Nov. 21, 1985

IBM is promising big things from its upcoming OS/2 platform, but it could still be over a year away from completion. For now there's a new IBM Personal Computer operating system in town - welcome to Microsoft’s Windows 1.0!

I must admit that I’ve had a chance to play around with the system a bit, and I am not so impressed. First off it’s really not even an operating system, just an extension of DOS. And I don’t see it ever replacing DOS. There's nothing like the sheer speed and control over your file system of a text-based OS. Personally I don’t see this Windows stuff going anywhere. In a few years when we’re all using IBM’s OS/2, we’ll be all like … “Windows, huh what's that?”

Don’t get me wrong, this new operating system does have a few nice features. The ability to run more than one DOS program has amazing potential. Windows is centered on its MS-DOS Executive utility which lets you look around the file system by clicking with the mouse. One cool feature is that it will let you open a directory or even launch a program by double clicking. Windows 1.0 also includes a program called Notepad. It’s a lightweight text editor with a limited buffer of around 16k, so it’s only good for small files. Notepad actually provides the user with a running tally of how much free space is available in its buffer. Windows 1.0 even includes a Terminal, Cardfile and a Calculator program. Take that Macintosh User Interface!