Windows 95 Launch: Relive the Magic!
With the launch of Windows Vista (finally) imminent, at least two things are certain: 1) It'll involve lots of hoopla, and 2) that hoopla will fail to match that generated to coincide with the arrival of Windows 95.
Win 95, as you'll recall, brought long file names, the Start button, a first pass at Plug and Play, and adequate memory management to Windows. All of which were more overdue modernizations than cause for dancing in the streets. Yet Microsoft marketed the OS like no other software upgrade before or since, and its investment seemed to pay off in rabid consumer interest in the new OS. Return us with now to August 24th, 1995...
Here, first of all, is a snippet of The Computer Chronicles' coverage of the launch, with Bill Gates and Jay Leno yucking it up on the Microsoft campus, a little girl proving how easy it is to use the OS, and a bit of the "Start Me Up" TV commercial...
This is the complete 60-second version of the Windows 95 ad that used the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" (insert your own wisecrack about the line "You make a grown man cry" here)...
Here's a pleasingly skeptical report from Canadian TV (Win 95 is "hardly a major technological breakthrough") that reveals--to me, at least--that the Australian launch event involved Dame Edna...
This excessively grandiose introductory video is from the Win 95 CD-ROM...
Here, also apparently from 1995, is an oddball Microsoft video with Bill Gates roaming the world of Doom--whose graphics did seem stunningly realistic 11 years ago--and touting Windows 95's graphics chops...
Apple greeted the launch of Windows 95 with a somewhat mundane ad which claimed that the Mac was still easier than Windows. Which it was, and is...
Windows 95 wasn't the only Microsoft OS to receive a fancy rollout, of course. But most of the clips on YouTube of other Windows demos seem to involve things going wrong.
For instance, no collection of Windows-related YouTube clips would be complete without the sight of Windows blue-screening live on CNN during a demo of a plug-and-play scanner...
This clip shows Windows Media Center choking during a Gates keynote with Conan O'Brien at CES last year...
Going back to October 25th, 2001 (and for the first time on any blog!) here's a crummy little video I shot myself at the launch of Windows XP, which took place in New York six weeks after the events of 9/11. (Microsoft's event had, of course, been scheduled long in advance.)
I captured Regis Philbin receiving a demo which involved Bill Gates talking to him from Times Square via a Webcam--but the Webcam didn't work. Regis gamely tries to take the bullet for the glitch...
I like Reege's heartfelt endorsement of XP: "It really knocks you out--I guess the people who are more familiar with it are really impressed, and I am too, but I must tell you--there's a lot to learn. But it's easier this time to learn."
(Side note: Microsoft hired Jay Leno to flack for Windows 95, Regis for XP, Conan O'Brien for that CES keynote, and Queen Latifah for one of the versions of Media Center. Now it's signed up the Daily Show's Demetri Martin to star in a viral marketing campaign for Vista. Can someone please help the company pick celebrity spokespeople who don't seem bored and/or mystified to be involved in the promotion of an operating system?)
Regis, who also participated in a live verson of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? that involved asking Gates questions about his own new product, wasn't the most interesting Famous Person at the XP launch--and neither were Bill Gates, Michael Dell, or Carly Fiorina. Rather, it was an unannounced guest--the honorable mayor of New York himself, Rudy Giuliani, who thanked Gates for holding the event in New York rather than canceling, moving, or delaying it...
When I sent that fuzzy snapshot to coworkers back in 2001, I said that Giuliani's "arrival and brief remarks were genuinely electrifying; they made the product demo that followed seem shallow and unimportant by comparison." Half a decade later, it's still among the five or so most memorable moments in my career in technology journalism.
(Here, by the way, is a site with scads of decent photos from the XP launch, along with some audio clips.)
Microsoft is planning a Vista/Office 2007 event in New York for November 30th, focusing on business applications; it will likely be followed up with a more consumery bash in January. Whether anything that happens at them will be worthy of being posted on YouTube in five or ten years remains to be seen...
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MiKKKro$$$oft. ami rite?
I really wish that anti-Microsoft people weren't assigned to Microsoft stories. You can never really tell what is real information and what is propagandish tripe. Oh, wait... all journalists are anti-Microsoft. Nevermind.
Attacking journalists for being anti-Microsoft is absolutely silly. Journalists are nothing but a reflection of time they live in. In this day and age, we're all so cynical that nothing's ever interesting to us unless someone doesn't agree with it. This job usually falls to journalists as:
1) They're paid to ask questions, and
2) Most of the rest of the public couldn't be bothered to actually learn two cents worth of information about topics they ignorantly spend their time spouting off about.
So journalists aren't anti-Microsoft. The public is, and only because we love to hate. Journalists merely exploit that failing to make money. Don't blame them for your own cynicism.
That being said, this is hardly anti-Microsoft, and more just a trip down memory lane, with a minor admonishment to see for yourself before you trust the hype.
Microsoft's "Crush and Destroy" business practices make it easy to hate them. But,.before you think "rant". Read on. I'm not arguing that they haven't revolutionized the industry of software and hardware alike.
The problem is their choice of business strategy.
The Microsoft approach historically has been beyond the normal "optimization" of rules most of us see daily. Microsoft instead, chooses to utterly rape every legal, business and govt system in place. Combined with its monopoly power, it crushes anything and anyone it views as possible competition to its product line.
Where will Mcafee/Symantec be 5 years from now, now that Microsoft has entered the Antivirus/System Defense arena?
Think about the recent Symantec/Mcafee API release delay and multiply by 1000. MS doesnt compete with better products. They cheat, steal, abuse whatever they have to, to secure advantage, then ruthlessly abuse it.
Their hate is well-earned. Don't blame the journalists.
To djdj
Sorry if the media tells the truth about Microsoft products. I have worked with Microsoft, Apple, Unix and Linux and have encountered more problem with Microsoft then all the other products combined.
To djdj
Sorry if the media tells the truth about Microsoft products. I have worked with Microsoft, Apple, Unix and Linux and have encountered more problem with Microsoft then all the other products combined.
ahhh, I remember those days.....telling customers that Win95 was the flashest thing since sliced bread. My oh my how things have changed so much now.
I agree. They would have to pull out some amazing features to come anywhere close to the Win95 launch.
Regards
Darryl
ahhh, I remember those days.....telling customers that Win95 was the flashest thing since sliced bread. My oh my how things have changed so much now.
I agree. They would have to pull out some amazing features to come anywhere close to the Win95 launch.
Regards
Darryl
I really like the Macintosh. I don't like the people with unlimited time on their hands to rant over and over with the same talking points.
Is it true that Apple and Oracle are building the next Enterprise System? When will it launch?
I am a fan of Microsoft, although I don't like some of their business practices. I did feel a slight sense of anti-Microsoft in this article, but at the same time I understand where it comes from. Of course we will all support our different OS's as they come around just because we usually grow up using one type and stick with it.
I am a fan of Microsoft due to wider compatibility of applications. Choosing stability before compatibility is fine if you want to use fewer applications, specialised ones or security is paramount. It is true that Microsoft remains hungry for money and not much more besides. It is lucky they will be allowing 3rd party security companies to make security applications for Vista; otherwise, this may be Microsoft's demise: not listening or working with other experts. Microsoft certainly don't know everything like they think or hope they do.
What I want to say is that with the market share they have, Microsoft OWE it to their users to compete on stability with Mac (which I don't use). It makes me angry that they don't. Therefore, the CONSUMER has to do the worrying that the Mac may soon have the best OS to meet personal or business needs. Flaws are easy to find and see in Microsoft OS?s. They don't correct enough or quickly. We pay for an OS not worth the money. From Lee in England, UK