2 ms·

I'd argue Windows 95 also had some bloat, notably it bundled a client for MSN, in it's initial form as a walled garden AOL and Compuserve competitor. Excellentl

I'd argue Windows 95 also had some bloat, notably it bundled a client for MSN, in it's initial form as a walled garden AOL and Compuserve competitor. Excellently timed just for the internet to become a thing and make that style of service irrellevant.

lproven 5y ago
[Blog post author here] True enough, but I slightly disagree. I had an account on it and I used the MSN. It was pretty good for its time, and streets ahead of AOL or CompuServe. Eventually it devolved into being just an instant messenger and a news website, and now, the instant messenger is gone. Secondly, if you didn't use MSN, you could just totally ignore it and it imposed no system load. In that way, it's comparable to Windows Movie Maker in XP: totally pointless if you don't need that, and you can't remove it or choose not to install it, but doesn't actually do anything at all and can be ignored. Whereas Active Desktop could not be ignored or removed (except by doing a custom install with 98Lite, which is why I linked to it) and it was necessary to use it to use the OS at all.