Fred, let’s have more! Very interesting and fun to know this stuff. Sent from my iPhone
> On Nov 19, 2025, at 11:20, Fred Cisin via cctalk <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >> >>>> And rememember that windowing option in DOS, on a 8088? What was it >>>> called? > >> On Wed, 19 Nov 2025, Christian Groessler via cctalk wrote: >> GEM > > "Graphics Environment Manager was from Digital Research, in 1985. Xerox > Ventura 2.0 bundled and used it! > Apple sued DRI, over the "look and feel" [and taste and smell] as being too > close a copy of Lisa and Mac OS. Replacing the greeting splash screen > "Hello" with "Hi" was not considered to be enough difference. > That encouraged Apple to sue lots nore people, including Microsoft > GEM 2.0 made "MAJOR" changes, such as replacing the trash-can icon. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEM_(desktop_environment) > > PCTools (from Central Point (CopyII)) did text mode windows. > BUT, to keep from disrupting the screen display with "Abort, Retry, Ignore" > messages, it took over the critical error handler, and set it for IGNORE for > all errors! That meant, that any hard error would result in loss of data, > without notification! > > and, cetainly NO discussion of alternatives could be complete without > remembering "BOB"! > Microsoft released it as a "more user friendly" interface, optionally > supplanting program manager on win 3.1, Win95, and even WinNT. They > releasede it on March 10 1995. > It was widely ridiculed, and quietly discontinued it in early 1996. > BUT, it gave rise to "Clippy", an annoying animated paper-clip "office > assistant" in Microsoft Office, and later "Rover", an animated "search > companion" in WinXP's file-search. > "#1 worst product of the decade" - CNET > #7 of "25 worst products of all time" - PCWorld > "Microsoft's Steve Ballmer mentioned Bob as an example in which "we decided > that we have not succeeded and let's stop [now]."[19]" > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob > > want more? or have I already bored y'all enough? > > -- > Grumpy Ol' Fred [email protected]
