10 years ago…

i was running windows xp (and had been since before it was released) and when i read ed bott’s post about browser usage, i couldn’t help but think about what i was running 10 years earlier in early 1992…

i started at the company my wife now works for and was supporting software at a help desk.  there was still a fair amount of dos in use there, lotus 1-2-3, and wordperfect.  i was part of the group looking at windows 3.1 and supporting current dos applications in a windows environment.  10 years in it typically brings lots of change.  in those first 10 years – windows 3.1, windows for workgroups 3.1, windows for workgroups 3.11, windows 95, windows 98, windows 98 second edition, windows 2000 and then windows xp.  the applications i used (as well as the platform running them and the versions of those applications) changed almost as dramatically in those years.  in my first 10 years, i began with a mainframe for email and business apps to servers starting with lan manager, but quickly moving to windows nt 3.1 (and then 4 newer editions of the server os) dos versions of lotus 1-2-3 and wordperfect eventually introduced basic mouse support, but as windows took off, there were versions of applications designed for windows.

looking back 10 years ago from today i was using windows xp, but didn’t have a dvd burner and usb was still in it’s infancy.  a motorola startac was my pride and joy, but didn’t do much beyond making and receiving calls.  i really wanted a microsoft xbox because of the hard drive, but couldn’t justify the cost until it dropped a bit (this was the original xbox – no wireless network, wireless controllers and no controller free kinect).  i’m sure if i spent more time i’d think of other things i can do today that i hadn’t even imagined 10 years earlier.