Moment in time: Nov. 10, 1983 - Microsoft launches Windows 1.0
Computer users were living in a world of DOS: square black screens with green or orange font that could only display letters and numbers in response to basic C: commands. This wasn't just a world without e-mails, tweets and Instagram - this was a world before start menus. So when Bill Gates unveiled a new operating system called Windows 1.0, people braced for a big overhaul. For $99 (U.S.), the software would be able to run multiple programs at once - things such as a notepad, calendar, clock and Windows Paint. Gates promised Windows would be compatible with 90 per cent of IBM computers. There was one small catch: The software wouldn't ship for two more years. Windows customers would have to learn to be patient - a virtue often practised since that day. -- Amberly McAteer
Photo: Paul Chesley/National Geographic Society/Corbis
