Remembering the "start me up" release
With all of the excitement over the release of Windows 8 (that is excitement, right?) I took a moment to reflect back (I’ve been doing a lot of that lately) on when was the last time I was actually excited about a new version of Windows. No doubt about it, hands down, nothing compared to the release of Windows 95 back in August of 1995. For me, anyway, the “Start Me Up” release was a defining moment in my computing evolution.
I had started my first computer business about a year earlier with a lifelong friend Bill Nicholson. TriStar Web was creating websites for businesses in Long Island, NY. We were storing these web sites on Sun UltraSpac machines managed by our third partner, Jim “Einstein” Kucharski. We didn’t really know what we were getting into, but it was exciting, fun and we felt part of the team changing the world.
For Bill and I, all of our work was done on 486 machines (or was it Pentium chips already? I don’t remember) running Windows 3.1 or maybe it was Windows for Workgroups 3.11 then, I am not sure of that either. We had dabbled with OS2 and loved the GUI. I had run Warp for a while actually. Apple was dying; even the new Macs were only seen in schools or graphic shops.
The idea of running a version of Windows with real multitasking, 32-bit programs, built-in native internet connectivity (don’t laugh) and plug and play hardware, it was just mind boggling. We had heard rumors of “Chicago” for so long, had been given tantalizing sneak peeks, and we were primed and ready to snap up Windows 95. When Microsoft started releasing ads and commercials with the Stones’ “Start Me Up” as the theme song I thought it was the coolest thing literally since sliced bread.
Finally the big day came. Bill and I were in a line at CompUSA in Roosevelt Field for the midnight release. It was a party. Balloons, music, geeks (when being a geek wasn’t quite as cool), free T-shirts. We bought 3 or 4 boxes of it on CD (first time I installed an OS on CD I think), grabbed our T-shirts and left.
We ran back to the office that very night and started installing. Some of our machines we knew were below the specs for the new OS, but we installed it on them anyway. When it fired up there were no folders on my desktop. There was this blank desktop that, if you didn’t mind the crushing memory it consumed, you could fill with wallpaper. There were programs that would allow you to rotate wallpapers automatically too.
Speaking of programs, it seemed like every computer developer in the world had updated their program to be Windows 95 compatible. That compatible logo was everywhere. Like a scene from the Lion King, the entire tech industry had come out to celebrate the birth of Microsoft’s new baby.
After just a few days of running Windows 95, I put OS2 away for good. It became quite normal for me to hit the start button to shut down the computer. I have been doing it even since.
What a great trip down memory lane. Despite what Microsoft is spending to celebrate Windows 8, for me it just doesn’t come close to the buzz and excitement that Windows 95 generated. But I am not the only one different now than I was then. The world is different now. The boggling idea that Windows is not the only OS that matters is very much a reality. The idea that we don’t do computing only on our PC is the rule of the day.
I realize now that August 24, 1995 represented the zenith of Microsoft’s power and for me will always by a shiny moment at the top of the hill.
