Any pictures in this post come from the BetaArchive Wiki which is a highly recommended visit.
It's been a busy lead-up to summertime and will get busier still, but for the sake of having a post for the month of June today I thought I'd summarize the fruits of my exploration regarding early 16-bit releases of Microsoft Windows. This was the era of an arguably kinder and gentler (but no less relentless) House of Bill Gates which likely already had aspirations of world empire but still had a long way to go towards achieving that goal. Their design decisions were shaped by still being beholden to IBM as they had not grown to a point of being able to strike out on their own quite yet.
As a Millennial I grew up using some (not all) of these editions in their original home-based context. My parents' IBM compatible operated for years primarily via some DOS menu frontend I can neither recall a name for nor find online but I remember, so long as directory trees to executables were known, it was a handy program selector that could be categorized at will. When Windows was installed it wasn't used as a primary operating system at first, likely because memory considerations made it better to run in native DOS.
For decades I hadn't realized the full history of Windows. Before my retro enthusiasm began in my early adulthood Microsoft systems were mere tools to me...industry standard tools at that hence why the level of interest I developed for Microsoft in the 90s only waned recently due to the direction of that company leaving me among the disillusioned. Though my retro focus is primarily on gaming Windows, as well as other Microsoft product lines, are an essential context to late 20th century home computing history and I am among those who choose to integrate the operating system and productivity software side of that to my hobby.
Rough Starts: Windows 1
Even while the Commodore 64 was enjoying its golden age the legacy of the Xerox Alto had grown into the 2 distinct lines that continue to stand today, the difference being it was Steve Jobs' Apple who were the relentless ones. Being ahead of competition by launching Macintosh in 1984 with native Graphical User Interface (GUI) operation seemed to give Apple the belief it owned the GUI concept, and they were successful enough to back that with legal clout due to strong sales of their classic II family. By the end of the decade US courts would rule only certain proprietary implementations could be copyrighted and not all facets of the idea (which Apple was cheating on anyway since they were not the first to develop a GUI concept) but before that ruling Apple's legal aggression was enough to cow GUI producers to go out of their way to keep their programs from looking too much like the Macintosh System, among them a still-small Microsoft.
Development of Windows began before Macintosh, not that it would've made any difference since Lisa launched in 1983 as Apple's first computer to use a GUI for its standard operating system. For years the Macintosh line stayed afloat but struggled to find success (outside of the niche of desktop publishing it managed to create for itself) as DOS-based IBM PCs and compatibles proved ideal for professional work while the growing number of home-based computer users (who were far more technically-inclined than today) got what they needed from affordable 8-bit Tandy, Commodore, Apple and Atari systems. In this tumultuous time partners IBM and Microsoft were already evaluating the future direction the latter's OS software would play in the former's newer hardware.
Development Hell
When it released at the end of 1985 Windows was a solid piece of software for its design. Bill Gates saw, like Steve Jobs, the GUI was the future and it'd be a battle to determine how that future would look. Yet like the first version of DOS or OS/2 this first Windows is more remarkable for what it couldn't do.
Microsoft was loathe not to deliver on its promises and the Windows release getting delayed time and again was haunting. It's admirable how this younger and [perhaps] more caring Microsoft wanted to get things right however long it took, but the end result was about a year obsolescent and faltered against the growing DOS frontend market. As much potential as it had when finally released the time pushbacks took their toll and, despite being a superb and affordable GUI addition to DOS, Windows 1 garnered very little vendor support and today is best-remembered as a prototypical novelty rather than a serious operating environment.
Capabilities
IBM catered to professionals while Microsoft was always consumer-oriented, a philosophical difference that would come to a head the next decade. While power users and professionals could exploit its DOS multitasking potential this was perhaps the most telling feature that earns Windows 1 the "prototypical" moniker. This first edition operated only under what future Windows nomenclature termed "real mode" which had nothing to do with real-mode DOS (all 16-bit versions of Windows function atop real-mode DOS) but had the same idea in its operation within the 640K barrier unless Windows-compatible drivers recognized the older, real-mode compatible Expanded Memory Specification.
Windows 1.0 is a product of its time: when computers came standard with some dialect of BASIC so any low-end user with the know-how could compose and run programs without the need for a disk drive or operating system. Floppy disk drives had standardized by the mid-80s (and Windows 1, like any DOS up to that point, could be installed and run entirely off floppies) but what's really interesting about the new features Windows brought showcased how its developers knew the potential of what they were making if only the market would take advantage. These features, the included applets, far outlived their original purpose of showcasing Windows development possibilities and over the years prompted new standards in that computer operating systems must come with some out-of-the-box means of serious productivity.
No Windows applets came close to substituting for commercial applications but DOS at the time only bundled a text editor, BASIC programming interface and simple debugger alongside its regular tools as an operating system. Windows justified its price tag with not only program selector MS-DOS Executive but also:
- Clipboard: inter-program copy-and-paste
- Notepad: menu-and-mouse driven text editor (such would not ship with DOS until version 5 in 1991)
- Clock: this first edition was analog-only but worked well enough for tracking with the tiled windows
- Calendar: with alarm capability this on-screen time management predicted all-purpose devices
- Cardfile: "digital rolodex" was as close as it got to a personal database, a basic computer function
- Write: heaviest of the included applets, this simplified word processor covered the minimal bases well
- Paint: while monochromatic (like Macintosh at the time) its images could be copied to other programs
- Calculator: not as notable since by 1985 including one was becoming an operating system standard
- Terminal: it was not yet standard to include a terminal emulator, great for the home modem crowd
- Reversi: the first Windows game but not the last to forever be associated with Windows
Professional Achievement: Windows 2
MS-DOS may have been what put the IBM PC and its expansive clone market on the map but both were fast realizing the inherent limitations of building that operating system around the 8086 processor with a memory limit of 640 kilobytes. CP/M creator Digital Research would be the only major company to field a PC-compatible edition of DOS utilizing 80286 protected mode breaching that memory barrier, but that had little impact due to scarcity of programs that could operate in those conditions which left the most common application being that which Microsoft developed: memory page flipping enables 640K blocks for OS-supporting programs to use. However, that is getting a little ahead of things.
The IBM Complex
Probably the most notable producer of a Windows 1 variant was IBM itself. At first they invested in their TopView menu program that introduced Program Information Files for DOS frontend tasking, but they'd relent and grant PIF functionality in Windows. When their PS/2 line launched IBM developed the best variant of Windows 1.04 to work with its advanced capabilities, the only first edition with VGA and PS/2 mouse support. Microsoft included support for both in their new Windows, one of several incremental upgrades prompting a new version number.
Messaging is mixed about whether they were ever really on board but it is clear enough Microsoft would have preferred to bypass 286 support altogether though IBM compelled them to anyway since Big Blue was loathe to abandon that segment of their professional customer base. The 286 debate was the split point between the companies...in a developmental rather than corporate sense (that came later). While Windows was Microsoft's baby their charge from IBM was producing the replacement for both Windows and DOS, and it was enough that they could only afford incremental upgrades to Windows while the 4th edition of DOS (incidentally the least fondly-remembered) was handled by IBM; among the effects this had is IBM would not produce another OEM edition of Windows until 3.1 and DOS 4 was incompatible with Windows 2.
Processor Upgrades
The details of how Microsoft hacked a reset in the 286 chip to enable near-seamless switching between real and protected mode is something worth independently researching for anyone interested. It was a case in computer history of making the best of a difficult situation and enabled 16-bit OS/2, limited as it was, to work as well as it did. It was also what led Windows to rule the low end PC market which IBM was content to allow since both companies were banking on OS/2 taking on the high end.
Windows 2 debuted while it was still summer of 1987 in the variant that put it ahead: Compaq was the first to support large FAT16 partitions with DOS 3.31, and now they beat IBM to the punch with an 80386 PC on the market alongside a Windows version made specifically for that processor. A season later the regular Windows 2 launched but this still shows 386 support was intended from the start. This was first distinction between what would become Standard [286] Mode and 386 Enhanced Mode in Windows 3.
Program Support
The 386 editions were always known as such but regular editions shortchanged no features save specific processor capabilities such as multitasking via virtual 8086 DOS boxes. Windows 2 by itself offered little more than what Windows 1 had: display driver and AppleTalk network support but no new applets. That was now beside the point, however: by supporting memory extensions via protected mode in either 286 or 386 processors the potential of Windows 2 was unlocked from Windows 1, and vendors took notice.
This fact is well-evidenced by Microsoft itself first producing Windows ports of Word, Excel and Project for Windows 2. Like many Microsoft first editions they had troubled developments but when they were finally released they were among the best if working in protected mode; Word and Excel in particular were ported from Macintosh which generally had superior processing and stability over PCs but inferior graphics and memory capacity, the latter of which was growing in importance in the professional realm. While the latest processors and a full memory bank was rare for PCs in the 1980s it was more likely to be the case in a corporate environment. As this [warning: dated and cheesy] promotional video portrays, 386-based Windows was to be a professional gap filler until the more capable OS/2 matured; home PC users with older processors worked fine with standard 286 Windows, and unlike OS/2 a 286 wasn't even required.
Performance
Windows 2 was the first successful version albeit not the breakaway world conqueror its successor would become. A high-end business PC was the type of system OS/2 targeted, DOS 4 added features catering to the classic power user, and Windows was built to ensure everyone in between wasn't left out. Issues surrounding OS/2's Microsoft-produced editions are worth a different post; in summary it may be retro computing's most tragic case of the abandoned middle child, the 286. Compelled to support the 16-bit processor Microsoft OS/2 proved too elite for the consumer market yet too limited for the very corporate market that was IBM's bread and butter. It prevailed for years as the most capable PC-based server and development platform (even after Microsoft divorced IBM they had to keep using OS/2 because with Windows NT delayed they had no alternative) but only a small fraction of power users would adopt it for their homes while businesses favored the better end-user accessibility (and cost) of Windows. OS/2 did not provide Windows application compatibility until version 2 and the poor DOS support in version 1 made OS/2 multitasking effective only with Family API programs (though Microsoft worked around this by producing all their programming language suites in Family API during their OS/2 support period; Word 5 and Multiplan 4 were likewise Family API but Microsoft additionally ported Word and Excel from Macintosh to OS/2 Presentation Manager).
There's no question Windows lacked relative to OS/2 for both power and stability, though part of that is due to any system running OS/2 in the 80s necessarily being high-end. There's also no question, when it worked, that it was very capable for what it was meant to do; while not for everybody it offered much to the computer savvy who wanted to go beyond vanilla DOS. It could utilize protected mode and higher memory pages well before DOS expanded to either capability, exploit the then-unique capacities of the 386 years before OS/2 reached that point and, if needed for compatibility with a particular application, it could even be run in OS/2's single DOS session.
And this was all before the Program Manager and multimedia...