Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of software operating systems by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Microsoft Windows eventually came to dominate the world's personal computer market, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced previously. At the 2004 IDC Directions conference, IDC Vice President Avneesh Saxena stated that Windows had approximately 90% of the client operating system market. The current client version of Windows is Windows Vista. The current server version of Windows is Windows Server 2003. The successor to Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 is currently being beta tested.
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<operating system> Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then.
The 1996 market share of operating systems was:
DOS/Windows 70% Windows 95 15% Windows NT 2% Other 13%
[Current shares?]
The version history goes something like: 1985 Windows 1, 1987 Windows 2, 1987 Windows/386, 1990 Windows 3.0, 1992 Windows 3.1, 1992 Windows for Workgroups 3.1, 1993 Windows 3.11, 1993 Windows for Workgroups 3.11, 1993 Windows NT 3.1, 1994 Windows NT 3.5, 1995 Windows 95, 199? Windows NT 4, 1998 Windows 98, ? Windows NT 5.
Usenet newsgroups: news:comp.os.ms-windows.comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy, news:comp.os.ms-windows.comp.os.ms-windows.announce, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.comm, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.compatibility.win95, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.financial, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.utilities, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.utilities.win3x, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.utilities.win95, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.winsock.mail, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.winsock.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.winsock.news, news:comp.os.ms-windows.apps.word-proc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.networking.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.networking.ras, news:comp.os.ms-windows.networking.tcp-ip, news:comp.os.ms-windows.networking.win95, news:comp.os.ms-windows.networking.windows, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.networking, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.announce, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.pre-release, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.setup.hardware, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.setup.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.software.backoffice, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.software.compatibility, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.software.services, news:comp.os.ms-windows.pre-release, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.controls, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.graphics, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.memory, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.multimedia, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.networks, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.nt.kernel-mode, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.ole, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.mfc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.owl, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.winsock, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32, news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.winhelp, news:comp.os.ms-windows.setup, news:comp.os.ms-windows.setup.win3x, news:comp.os.ms-windows.setup.win95, news:comp.os.ms-windows.video, news:comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc, news:comp.os.ms-windows.win95.setup, news:comp.binaries.ms-windows.
(1998-10-15)