Microsoft Windows and I
Hello friends,
I’m back – this is just a hibernation break though. After writing this – I’ll probably go back to hibernation. While I was busy fixing my PC (read transforming), I stumbled upon something we use daily but very conveniently forget – the OS or the operating system. I’m talking about Microsoft Windows. Although I’ve tried my hands at Mac OS and Linux – I prefer Windows for the ease-of-use it offers. For free, that is. That’s when I randomly dug deeper and started looking at the timeline – I couldn’t help noticing how it coincided with mine. In more ways than one, I seem to have evolved at the same rate Windows did. Let me tell you about it…
Microsoft launched Windows 1.0 on 20/11/1985 – when I was 8 years, 10 months, and 27 days old, to be precise. In just about 2 years, they launched Windows 2.0 (9/12/1987) – 2 weeks before I turned 11. When I was scraping through the 8th grade, they came up with Windows 3.0 (22/5/1990). All this while, I was a happy child – completely oblivious to the fact that computers exist.
From childhood – I attained boyhood – so did Windows. When I joined college (FY B.Sc.) – Microsoft launched Windows 95. This is the first time I got the first inkling about the piece of work called COMPUTER. One of my classmates had enrolled for ‘Computer Classes’ and he would blow his own (computer) trumpet, almost all the time. This definitely got my attention – I enrolled in a computer class a little after graduation.
The computer institute I went to (in 1997-98), used PC that were powered by the then archaic Windows 3.1 (launched 6/4/1982). They just had one PC that run Windows 98 (launched 25/6/1998). Till 2003, most of my computer usage was restricted to other’s PCs. I got my own computer (actually my sister owes the credit) only towards the turn of 2004. It was a Celeron-powered humble rig that allowed some gaming and multimedia usage. It sported a 17” CRT monitor and a 40GB HDD. I stayed ahead of the erstwhile game with a CD-RW drive and an insanely bass-y Altec Lansing ATP3 (2.1 configurations). My peer group’s PCs barely had a CD-ROM drive and some nondescript stereo speakers.
I was the crazy kind – I had a music CD years before I owned a PC. I have lived the age of the 486 and the humongous 5 ¼ inch FDD that supported a maximum of 10 MB. I quickly moved on to the 3.5” FDD that now supported 20 MB. Back to Windows – on 25/4/2005 Microsoft launched Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and on 15/8/2005 I moved to Mumbai. This is after I had previously braved the 26th July deluge [You can read about it here]. A little later, the same year they launched Windows Server 2003 R2 (6/12/2005). This coincides with the time I joined Convergys (Malad).
On 22/10/2009 the world saw the launch of Windows 7 – this comes a little after I had completed my first year working with the erstwhile 3 Global (now Tech Mahindra Business Services). As the years passed by I graduated and from Bachelor’s – I went on to claim the Master’s degree – not in college; in life. I hope you’ve understood by now what I mean.
On 26/10/2012 Microsoft gifted the world Windows 8. On 22/11/2012, my wife gifted me our little bundle of joy – my daughter. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since 1985 and more is yet to come – both, in my life and the Microsoft stables. Just before we close this chapter, I’d like to inform you that on 29/7/2015, Microsoft skipped 9 and launched Windows 10. An incorrigible technophile, I’m eagerly waiting for the next Windows launch.
In the meanwhile – let’s all get back to work. We have bills to pay and mouths to feed.
Hasta la próxima.