Slashdot reminds us that today is the tenth anniversary of the debut of Windows 95:
As part of the launch, Microsoft paid $12,000,000 for the rights to use the Rolling Stones’ song “Start Me Up” (containing the prophetic line ‘You make a grown man cry’). “
Nice. But the truth is, despite its problems, Windows 95 was revolutionary, with its built-in networking support doing much to usher in the age of the Internet.
And in the archived Washington Post article from that time, it’s interesting to see who claimed to be unconcerned about Microsoft’s operating system hegemony, saying it was “business as usual”:
Big Blue has made some effort to counter Microsoft’s media onslaught with ads that feature the names of companies that have relied on its OS/2 system for years. Yesterday, at corporate headquarters in Armonk, N.Y., IBM officials reiterated the virtues of its own time-tested product, and tried to ignore the festivities.
“Microsoft is delivering the same features we delivered seven years ago,” said company spokesman Tim Breuer. “We’re moving on business as usual here.”