by Lam Luu

Created on: March 23, 2009

Comparison between Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows Vista is such a nice thing to do: it would show us not only the evolution of one product, but also the change in the climate of operating system over time. Oh, for easy calling, I will refer to the former simply as "95" and latter as Vista. Plus, I will refer to Apple Macintosh as Mac, and GNU/Linux as Linux, Microsoft as MS. Let's compare 95 and Vista, and see how our world has changed.

Of course, it is pretty silly to compare what a 12th grader knows to what a 1st grader does. Instead, it is much more appropriate to compare how this 12th grader fairs against his mate, and how that 1st grader goes head-to-head with her friends. Similarly, I won't compare 95 and Vista directly, but compare each to its own respective time.

1. Innovation

Okay, let's sail all the way back to 1995. How was the computer back then, you remember? Well, I don't, to tell you the truth ^_^. However, we do remember some traces of time. Back then, the most popular operating system was MS DOS, which is based on "Quick and Dirty Operating System." It is text-based, can run only one program at a time, and ugly as hell. Therefore, 95 was a bliss. Really. For a DOS user, ANYTHING graphical was a bliss. So was 95. Better yet, it was also from MS, and it supports all DOS software. Dream came true, right? That explains why thousands of people lined up to wait for this operating system.

Now, fast forward to 2006, Nov. 2006 to be precise. Time changes. Nowadays, we had XP, a relatively stable system, with a themable interface. Not quite secure, but can be well-protected. Anyway, it's been more than 5 years since the start of XP epoch, and Microsoft, after missing one promise to another, finally churned out Vista. Here is the advertisement: New interface! (Excuse me, but Mac and Linux users have had that forever) Firewall! (Um, I have had that since 2000, thank you) User system! (SOMEONE DISABLES THIS FOR ME, I WANT MY GAMES) Security! (after paying for antivirus program, antispyware program, firewall program, the system should be damned secure). Windows Genuine Program! (if you can count that as "innovation") Anything new at all? Anything must-have? None. This explains why many many businesses just skip this version, and many people opted to degrade back to XP for their new computers. What a shame.

2. Competitors

Good ol' days, 1995. Back then, KDE and GNOME (two most popular graphic interface for GNU/Linux) were not even released yet. Well,

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