Lenovo is the new IBM, IIRC.

That's right. I don't know if their laptops are any good though.

The Chinese company that bought the rights to the Thinkpad?

Yeah, that's more accurate. I think DH had an early one as a work computer, and it was fine, but he didn't have it for long. I think I've heard that they're customer service is bad, or possibly nonexistent.

The main reason I was liking that second Toshiba (the one available through Amazon) is that it's still installed with XP. That, and I've been reading some reviews on it from CNET and PCWorld, and it's gotten some very favorable ones. The main problem with it seems to be that the touch pad is a bit tight, but I'd be using an external mouse with it most of the time, so that doesn't bother me too much.

Oh, the XP factor. I can understand that.

HP Notebook

HP is not worth it. They're bricks--heavy and unwieldy and too much weight for what it is.

Toshiba would be more of a workhorse.

I think I'll try and get that Toshiba through Amazon as soon as my tax refund gets deposited (supposedly on February 9th, if the schedule on the IRS's website is correct). I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the company stays solvent for a while after I get it!

A History of Microsoft Windows (eta: with pretty screenshots!)

I did not know this (about the lack of overlapping windows):

Bill Gates announced the Windows project in 1983, but Microsoft's first graphical user interface -- Windows 1.0 -- wasn't released until November 1985, nearly two years after Apple introduced the Mac. Due to legal issues with Apple, Gates couldn't include key features like overlapping windows and a trash can. Looking at it now, it's not surprising it was a flop. Windows 1.0 was more an extension of MS-DOS than its own operating system, but it did allow limited multitasking and mouse support.

Also, I remember the lawsuit, but did not know about the licensing for 2.0:

Gates soon signed a licensing agreement with Apple to use some of the Macintosh GUI elements in Windows. It was a huge coup for Gates, especially when Apple later took him to court for 170 counts of copyright infringement after Windows 2.0 was released. Windows 2.0 had fully realized icons and overlapping windows, but all the alleged infringements were eventually dismissed.

In addition to the face lift, version 2.0 also enjoyed some key program support. Early versions of Word and Excel used Windows for their interfaces, even though Windows closed when the programs were exited. Aldus PageMaker, a popular desktop-publishing program that had previously run only on the Mac, also debuted for Windows 2.0. This was a pivotal moment for Windows, as it greatly expanded the operating system's usefulness and its market.

Anyone ever use a version of Windows prior to 3.0? I used Windows 2.0, but it was a runtime version that came with Pagemaker. So I only ran it when I ran Pagemaker and didn't use it for anything else. So in my mind, anyway, Win 3.0 is the first "real" version of Windows.

Also, the article is incorrect about Win 3.11 - the first comment below gets it right.

I used 2.0, for Excel only, I think.

I still miss Windows 2000. I wish I'd hung onto disks.

I really don't miss WfW. Or upgrading to it...handling networking so separately...

We had the full version of 2.0 on a computer attached to one of our instruments, and kept using it until only a few years ago, because that's the only OS the software ran on. (Hewlett Packard (now Agilient) has terrific GCs, but they're terrible about software upgrade paths. We still have an instrument connected to a Windows 3.11 machine, and I still have to occasionally back up files from it to something that has more capacity over the network, which is always a wobbly trip down memory lane.)

2.0 sucked badly. It was slow and awkward, although part of my perception is no doubt colored by the fact that we already had several 3.0 machines in the lab (not to mention the Mac SE30 I was using for desktop publishing at the time) when HP foisted 2.0 upon us.

Heh. I would have guessed that DX would be the most likely to have used a full version of 2.0.

I want to install a 3.1 or 3.11 virtual machine on my MacBook. Actually, I have a 3.0 installation (with Word 2.0) on a HD from a dead XT clone. (Yes, I ran Windows 3.0 on an XT. Printing was slow as fuck, but Word did work more or less OK for my resumes and cover letters....)