Nowadays, there are a lot more different desktop wallpapers then was
around in when I started using computers. Mainly I am guessing because
when I started, there was no desktop, unless you count the dosbased Norton
Commander. Norton Commander was groundbreaking in its day because
you could see two folders at once, instead of using the old copy command.
For those of you who wasnt around in those days, heres how you did it.
first, pretty much the only thing you saw was this:
Not very inspiring was it?
Well, lets say you wanted to copy something
from your folder named “images”, what you had
to do is either know the direct path to the file
you wanted to copy and the path to where you
want it to go and then type this:
copy c:imagesimagename.end c:destinationsubfolder
If you didnt know the file name, you could do this:
cd images to change to images directory, then type
dir (i preferred dir -w to get some structure) to locate
your file, then type copy imagename.end c:destinationsubfolder. Kind of tedious if you ask me.
Then along came Norton Commander. It may not look like much compared to the new
windowed based operating systems, but back then, it was heaven on earth, it even had
support for null modems. (If you dont know what a null modem is, check here)
It may be text and ascii based, but hey, it was at least something resembling a desktop.
This was actually my filesystem of choice on my old 386 with a whopping
16 Mb ram and running at a totally staggering 33Mhz … hard to think
that you where actually satisfied with that seeing as the calculator I have
next to me right now actually has more processing power… oh well.
With the entrance of Windows 3.1x The desktop started to resemble something
graphical at least. You could even start using images as desktop images,
albeit you had to use the heavy bmp or tif format, but you could at least
see your kids on the desktop.
I kinda didnt use windows much back then though. Id rather edit my autoexec.bat and
config.sys to allow my soundboard to be used in the few games I could play, Wolfenstein3D
for instance.
My old 386 eventually died, but I have some fond memories of it at least,
and I got my pentium 166. As the name implies, it ran at 166Mhz and the
real news was the operating system. I can still remember seeing the
commercial on the TV, with the nice “start” messages
and of course, the catchphrase: Where do you want to go today.
I am of course talking about windows 95.
This is where it really started to kick off. Desktop especially when the + pack
came with 3d generated screensavers and ability to use themes. Whooo haw!
On top of that, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 4, wich was supposed
to be the best since sliced bread, but what really made me install it was the
“Active Desktop” But lets face it, the thing you saw the most was this one:
Remember the good ole BSOD that persisted to
taunt you whenever you where in the middle
of a good game, or, had written 50 pages in
Word without saving? Oh, how you hated that
screen. This thing persisted for a loooong time
time, and well. It’s the windows way of “guru meditation”
Nowadays, most people use XP, Windows Vista, or even Windows 7 Beta, but
for me, the thrill of desktop wallpapers still persists. When will I create the one
that is perfect for me?
Anyhoo, here is my latest one.
