DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

The Man who created "WINDOWS" !

18 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/the-man-who-created-windows.63467/

anandk
anandk Original post #1
Jul 20, 2007 at 8:53 PM
"Contrary to popular belief, the omnipresent Windows operating system does not owe its existence to Bill Gates, Paul Allen or the development team at Microsoft.

The man responsible for giving us Windows was actually a marketing expert called Rowland Hanson. Work on the operating system had started after Gates had seen a demo of VisiCorp’s software called VisiOn, which featured a graphical user interface (GUI), at Comdex, in 1982, and had decided that Microsoft would also come out with a GUIbased operating system. Gates and
the development team referred to it as ‘Interface Manager’ and the name stuck, at least until Hanson was hired to develop a marketing campaign for the product. He was unimpressed by the rather geekish ‘Interface Manager’ and proposed that the product be named ‘Windows’, as the user saw a number of ‘windows’ on the screen that contained the tools and files they needed to work with.

And the rest, as they love to say, ishistory. Had it not been for Hanson, ‘IM’ would have been an abbreviation for an operating system rather than for instant messaging"

btw this a documented and acknowledged fact...

Also see History of Microsoft Windows.
Third Eye
Jul 20, 2007 at 8:54 PM
Thanks for the info
hemant_mathur
Jul 20, 2007 at 9:33 PM
Never knew that .. thanx for the info
iMav
iMav #4
Jul 20, 2007 at 9:37 PM
anandk said:
"Contrary to popular belief, the omnipresent Windows operating system does not owe its existence to Bill Gates, Paul Allen or the development team at Microsoft.
a small correctin the OS owes its existence to billy g but the name owes its exitence to the marketing guy ;)
clmlbx
clmlbx #5
Jul 20, 2007 at 10:15 PM
thanx for the info
aryayush
Jul 20, 2007 at 10:36 PM
I'd expected a better post from someone like anandk. There are several problems with this one:

1. The idea of making a GUI based operating system occurred to Bill Gates after seeing the first Mac OS, not this VisiOn thing you are talking about.
2. Your source is Wikipedia and we all know how reliable it is.
3. The page you sourced the article from (and have linked to) has already been updated and it supports my first point now.

:)
anandk
anandk #7
Jul 20, 2007 at 10:44 PM
u r right iMav :)
arya : thanx for ur input...and yes, never expect anything from me...even i dont expect anything from "me" ! :D
iMav
iMav #8
Jul 20, 2007 at 11:03 PM
aryayush said:
The idea of making a GUI based operating system occurred to Bill Gates after seeing the first Mac OS, not this VisiOn thing you are talking about.
and i am sure u accompanied bill gates where ever he saw this mac os and bill gates confided to you that he got the idea of making a GUI OS from the mac :lol:
vish786
vish786 #9
Jul 20, 2007 at 11:11 PM
iMav said:
and i am sure u accompanied bill gates where ever he saw this mac os and bill gates confided to you that he got the idea of making a GUI OS from the mac :lol:

:lol:
aryayush
aryayush #10
Jul 21, 2007 at 1:46 AM
iMav said:
and i am sure u accompanied bill gates where ever he saw this mac os and bill gates confided to you that he got the idea of making a GUI OS from the mac :lol:
Actually, he did. Not exactly to me but to the world.

And anyway, it is common knowledge what Windows owes its existence to and I don't need to listen to any of your nonsense about it.
Vishal Gupta
Jul 21, 2007 at 2:15 AM
anandk said:
never expect anything from me...even i dont expect anything from "me" ! :D
lolz. :D
gxsaurav
gxsaurav #12
Jul 21, 2007 at 2:27 AM
aryayush said:
Actually, he did. Not exactly to me but to the world.

And anyway, it is common knowledge what Windows owes its existence to and I don't need to listen to any of your nonsense about it.

While Nokia makes bread & Coca Cola makes engine Oil :D

We all know how "un-biased" your viewpoint is. :p
gaurav_indian
Jul 21, 2007 at 2:39 AM
gx_saurav said:
While Nokia makes bread & Coca Cola makes engine Oil :D

We all know how "un-biased" your viewpoint is. :p
And Writex will make mobiles and Parle G will make CDs.:lol:
blackpearl
Jul 21, 2007 at 11:38 AM
aryayush said:
And anyway, it is common knowledge what Windows owes its existence to and I don't need to listen to any of your nonsense about it.

Windows owes its existence to Mac? Are you sure?

I think you haven't heard the story of the "Rich neighbour named Xerox"

*www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?proj...ox.txt&topic=Microsoft&sortOrder=Sort by Date
knight17
knight17 #15
Jul 21, 2007 at 5:10 PM
The answers.com link is the wikipedia article itself.
R
Jul 22, 2007 at 12:30 AM
windows was inspired by mac even this time's fast track says that
rakeshishere
Jul 22, 2007 at 1:32 AM
The Man who created "WINDOWS"? :))
aryayush
aryayush #18
Jul 23, 2007 at 1:55 PM
blackpearl said:
Windows owes its existence to Mac? Are you sure?

I think you haven't heard the story of the "Rich neighbour named Xerox"

*www.folklore.org/StoryView.py...% 20by%20Date
I thought we were talking about where Bill Gates got the idea from, not where Steve Jobs did. Jobs took it from XEROX PARC and Gates took it from Apple.

Read the first chapter of this month's Fast Track. It clearly states that the GUI we are used to today owes its existence to XEROX PARC. ;)