Wow. I just had a flashback and it had nothing to do with anything I consumed. I just checked in on my six-year-old son. I noticed that he had an old laptop of mine, circa 1996, in his room. And it had Windows 95 pre-installed. Say what you want about that old operating system, but it was a nice time for the age of Windows. Here’s why.
Remember a world without pop-up ads, endless spam, phishing, pharming and all the other nonsense that now plagues us — particularly Windows users?
Well, that’s the world I just saw in my son’s room. A standalone Dell laptop running Windows 95. And running it well, I might add. I actually reviewed that system for CMP’s Windows Magazine (which has long since died).
Of course, my son prefers a networked PC that offers Internet access. I could network the old Dell laptop to my Linksys switch. But that would be tempting fate. For now, he’s using it in standalone mode and keeping a small summer diary on it.
Perhaps I look back fondly on Windows 95 because I spent most of 1993 through 1995 covering the operating system’s development for InformationWeek. At the time, I considered Windows 95 — code-named “Chicago” — a short-term business distraction until Microsoft got its act together with Windows NT.
Here’s one of my old interviews with Bill Gates. I was 25 at the time, and assumed all GenX kids got to sit down with Bill for a chat about Windows…
Yes folks, I was a huge NT advocate in the mid-to-late 1990s. I thought little of Apple, Unix and Linux. These days, I’m running Mac OS X during my day job and typing this blog on my Ubuntu PC.
My how times have changed.
All About Ubuntu 
Yes, those were different days. But your title for this entry shocked and appalled me.