In NT4 they merged the User and GDI memory spaces which were separate in 3.51, and made it trivial for the user to asplode the machine in pursuit of graphics performance... which as you point out, they did not actually ever achieve in NT until Windows 2000. This is the precise moment that many people gave up on NT and went to using Unix for their servers even when they had Windows on their desktops.

The CDE toolbar was hilariously baroque because Unix users were used to having too much screen space, and the window behavior was not-at-all changed from MWM. Microsoft was on the Motif WG, which is why Windows 3.1 and MWM have almost exactly the same windowing behavior, resize grab handles, window management widgets, etc. CDE was also not the first Unix WM to feature a persistent menu; that accolade has to go to NeXTStep, which also placed it in a more logical location.

The single menu bar of the Apple style, a holdover from the mainframe days of yore, did beget the taskbar. And now we have taskbars with start buttons on every desktop. But you can't give CDE much credit at all. It's wholly derivative, and most of what it is... is actually MWM

.desktop files provide the full range of functionality which came from a .PIF and then some, but shell scripts provided everything but the standardized icon and descriptive text output formats before either thing was a thing.

I rented a Ford Focus. It has all these screens, keypads and shit.

There was one very large button labeled Radio. I pressed it and nothing happened. Turns out that you had the press the much smaller button only labeled Vol to turn the radio on. Then there were these button on the center console, right in the middle and above the volume button. Unlabeled. Left to tune down, right to tun up...right? Nope. It control the "feature selection" on a screen on the dash. Tuning buttons were much smaller and in the upper right and only labeled with a left arrow and right arrow.

Then I looked down by the shifter. There, was a placard that said, "Powered by Microsoft".

No.

OK, also no.

On the mac, the desktop was always for doing work. On the PC, the desktop didn't exist until Windows 95 (ignoring non-Windows operating systems) because in Windows 3.1 it was just a place to store icons of running programs. It wasn't a desktop as we know it, where you can put anything, like on the Mac. On the mac, the desktop was useful before the OS even had shortcuts, known as aliases. You could drag stuff there from your hard drive, and the system would remember that those icons were supposed to show up on the desktop.

On the PC, the start menu most certainly does not "list the apps installed in the filesystem". Just like the Mac, if you want to find that, you have to dig down into the HDD. The start menu on the PC contains shortcuts exclusively by default. You can stick anything you want in there, of course. As for the desktop, the computer no longer even appears there. By default, the only things on the desktop are the trash, shortcuts which can be placed there by programs which want to seem important, and any documents you've saved there... plus any shovelware shat there by any OEM you may have purchased your PC from.

Before Windows had a desktop as we know it, it had two primary interfaces; a program manager and a file manager. The program manager only showed shortcuts (.PIFs) and the file manager would show you the full filesystem view. From there you could run .exe files. I don't actually remember if the program manager would run a PIF, ISTR that it would but I am not sure any more and do not care enough to find out. The program manager became the start menu, always available at the click of a button and ordered with folders and subfolders instead of single-depth "program groups". The file manager became explorer and provides the desktop (which became just another file view) as well as folder windows.

I presume you mean win7. Actually you could get previews on XP from Nov 2009 with the "Alt-Tab Replacement Task Switcher" power toy. Win7 actually manages to show previews of minimized directdraw and direct3d windows, which is almost impressive.

Men are much, much better at that after age...of, 12 or so give or take a few years.

Windows 95 copied NeXT's interface (the look, anyway) and not the other way around. NeXTStep goes way way back without changing much.

You can assume all you like, but I'd sit that astrophysicist down and try to figure out why he couldn't understand such a simple interface, mostly shared with Unix of the day, before I'd assume that I'd made a mistake. Maybe the guy is great at math but shit at everything else? We don't all think the same way.

The internets have been calling for a Chris Harris-led Top Gear since the show was cancelled... it's got a fair shot if it doesn't try to be the old show.

We call this cognitive dissonance.

Riding a bicycle where cars aren't is indeed fun. Riding a bicycle where cars are is terrifying, if you love life and understand how fragile it is. This is why I own a MTB whose rubber cannot even sustain contact with asphalt. Super nice on single track, though.

Oh, I thought you were smarter than that, based on your posting history. It's good for Amazon, that's why they are bundled together.

Yes, and that sort of information is also being logged.

You really think they don't know more about that than you do? You must really think you're fucking great, and much better than all those people who work for google and aclima.

No, no it isn't, but the space below is too small to explain how idiotic that statement was.

They will probably not produce a single number result at this stage, although with later comparison between cities, a meaningful single number result will be possible.

Yes.

We'll find out! See, it makes sense. We'll learn.

That's not the argument; before you criticize the argument, make sure you understand it. It's OK to put a CO2 measurement station on a volcano because from correlations (or not) from other instruments we understand how being on a volcano affects CO2 measurements.

It's good to know that you believe everything you read. It just so happens that I've got a relative in Nigeria who would like to communicate with you via email.