Windows is the equivalent of the washing machine: everyone uses it, but hardly anyone uses it fully, or understands it, or maybe it has functions that would be needed right in front of the eyes, but are not exploited (or understood).
Before understanding this operating system, which many use in everyday life without knowing how to exploit it properly, it is necessary to understand the Why Windows was born.
Windows: origins and short history, from the 80s to the present day
We are at the beginning of the 80s. At the time there were various operating systems and almost all were with textual interface (MS-DOS, OS-2, etc.) and to know how to use the operating system it was necessary to have a paper manual in front of wire and by sign the programs.
The older ones will remember CD FOLDER_NAME (at the time they were called “directories”) and that to start a program or a game the command was FILENAME.EXE, MD created the folder, RD deleted empty folders and so on, but it is not a MS-DOS course (or the Windows CMD that we will see in another article).
Indeed, someone will even remember the Commodore 64 interface that although it was more pleasing to the eye because it was colored, there were not a few commands before being able to start the cassette.
So what was the problem with these textual interfaces? Easy: they were not very intuitive since not everyone is inclined to memorize huge lines of commands, or of code.
The Commodore 64 was one of the first attempts to make the PC or computer science also usable by non-experts, by those who, therefore, were not graphic designers, programmers or accountants.
A textual interface, however, was not sufficient and was cumbersome for that type of user, here is the birth of the first operating systems with a graphical interface! The user no longer has to remember entire steps of the command line (or code) by heart, he has the “commands” via icons directly on the screen!
All very nice, real? But what was the problem with the graphical interface?
Contrary to the text interface, the graphical interface consumes more hardware resources! The classic kilobyte processor, used until then by the Commodore 64 and other devices of the 80s was beginning to no longer be enough to keep up with the technological evolution of the graphical interface operating system!
Something more was needed. It was in that period that the famous “IBM PCs and compatibles”, as some remember, began to have the video cards: because personal computers were beginning to be more than just work machines but also to play! And the game itself consumes a lot of resources, both CPU (processor), and graphics.
Here the first “forms” of graphics card take shape, starting with EGA, CGA up to VGA graphics and as we know, the VGA port will even become a standard up to the present day.
All this pappardella serves to explain that if the graphical interface had never existed, not only would it not be possible to play video games on a computer except with Commodore or old DOS-style games, but we would even have to remember by heart a series of commands that have been very simplified over the years, up to Android and iOS smartphones which are nothing more than the “supreme” simplification not only of the textual interface (invisible to the end user except through a trick), but also of the same graphic interface.
All this is to make it clear to you, dear reader, that the need for new versions of Windows is not just for commercial purposes, but with the advancement of the graphical interface and the increase in software performance, is it also necessary for Microsoft (and not only) to keep up with the hardware advancement?
What does this mean?
It may be difficult to understand as a concept, so I will use the Achilles and the Tortoise paradox to explain it.
Quoting Wikipedia to the voice of the same name: «The second argument is called “Achilles” and consists of this: when the fastest competitor starts after the slowest competitor in the race, the latter will never be joined by the fastest because the pursuer would be forced first to reach the place from which the one who runs away has started, and in the meantime, of necessity, the slowest will always be a little further on.“
Translated into IT terms one could say that the hardware tries to chase the software and vice versa the software tries to chase the hardware! Although this seems paradoxical, it is not difficult to understand, only that the two have to find a sort of “balance” between the performances of one and the performances of the other.
These are things that from the beginning, I had somehow hinted at.
But what does the initial comparison have to do with the washing machine?
This will be explored in the next article, but in general the washing machine is full of functions that could be useful to most (timer, extra rinse, also called skin care, etc.), but no one or almost “dares” to use them, yet a correct use it would save energy and time. But this will be roughly the subject of the next article in this column on Windows.
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