Windows ME: Worth the Hate?

you know every time I criticize an even slightly popular tech product plenty of people come out of the Woodworks in defense of it I diss Bing I get angry comments from being users one zoom joke and I never hear the end of it I make a video about Java not being dead and I get comments saying Java isn't dead but there's one thing I have yet to see anyone in my comment section get behind at least not until today and so I figured now is as good a time as any to take a look at one of the most infamous versions of Windows the one that scored a 4th place on that 25 worst tech products list that all my videos seem to be connected to Windows Media to fully understand the deal with Windows me though we have to take a look at a different tool edited version of Windows Windows NT in my last video I covered Apple's attempts to transition to a next-gen operating system through a project called Copeland the project was unsuccessful to say the least but Ebel wasn't the only company looking far into the future of their operating system since the mid 80s Microsoft had been working with IBM on a project by the name of os/2 in fact as early as 1988 a team that existed at Microsoft with the goal of introducing software portability to os/2 they used high-end workstations to emulate the naathan released until I eat 60 processor at the time codenamed intent the project actually took its name from that chip calling itself os/2 NT the portability of the NT project made it much easier to work with the most operating systems at the time being written primarily in C rather than processor specific assembly the team was able to quickly switch from the Intel i860 they had originally been designing for to the risk-based MIPS processor with next to no hassle soon after NT was ported to the Intel 386 processor widely used in pcs at the time even though the NT project was moving forward with os/2 in mine Microsoft had another project cooking in the background Windows which had started as Microsoft's replied to the Macintosh in 1985 started out pretty lame but with the introduction of Windows 3 in 1990 it was finally able to capture the attention of the PC market effectively snubbing IBM's os/2 effort to earn its place as the next big PC operating system the popularity of windows 3 wasn't lost on the NT team at Microsoft either who would soon threw out a crazy idea what if instead of doing os/2 they used their technology to make a 32-bit version of Windows and after looking at the source code for Windows 3 they found that it wouldn't be too difficult to port all of the 16-bit api's to 32 bits it took a month and a half to do so but the NT team had effectively recreated the existing windows api's and what they called win32 and because they had taken care to match the original interfaces porting existing Windows programs to win32 was easy allowing them to make use of some of the expanded features NT had to offer internally Microsoft loved it and it wouldn't be much longer until Microsoft dropped the deal with IBM entirely to focus on a new product Windows NT one of the consequences of n T's portability goals however was that it didn't run nearly as efficiently as Windows for x86 being written in C it was easy to port the code to different architectures but it meant that generally the code wasn't optimized nearly as much as it could have been had it been designed with just one processor in mind this meant that upon release Windows NT 3.1 required much higher specs to run than its companion Windows version at the time so Microsoft directed NT towards the higher-end crowd enterprise systems servers and other computers that could easily run Windows NT while consumer pcs would run the lighter DOS based Windows what this ultimately did was fracture windows development cycle throughout the 90s while home users would see windows 3.0 95 and 98 business users would see Windows NT 3.0 4.0 and 4.0 but thanks to Moore's law the rapid increase in computational power throughout the 90s meant that consumer PCs were finally becoming powerful enough to run Windows and T by the end of the decade in fact Microsoft had announced that Windows 98 would be the last version of Windows to be built upon DOS with Bill Gates himself saying but the future on Windows NT except there was a bit of a problem since 1997 Microsoft have been promising the much-awaited Windows NT 5.0 but due in large part to feature creep as well as the fact that there was no real upgrade plan in place to transition users from the so-called 9x line of Windows to NT the two windows product lines weren't ready to unify two years later Microsoft had broken its promise regarding Windows 98 releasing Windows 98 se or second edition in 1999 that same year NT 5.0 known publicly as Windows 2000 but finally released to manufacturers while work had started on another project known as millennium intended to be the consumer version of Windows 2000 despite intentions for millennium to be the sixth version of Windows NT who has decided that the project would be the actual final version of Windows to be based on 9x code though it took a few cues from the Windows NT line project millennium was primarily intended just to be one last improvement to Windows 98 intended to be a consumer version of Windows many slated features had to do with the internet and multimedia both rapidly growing areas of interest in the industry by then millennium would also be rushed out in less than a year standing in the shadow of Windows 2000 a much more modern operating system that had been anticipated for years Windows me a side project pushed out in just a few months never really did get that much attention with Microsoft deciding not to run TV ads for the product it would be inaccurate to say that Emmys marketing wasn't unique though with a sweepstakes on the Microsoft website to win a copy and a nationwide tour of the OS with live demonstrations of the new technology at various malls along the east and west coasts there's just something that feels so delightfully archaic about actually physically going to a location to try software when we can do the same now online either way the mall events weren't very successful especially compared to the crazed crowds that had lined up for the launches of Windows 95 and 98 under hyped or not though the real question about Windows ME was how Iran was it really as bad as everyone claims well actually after reading some reviews from the time of Windows mieze release I'd have to say no the general response to the OS was apathetic at worst and at best some phone another solid improvement to the Windows 9x line with all the features the OS brought with it and that's another thing that's been downplayed with Windows me for such a short development period it actually packed plenty of new software capabilities well the core OS remained mostly the same in Windows ME there were a few minor improvements for one that dropped support for real mode dos a legacy specification from back when one megabyte was a lot of memory which in effect made the system boot time significantly faster even faster than 2000 by some reports with recorded times as low as 20 seconds to get to the desktop at the same time this decision also made the system much more stable compared to previous 9x versions of Windows at the cost of lessons support for dos programs me also boasted plenty of new multimedia tools over 98 like native support for imaging devices cameras along with better handling of digital photos by the OS in general there was also the new and improved Windows Media Player 7 which had two support for CD ripping an internet radio as well as a greatly improved Windows DVD player over the one introduced it with Windows 98 probably the most interesting feature Windows me introduced though was Windows Movie Maker which allowed everyday computer users to play around with video editing the same way mspaint let them play around with image editing I've already talked about the program in the past but suffice it to say that moviemaker paired with all the other media accessories included in Windows me made it a pretty effective multimedia operating system right out of the box though not nearly as obvious as its media capabilities Windows me also offered some improvements regarding that internet thing all the kids were raving about inheriting a lot of its networking code from Windows 2000 NetMeeting allowed users to have a random two sentence exchanges with their friends over the Internet hello how are you I'm doing great and programs like the home networking wizard unsurprisingly helped to set up home networks but the system tools didn't stop there Windows me also introduced maintenance applications like System Restore automatic updates and system file protection demean it easier for home users to fix their computers when something had gone awry I realize at this point it sounds like I'm completely selling out to Windows me with as much positivity ISM spewing but I'm honestly impressed with just how many features I assumed came with Windows XP or later actually had their roots in Windows me whenever someone even mentions the OS they go on to describe how poorly it ran or how frequently it crashed but few people seem to mention just how much influence it had on modern versions of Windows in 2001 slightly a year after Windows me ship Microsoft would put out its next major operating system for consumers the fourth one to be released in a span of four years Windows XP drew heavy inspiration from windows meat in terms of media features and system tools but also marked a significant transition as the first version of Windows to be released to both consumers and enterprise users since Windows 3 merging the old 9x line of Windows into the newer and more stable NT line that powers the Windows operating system to this day so that's it for Windows me not necessarily the horrific Allah awful operating system dubbed by some to be the true millennium bug but not necessarily a fantastic operating system either an unwanted project largely ignored by the tech community but the forerunner of plenty of technologies that would be popularized in the following years I'd hesitate to call Windows me ahead of its time given that it was quite literally based on technology of the past but it would certainly be incorrect to say that it wasn't at least in some form a sign of things to come you know what I've changed my mind after experiencing however many blue screens trying to record the virtual machine footage for this video I've come to the conclusion that Windows me is actually the worst please just disregard everything else I said in this video [Music]

Channel: The Science Elf

Views: 606,681

Keywords: windows, microsoft, windows me, windows 2000, intel, ibm, os2, windows nt, operating system, tech failure, windows vista, computers, technology, computer history

Id: -OXdqXj9IbU

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 03 2018