There was a lot of talk about it last summer, because it coincided with the age of 25, but in an Innovation Almanac on August 24 we cannot fail to mention the launch of Windows 95, which had a formidable impact on the spread of personal computers (and marked probably Microsoft’s definitive victory over IBM in the operating systems game). For the occasion, at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond (Washington), there was a real launch party “that looked more like an Oscar night than the launch of a computer operating system”, as the CNET TV report will say. Meanwhile, for the presenter, Jay Leno, a kind of American Amadeus. And then for the very rock atmosphere, also thanks to the Rolling Stones song “Start Me Up”, chosen because the “start, start” button was the most striking novelty (but certainly not the only one). From that day we will always remember Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and the other Microsoft bosses dancing, clumsy but happy, on stage as if they were at a middle school party (VIDEO).
With the minimalism that distinguishes these technological launches, Windows 95 was called a “global computer revolution”; and in fact in the first four days over a million copies were sold, which became 40 million in the first year. All things that were remembered a year ago, in fact. What we can add here is that Windows 95 would not have been possible had a US court not found Apple wrong in the 1994 lawsuit against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard for copyright infringement. In short, the court ruled that Apple cannot obtain protection for the idea of a graphical user interface or the very idea of a desk metaphor. In 1998, when Steve Jobs returned to the helm of Apple by signing a historic peace with Bill Gates, the matter was closed with a direct agreement between the parties which Netscape paid for, given that Apple chose to impose Microsoft’s browser as the default. Explorer.
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