The Xerox Star system of 1982 was the first to have a GUI with a mouse and keyboard operating icons on the screen, which was then copied by Apple Corporation to create the Apple interface. This was later the inspiration for the Windows operating system with it’s icons and mouse control. But it was a good system and ahead of it’s time. Then there was Amiga OS that had a Windowing system and graphical user interface released at the same time as Windows 1.0 from Microsoft. Windows 1.0 was supported for sixteen years until 31 December 2001! The earliest version of Windows I have used is Windows 3.0, that was not very usable but it did the job at least, running on top of MSDOS 5.0. I played Doom on my old 486 and experimented with making Doom wad-files with the DCK Doom Construction Kit.
Those were the days my friend, when you used DOS instead of Windows 7.
The first time I installed Red Hat Linux 6.2 to replace Windows ’98 second edition was a revelation, I was amazed you could install a free OS and have your old crappy SIS 620 motherboard and Celeron 600 CPU and integrated graphics work. But that motherboard is very bad and the driver CD and included software was horrific, but it worked. Now I have a Gigabyte H55 and Intel i3 CPU that runs up to 2.93 GHZ with 4 cores and I can play Youtube videos at 1080p resolution at full speed. I could not even have imagined having so much power at my disposal in the 90’s and even 2000-2001. When you have played Doom on a 386 machine like I have, then you appreciate even more having a multicore CPU. But computers these days are more secure than the computers of older days, especially Windows ’98, that was super insecure. I used to get heaps of inappropriate pop-ups and diallers that would disconnect your modem and re-connect to a number in Vanautu.
Revolution OS – movie about GNU/Linux history (English subtitle). This movie explains the evolution of Linux to the free operating system we enjoy today.