4 ms·

The fervor around the launch of Windows 95 can not be overstated. I clearly remember at age 9 it being all over the news, local and national. I strongly recall

by donatj 3y ago

The fervor around the launch of Windows 95 can not be overstated. I clearly remember at age 9 it being all over the news, local and national. I strongly recall trying to get my dad to explain to me what it was. He tried to explain but I recall being frustrated and not understanding. Looking back I am not entirely convinced he knew exactly what it was or why people were so excited. We had a monochrome 286 at the time of which I was the biggest user. We had Apple II’s at school I spent a lot of time with. I was pretty acquainted with computers but the idea of a GUI threw me for a loop.

xattt 3y ago
The most outlandish thing I remember was the CN Tower got a Windows banner strung down the glass elevator shafts. The same thing was repeated for Windows 98. I don’t think there were any other displays of that “magnitude”. It must have been one heckuva an ad bill. As a kid, I remember being fairly adept at Windows 3.1, but that all went out the “window” once ‘95 came out.
zorked 3y ago
Only a tiny fraction of people in my country even had a PC but somehow the Windows 95 launch was a MAJOR event, it was everywhere on the news. I don't think anybody managed to match that marketing campaign.
prmoustache 3y ago
Fervor from the medias yes. But from the people? Did people really line up to buy an Operating System? At the time of the release it is not like there was a lot of software ready for it anyway. I remember our first pc with Windows 95, we only used it for browsing, most of the time we would boot to DOS to play games and make music with Fast Tracker 2 and Impulse Tracker. I think we were even preferring a DOS CD player to play music because it had lots of fancy graphics effects reacting to music. Can't remember the name of the player. It is only during the win98 era that we really started to use windows apps on our family computer and even then it didn't last long for me as on a pentium 90 overclocked at 100Mhz it was slower and less productive than using a Linux distribution.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >Did people really line up to buy an Operating System? I take it you haven't opened the article.
  - flohofwoe 3y ago
    TBF, the desire to queue up for even the smallest occasion is a typical US-culture thing and met with disbelief and ridicule pretty much anywhere else ;)
    - edizms 3y ago
      More notably British.
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    I did but the fact they wrote it doesn't mean it was true or wasn't part of the advertising campaign by paying people to pretend.
- indymike 3y ago
  > Did people really line up to buy an Operating System? Yes. I worked in government sales (think wear a suit, meet with people at their office) for CompUSA in Indianapolis, Indiana. I had to come in the night of the release and work on the retail floor (the first, last and only time I worked on the retail floor). We had a DJ, free bunny suit dolls from Intel, and a line that went half-way around the parking lot. The best part is all the employees got a free "Window95 w/Plus pack" and a bonus for working that night. It was a lot of fun, and Windows95 was that big of a deal, even in Indiana.
- ztetranz 3y ago
  First sales in the world at midnight in Auckland, New Zealand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YluEi-WhTiI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YluEi-WhTiI I think Mick Jagger said I'd never allow his music for a commercial. Bill Gates proved that everyone has their price.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
I was in high school, and an older friend's dad was a Microsoft partner, so he'd get shipped CDs of the latest build. I was popular at school for about 5 minutes when he gave me a copy that was one build behind current ('cause his dad didn't need it anymore)
flohofwoe 3y ago
That's what a 200 million dollar marketing budget buys you ;) ...as a diehard Amiga user I just remember how ridiculous it was that PC users would be so excited about OS features which even "home computers" like the Amiga had since the mid-80s.
- mattl 3y ago
  The place I bought my first IBM PC was Escom, who also had the rights to the Amiga at the time. None of their sales team knew anything about the Amiga, so I bought a Pentium.
  - olddustytrail 3y ago
    Surely a 486? Pentium didn't come out till 1993.
    - flohofwoe 3y ago
      Timing could be about right though, IIRC Escom only got involved when the Amiga was already on its deathbed. They bought what was left of Commodore in 1995 and actually continued building and selling A4000 and A1200 throughout 1995, just not as much as they hoped. Eventually they sold the Amiga business again and went bankrupt in 1996 (here's an old news blurb in German from 1996 I just found: https://www.channelpartner.de/a/escom-ag,600999 https://www.channelpartner.de/a/escom-ag,600999). (myself, I actually continued using my Amiga 3000 as my main computer until around 1998, despite also doing programming work on a PC with WinNT4 and testing on Win95 - mainly DirectX stuff)
      - mattl 3y ago
        Yeah it was a Commodore branded Pentium 60, bought maybe 8 weeks or so before they went bankrupt.
    - mattl 3y ago
      No, a Pentium 60. This was spring 1996 not long before Escom went bankrupt.
lowercased 3y ago
In mid 95 I got a 'tech' job, and part of what I had to do was load up new laptops with 'stuff' - update OS, install our custom software, check modems, etc. We'd get a contract for custom development, and part of that contract was the hardware install/support part, so depending on the project we'd get a shipment of 20,30 or sometimes up to 100 laptops that I'd have to manually update. The win 95 launch was just... insane. I was in a band at the time, and you'd get to the bar/club beforehand, and chit chat. When they found out I "did computers", I'd inevitably get asked by random strangers "should I get windows 95?!" Just... so much mania. I mentioned the laptop story above because as part of the deliverable, we'd ship out a 'full laptop package' - the laptop, in a carrier bag, with any extra 'stuff' - usually an extra mouse, mouse pad, etc. Often people would want power strips for their laptop folks (sales guys on the road, mostly). I distinctly remember early 96 getting a shipment of power strips that had a big "works with Windows 95!" gold rosette stamped on each box. It's not 'controlled' by windows 95 - there was no iot-level connectedness. It just 'worked' with Windows 95. Because... people bought anything with "works with windows 95" on it. Truly crazy times.
Spooky23 3y ago
Yeah people don’t believe how insane it was. I missed the 95 craziness, but I worked at CompUSA for Windows 98. That was nuts… people camped out in the parking lot a week out to get some giveaways and deals. I had graduated from school and had a professional job by then, but I happened to arrive at the store for Windows Me launch day when I popped in to grab a cable or something. I remember it was sad, they did a launch event and nobody came. So I got a free windows birthday cake with my overpriced cable! Microsoft really nailed product marketing in the 90s.
sillywalk 3y ago
The Rolling Stones 'Start Me Up'. I was in grade 8, my friend's dad worked in IT and took us to the Launch/Demo event at a convention centre that was packed.
- hulitu 3y ago
  And Bob Rivers' "Windows 95 sucks"
canjobear 3y ago
My dad showed me pictures of "Windows 4.0" in a magazine and told me that when it came out, it wouldn't have a Program Manager, and you could delete DOS. My mind was totally blown.

by donatj 3y ago

xattt 3y ago

The most outlandish thing I remember was the CN Tower got a Windows banner strung down the glass elevator shafts. The same thing was repeated for Windows 98. I don’t think there were any other displays of that “magnitude”. It must have been one heckuva an ad bill. As a kid, I remember being fairly adept at Windows 3.1, but that all went out the “window” once ‘95 came out.

zorked 3y ago

Only a tiny fraction of people in my country even had a PC but somehow the Windows 95 launch was a MAJOR event, it was everywhere on the news. I don't think anybody managed to match that marketing campaign.

prmoustache 3y ago

Fervor from the medias yes. But from the people? Did people really line up to buy an Operating System? At the time of the release it is not like there was a lot of software ready for it anyway. I remember our first pc with Windows 95, we only used it for browsing, most of the time we would boot to DOS to play games and make music with Fast Tracker 2 and Impulse Tracker. I think we were even preferring a DOS CD player to play music because it had lots of fancy graphics effects reacting to music. Can't remember the name of the player. It is only during the win98 era that we really started to use windows apps on our family computer and even then it didn't last long for me as on a pentium 90 overclocked at 100Mhz it was slower and less productive than using a Linux distribution.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>Did people really line up to buy an Operating System? I take it you haven't opened the article.
- flohofwoe 3y ago
  TBF, the desire to queue up for even the smallest occasion is a typical US-culture thing and met with disbelief and ridicule pretty much anywhere else ;)
  - edizms 3y ago
    More notably British.
- prmoustache 3y ago
  I did but the fact they wrote it doesn't mean it was true or wasn't part of the advertising campaign by paying people to pretend.
indymike 3y ago
> Did people really line up to buy an Operating System? Yes. I worked in government sales (think wear a suit, meet with people at their office) for CompUSA in Indianapolis, Indiana. I had to come in the night of the release and work on the retail floor (the first, last and only time I worked on the retail floor). We had a DJ, free bunny suit dolls from Intel, and a line that went half-way around the parking lot. The best part is all the employees got a free "Window95 w/Plus pack" and a bonus for working that night. It was a lot of fun, and Windows95 was that big of a deal, even in Indiana.
ztetranz 3y ago
First sales in the world at midnight in Auckland, New Zealand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YluEi-WhTiI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YluEi-WhTiI I think Mick Jagger said I'd never allow his music for a commercial. Bill Gates proved that everyone has their price.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago

I was in high school, and an older friend's dad was a Microsoft partner, so he'd get shipped CDs of the latest build. I was popular at school for about 5 minutes when he gave me a copy that was one build behind current ('cause his dad didn't need it anymore)

flohofwoe 3y ago

That's what a 200 million dollar marketing budget buys you ;) ...as a diehard Amiga user I just remember how ridiculous it was that PC users would be so excited about OS features which even "home computers" like the Amiga had since the mid-80s.

mattl 3y ago
The place I bought my first IBM PC was Escom, who also had the rights to the Amiga at the time. None of their sales team knew anything about the Amiga, so I bought a Pentium.
- olddustytrail 3y ago
  Surely a 486? Pentium didn't come out till 1993.
  - flohofwoe 3y ago
    Timing could be about right though, IIRC Escom only got involved when the Amiga was already on its deathbed. They bought what was left of Commodore in 1995 and actually continued building and selling A4000 and A1200 throughout 1995, just not as much as they hoped. Eventually they sold the Amiga business again and went bankrupt in 1996 (here's an old news blurb in German from 1996 I just found: https://www.channelpartner.de/a/escom-ag,600999 https://www.channelpartner.de/a/escom-ag,600999). (myself, I actually continued using my Amiga 3000 as my main computer until around 1998, despite also doing programming work on a PC with WinNT4 and testing on Win95 - mainly DirectX stuff)
    - mattl 3y ago
      Yeah it was a Commodore branded Pentium 60, bought maybe 8 weeks or so before they went bankrupt.
  - mattl 3y ago
    No, a Pentium 60. This was spring 1996 not long before Escom went bankrupt.

lowercased 3y ago

In mid 95 I got a 'tech' job, and part of what I had to do was load up new laptops with 'stuff' - update OS, install our custom software, check modems, etc. We'd get a contract for custom development, and part of that contract was the hardware install/support part, so depending on the project we'd get a shipment of 20,30 or sometimes up to 100 laptops that I'd have to manually update. The win 95 launch was just... insane. I was in a band at the time, and you'd get to the bar/club beforehand, and chit chat. When they found out I "did computers", I'd inevitably get asked by random strangers "should I get windows 95?!" Just... so much mania. I mentioned the laptop story above because as part of the deliverable, we'd ship out a 'full laptop package' - the laptop, in a carrier bag, with any extra 'stuff' - usually an extra mouse, mouse pad, etc. Often people would want power strips for their laptop folks (sales guys on the road, mostly). I distinctly remember early 96 getting a shipment of power strips that had a big "works with Windows 95!" gold rosette stamped on each box. It's not 'controlled' by windows 95 - there was no iot-level connectedness. It just 'worked' with Windows 95. Because... people bought anything with "works with windows 95" on it. Truly crazy times.

Spooky23 3y ago

Yeah people don’t believe how insane it was. I missed the 95 craziness, but I worked at CompUSA for Windows 98. That was nuts… people camped out in the parking lot a week out to get some giveaways and deals. I had graduated from school and had a professional job by then, but I happened to arrive at the store for Windows Me launch day when I popped in to grab a cable or something. I remember it was sad, they did a launch event and nobody came. So I got a free windows birthday cake with my overpriced cable! Microsoft really nailed product marketing in the 90s.

sillywalk 3y ago

The Rolling Stones 'Start Me Up'. I was in grade 8, my friend's dad worked in IT and took us to the Launch/Demo event at a convention centre that was packed.

hulitu 3y ago
And Bob Rivers' "Windows 95 sucks"

canjobear 3y ago

My dad showed me pictures of "Windows 4.0" in a magazine and told me that when it came out, it wouldn't have a Program Manager, and you could delete DOS. My mind was totally blown.