 30th year anniversary edition of Windows. I’m still surprised that Windows 3.11 succeeded. It was painfully slow on a 386. I recall we didn’t try to run Word Perfect or Lotus under windows. Just too slow. It was much less hassle running them under DOS. We only started windows when it was needed. Nearly all my programs then were DOS. I even had a DOS menu shell. My pc booted up with that Menu Shell that listed all the programs. I could arrow up and down to start up any program I wanted or exit out to the DOS prompt. I can recall asking friends,\* why do we need windows\*? ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/9 "2014-11-13T01:12:15Z")
We sold a Windows database product. I guess it would have been mostly on WFW 3.11, but I don’t remember much before Win95. It was slow and demanding and sometimes crashed. It would take more than an hour to run a critical end-of-month report. It replaced spreadsheet based systems where people took all week to create a critical end-of-month report, where you started on your end-of month process 3 weeks before the end of month, where your end-of-month process only came around once every month because it took a month to do the calculations and presentation, report to the board of directors, then clean up, do any other odd jobs, and start over again. Windows 3 was a graphical user interface, which people liked. But it was also a memory management system and a printer management system, which made it possible to create generic programs that didn’t have to have dedicated screen support for every new graphics card, and dedicated printer support for every new printer. Our users paid for the GUI wordprocessor, and the GUI spreadsheet, and the GUI database system, and the GUI program manager. Those things didn’t make less work: like our system, they made it possible to do things that were not possible before. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/10 "2014-11-13T02:20:05Z")
Win 95 was the first one that was really functional, as far as I am concerned. And Win XP was the most functional of all. It’s been downhill since there. No I don’t recall pif files. Probably just as well. I do remember unnumbered IBM-DOS. It was retronamed 1.0 when DOS 1.05 came out. The most functional implementation of DOS was 6.1 and then I went to Windows. Incidentally all the Windows before Win-2000 were just shells on DOS. Since then the underlying OS has been NT and the “command prompt” is just an imitation of DOS, but there is no DOS underneath. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Bragg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Stealth\_Bragg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Bragg)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-microsoft-recognize-or-celebrate-a-specific-anniversary-date-for-windows/704464/11 "2014-11-13T10:05:53Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Incidentally all the Windows before Win-2000 were just shells on DOS. Since then the underlying OS has been NT and the “command prompt” is just an imitation of DOS, but there is no DOS underneath. [Not really.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_95#Dependence_on_MS-DOS) WindowsNT was out before Windows 2000 and wasn’t a “DOS Shell”. And the “Command Prompt” is a [command line interface](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command-line_interface), not an “imitation of DOS”.