24 years of Windows package design

Wow these boxes make me nostalgic... I don't remember anything before 3.1 but when I was about four that was the first time I used a computer. Guess what for? Tetris. That's right.

It was the best.

Windows 95 was the first time I used the internet.

Windows 98 was when I spilled milk over my dad's expensive block that he called a "lap top" and when I downloaded my first virus.

Windows ME...the first time a computer made me cry? jk I was pretty happy upgrading to XP though

The rest aren't so nostalgic. It was pretty much XP until I discovered Linux.

I don't know why (except maybe for the first ones) but this is what I thought when I saw them together:

IBM (v1 to v3)

Clipart collection (v3.1)

Active desktop has stopped working (95 to ME)

Apple (windows 7)

First they're too boring, then too busy, then too boring again? This guy is never happy! Personally I think of all the pre-XP boxes Win2k's is by far the nicest. They finally got rid of all the extra crap he complained about and then he derides it for being boring. Yeesh.

Wow, 24 years of ugly. The only one that's even half decent is the 3.1 box -- despite the ugly "New!" badge and the ridiculously condensed font...

It's hard to tell from those small images, but what are those strange boils on the Windows 7 logo supposed to be?

for me, windows nt workstation 4.0 was where the product peaked. we finally got a consumer version of a real 32-bit os, rather than a flimsy shell sitting on top of dos. its gui was attractive, by microsoft standards. it wasn't yet loaded down with crap.

windows 2000 was the one that made me jump ship. to me it looked like "baby's first computer" or something.

after that i spent several years in the wilderness, trying various alternatives. linux didn't appeal to me for very long. i eventually settled on beos, including a short stint working for be. when they went out of business, i switched to macs, and here i still am.