For those who have seen the interface in the YouTube video before; we apologize for the mess you just made on your floor but the younger generations should be reminded of what has come before. Microsoft Bob was released 20 years ago yesterday and most of it died very shortly afterwards as Windows 95 did not need a replacement GUI for the File Manager, the only way to interface with your Windows machine previously. The saddest part is that File Manager grew up to become Windows Explorer while what remained of Bob were only seen when you encountered a machine that did not have the Search Buddy turned off. You may recognize that giant waste of CPU cycles, Rover, as that Search Buddy but he also stalked you throughout the Bob GUI, though back then he would roll over if you scratched him. You can find Bob and Win3.1 on the net in seconds but The Register was also nice enough to link to an .OVA file so you can relive one of the more painful memories of both Microsoft users and executives. Let's hope Cortana doesn't suffer as horrible a fate as her predecessor.
"Tuesday, 10 March 2015, is a day of infamy, for on that day in 1995 Microsoft gave the world Bob, the “social interface” for Windows 3.x and 95."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Microsoft unveils API to break hardware/software coupling in switches @ The Register
- Malware uses Windows product IDs to mix mutex @ The Register
- Apple outage wipes out iTunes Store, iTunes Connect and iCloud services @ The Inquirer
- Captcha caught out by Android-baiting premium rate dialling malware @ The Inquirer
Well Bob was a bad and
Well Bob was a bad and annoying UI, but M$ outdid that with the TIFKAM/TILES bimodal madness of 8! There will be more BOBs/8s/Vistas/MEs from M$, as long as they hold 89, or so, percent of the laptop/PC OS market they will contrive to milk as much income out of their customers(guinea pigs, victims)! The only good news is that STEAM OS is on the way, in release form, and hopefully has enough potential to make that M$ 89% figure a little smaller. For sure the Steam open source OS based ecosystem will be less focused on uselessly redesigning the OS’s UI, and more focused on the improvements that count. The Vulkan API/VM will allow for many improvements, and continued improvements for the Linux/other OSs Khronos based Graphics/GPGPU APIs standards.
Bob.. as a kid I loved MS
Bob.. as a kid I loved MS Bob, I basically considered it a game where I would build rooms and navigate programs… and possibly destroy dad’s MS Money files. Oops.
Ahhhhh BOB, never had bob,
Ahhhhh BOB, never had bob, but I do remember watching a pbs computer show about how awesome it was gonna be. At the time, as a windows hating DOS fanboy it just looked dumb. Infact, at the time, any GUI at all seemed wrong, like they were stealing the computers from the geeks and giving them to the masses. Hard to belive how emotional I was, but that’s what being a teenager is all about I guess.
Get off my LAWN!!!!