2015 will mark the 30th anniversary of Windows, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) iconic operating system first launched in November 1985. 2015 will also mark the year that Windows 10 will be released, the follow-up to the critically panned Windows 8.

Over the last decade customer’s computing needs have shifted. The computing landscape is dramatically different in 2015 than in 2001, when Microsoft launched Windows XP its most popular operating system and considered to be the company’s best. People compute in different ways, and Microsoft now has to compete with new operating systems that have appeared in the last decade like Android in addition to longtime rival Mac OS from Apple (NASDAQ: APPL).

Microsoft now is at a critical juncture.The success or failure of Windows 10 will be turning point for Microsoft. The exact nature of Windows 11 will depend on whether the market embraces or rejects Windows 10. If the market embraces Windows 10, it’s very likely that the follow-up will be more of the same. A failure of Windows 10 — a repeat of Windows 8 — will force Microsoft back to the drawing board with the OS, re-imagining it from the ground up.

Back to the beginning: DOS

A history of Windows needs to begin with what preceded it: DOS. DOS, later known as MS-DOS, was Microsoft’s first operating system and until Windows ME the foundation of what Windows ran on.

The birth of MS-DOS began in 1981 when Microsoft met with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to discuss making an operating system for its upcoming personal computer.

Microsoft already had a relationship with IBM, as it was licensing the BASIC language to IBM. The scope and complexity of creating an entire operating system was beyond Microsoft’s resources available at the time, but that didn’t stop Bill Gates: he bought the full rights to DOS from a small firm based in Washington called Seattle Computer Products for $50,000.

The meeting that started this deal is dramatized in the film Pirates of the Silicon Valley:

Seattle Computer Products’ owner Rod Brock was unaware of the exact nature of the deal between Microsoft and IBM. However, when he discovered the profits Microsoft was making selling DOS to IBM he tried to sell the company and all of its intellectual property to one of IBM’s rivals. This led to a lawsuit between Brock and Microsoft and the two parties settled out of court for $925,000, and Microsoft confirmed its rights and license to DOS.

The first Windows

Microsoft announced Windows, first called Windows for DOS and known by its code name of, in 1983. It was finally released in 1985. However, it was not the first operating system with a graphical user interface. That honor goes to Apple’s Macintosh.

Windows shipped with several simple programs, such as MS‑DOS file management, Paint, Windows Writer, Notepad, Calculator, and a calendar, card file, and clock.

While Windows was praised for helping change the paradigm of how people interact with computers, this first version of the world’s most important operating system largely stood in the shadow of Macintosh. Apple, however felt threatened and sued Microsoft in 1988 for copyright infringement, claiming that Microsoft copied the “look and feel” of its operating system.

However Apple itself did not invent the GUI. That honor goes to Xerox, which effectively gave it away to Apple.

Support for Windows 1.0 ended in December 2001.

The post The History of Windows appeared first on VR World.

Back when Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was first introducing Windows 8 to the world, it also announced that it would be bringing the Windows platform to the ARM ecosystem with Windows RT. Unfortunately for Microsoft, this plan was an abject failure and with the end of production of the Lumia 2520 the platform is all but dead.

But why exactly did Windows RT fail? After all, porting what is arguably the world’s best known operating system to the growing ARM ecosystem only seemed logical. The x86 platform would always be the primary home to Windows, but Windows itself needed a proper presence in the tablet and smartphone space.

Microsoft’s problem with Windows RT was two-fold: first the platform lacked a proper selection of apps, and the Metro UI interface was not well received by customers.

While Windows RT looked just like its desktop companion, there was one critical difference: as it was running on ARM silicon the existing library of software for Windows simply would not work on it. Aside from pre-installed versions of Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, there simply was not the software ecosystem to support the platform. As software vendors didn’t know the platform’s potential for success, they didn’t bother producing ARM-compatible ports meaning that users weren’t able to do much with their Windows RT devices.

Windows RT’s Metro UI didn’t help much either. The UI has been long criticized for simply not being as good as the competing UIs of iOS and the many incarnations of Android. In comparison, it’s simply uninspired and bland. In addition in desktop mode it’s nearly unusable with the touch screen input of the Surface. It all felt a generation behind what the competition had available.

The price Microsoft paid

In 2013 Microsoft disclosed that it had taken a $900 million charge for “inventory adjustments” because of Surface and Windows RT. Quite simply: Microsoft expected to sell a lot more than it actually did, which left it sitting with mountains of unsold inventory.

During an earnings call in November 2013, Julie Larson-Green, EVP of Devices for Microsoft, admitted Microsoft’s failings and hinted at the path the company would be taking.

“I think we didn’t explain that super-well. I think we didn’t differentiate the devices well enough. They looked similar. Using them is similar. It just didn’t do everything that you expected Windows to do,” she said.

The post Rest in Peace Windows RT appeared first on VR World.

Today LaCie announced the Rugged RAID mobile drive featuring user selectable RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration.  The new drive featuring Seagate hard drives will be available later this quarter.

The Rugged RAID mobile drive is a drive featuring two hard drives that can be put in RAID 0 for speed or RAID 1 for data redundancy.  RAID 0 uses two drives to store one piece of data, allowing it to read and write faster by storing half of it on both drives to form the single piece of data.  RAID 0 is much faster than a single hard drive (by about 2x) while being less secure for data since if one drive goes then the data is gone.  On the other hand RAID 1 stores the same data on two hard drives so that if one of them were to ever fail you will still have the data on the other.  This is a much more secure way to store sensitive data that is important for a user to protect.

The Rugged is exactly what it is called, rugged and that is thanks to its design.  The drive is resistant to shock, with it being able to withstand drops of up to 1.5m (about 5 feet) and 1 ton of pressure.  It is also resistant to water with its cap in place, and when it is the drive is IP 54 rated.  That IP 54 rating means that the drive is dust tight and will withstand splashes of water on the drive.  The drive also features USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt connectivity, which means that users will be able to use RAID 0 to its fullest.  The drive in RAID 0 will be able to get up to 240MB/s sustain performance.  The drive is compatible with all operating systems and it also includes LaCie Private-Public software.  The software enables users to password protect the entire device or just certain volumes with AES-256 encryption.

The LaCie Rugged RAID will be available in 4TB capacity with a MSRP of $449.99 later this quarter from LaCie’s online store and authorized LaCie resellers.  The drive will carry a three-year limited warranty that users can extend or upgrade.  The warranty provides worldwide repair and/or replacement, so this drive is ready for your adventures around the world.

The post CES 2015: LaCie Announces The New Rugged RAID Mobile Drive appeared first on VR World.

There have been many theories why Microsoft chose to skip Windows 9, but the official reason from the company’s boss of the Windows division is that it doesn’t want customers to associate the new Windows from the disaster that was Windows 8.

In an interview with the Indian edition of Business Insider, which was later republished on the website of The Times of India, Tony Prophet said his company is effectively asking for a second chance with Windows 10 in order to build the proper hardware agnostic ecosystem around the Windows platform.

“Windows 10 is not going to be an incremental step from Window 8.1,” he said. “Windows 10 is going to be a material step. We’re trying to create one platform, one eco-system that unites as many of the devices from the small embedded Internet of Things, through tablets, through phones, through PCs and, ultimately, into the Xbox.”

Microsoft is also putting more emphasis on incorporating feedback from its technical preview into the final version.

The reason we’re doing that is so we can listen to our customers,” he said. “Our objective with Windows 10 is… to build absolutely the best OS for the enterprise. That’s the early focus, we’ve got the process. We’ve got a million people using it. And we’re listening.”

Wasn’t this the point of Windows 8?

Coming from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), talk of building a grand Windows ecosystem sounds a lot like the reasoning, prior to the launch of Windows 8, for developing the ARM-compatible Windows RT. In the end Windows RT, which was supposed to extend the world of Windows to the ARM-ecosystem, flopped leaving Microsoft to all-but abandon its plans for device domination.

Instead of focusing on bringing Windows to everything, Microsoft needs to focus first and foremost on improving the desktop experience. This is where Windows succeeds, and has proven time and time again to be profitable for Microsoft. The same can’t be said for mobile, which relies on the (expensive) success of Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) contra-revenue program.

Windows is a long way from becoming irrelevant, but if Microsoft wants to give users a reason to upgrade from Windows 7 it needs to create a product that gives people a compelling reason to buy it.

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