Classic Systems Emulated: Windows 3.0 (Part 1)


The Windows install base continued to grow, but it was still small compared to DOS. Due to this, the future of Windows was in doubt. IBM had already decreed that OS/2 was going to be the operating system of the future. Microsoft promoted this vision as well, for the time being.


OS/2 was created as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft to write a advance OS for personal computers that provided features such as multitasking, multi-threading, memory management and protection, and install-able file-systems, along with DOS compatibility. By Version 1.2, released in 1989, OS/2 fulfilled most of the features that have been promised since the beginning. Even then, the new OS was very demanding and had, by late 80's standards, steep hardware requirements. Combined this with the fact that their wasn't any killer application to justify it's mass-adaptation, OS/2 had a small-install base. It hadn't grown as both Microsoft and IBM expected.

The company's views of OS/2 was also different. Microsoft saw the OS as a way to advance personal computing into the 90's, while IBM saw the OS as simply a feature to sell more hardware. Microsoft was fully committed to OS/2, but they were never championed the 286 versions as they saw that processor as a technological dead-end. The 386 was where it was at. At the same time, IBM demanded a 286 version because they promised the OS to customers that purchased the PC-AT and other IBM systems that utilized the 286 processor.

Even though OS/2 was decreed to replace DOS, Microsoft needed a back-up plan in case OS/2 didn't catch on. This was why Windows, despite it's general lack-of-interest, was kept alive. While the development of Windows/386 continued, two programmers, Murray Sargent and David Weise, decided as a proof of concept to get all of Windows 2.0 running within the 386 protected mode, not just the kernel as with Windows/386. Murray Sargent did a excellent write-up about the early development of what would eventually become Windows 3.0, which I highly recommend reading. It's linked below: "Saving Windows From The OS/2 Bulldozer". The two developers spent the next several weeks debugging Windows and getting it to run within the protected mode of the 386 processor.

Since both Microsoft and IBM were still proclaiming that OS/2 was the future of computing, the two developers kept their pet project under wraps. When it was in a stable enough state, they showed it to Steve Ballmer first.

Steve Ballmer originally championed the joint agreement between IBM and Microsoft that created OS/2. At the time, he felt that Microsoft alone didn't have the resources to write a advance OS on their own, and needed IBM's expertise to do it. IBM knew how to write advance operating system, but they didn't understand the needs of PC users, while Microsoft didn't (at the time) understand how to write a advance OS, but they understood the needs of PC users like the back of their hand. A marriage of sorts occurred (which turn into a bitter divorce). Microsoft's powerhouse OS, Xenix, was a licensed version of the UNIX operating system that had been mostly developed and owned by AT&T/Bell Labs.

By this point though, Ballmer gotten very frustrated with IBM's way of programming, and the amount of time to develop OS/2. The IBM developers would hold meetings where time was spent flowcharting a program or supporting library, then fully documented how the functions within those programs or libraries operated, a then afterwards, program it and write the source code. Meeting after meeting. This result in code that was very clean, but also consumed a lot of time to develop. Microsoft programmers would typically write the code, and then flow-chart it and document it's functions afterwards.

Animosity developed between the two groups as a culture clash occurred. The Microsoft developers considered IBM's code bloated, while the IBM developers considered Microsoft's code sloppy in comparison. IBM measured programmers productivity by how many lines of code they wrote. The Microsoft developers hated this as it promoted bloated programming. From Microsoft's perspective, the code needed to be as small and efficient as possible. From Microsoft's view, IBM was bureaucracy at it's worst.

While Ballmer was still a supporter of the agreement with IBM, his animosity with Big Blue was starting to show. He became much more convinced in the capabilities of the Microsoft developers. This was around the time that Dave Cutler and gang defected from DEC and joined the Redmond giant. This was the programming team that wrote the advance VMS operating system for the DEC VAX minicomputer. While at Microsoft, they would go on to create the OS that would be the driving force for future versions of Windows, NT. NT was built from scratch as Dave Cutler had a low opinion of both DOS and OS/2. He refereed to OS/2 as "DOS Plus". At this point, I would highly recommend reading "Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft". It cover the development of Windows NT, even though some parts do cover some of the Microsoft-IBM drama as well.

Combined this with the work done by Murray and David showed him, Ballmer was very impressed by their work and what Windows did in protect mode. The 640KB barrier became a thing of the past. Realizing the full potential, Steve told Bill Gates about the project, who was impressed as well. As noted in the article "Saving Windows from the OS/2 Bulldozer", Gates enthusiastically supported the project a few days later in a planning meeting. A project that would eventually become Windows 3.0.

While enthusiastically supported by both Ballmer and Gates, the project was kept mostly under wraps so that IBM wouldn't get wind of it. IBM would have been very upset that Microsoft was planning a new version of Windows while still proclaiming that OS/2 was the future. A move that wouldn't instill confidence from Big Blue's perspective.

Saving Windows from the OS/2 Bulldozer
Microsoft Developer
 BLOGS.MSDN.MICROSOFT.COM
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/murrays/saving-windows-from-the-os2-bulldozer?

OS/2 1990: Breakup
Wikipedia
 EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2#1990:_Breakup


Release
Windows 3.0 was released in May 1990. It was very well-received by the computing publications of the day, proclaiming that Windows was ready for the masses now. Byte Magazine did extensive coverage of the new version. It was the most successful version of Windows to date, and for the first time, many third-party and independent developers started to take notice and code for Microsoft's new environment.

Visually, Windows 3.0 was a massive improvement over the previous versions. It natively supported VGA. and the buttons, windows, and overall look had a 3D-ish appearance now. Windows 3.0 and OS/2 1.2 had very much the same look-and-feel, as Microsoft has largely developed the Presentation Manager for OS/2 as well.  

The Presentation Manager for OS/2 v1.2.

The success and/or failure of the platform is in the hands of the developer. From Microsoft's perspective, it worked in 3.0's favor that software developers started to take notice. The software development kits (SDK's) for Windows were much more affordable and accessible than those for OS/2. In time, Microsoft would release Visual BASIC as well, which would result in a flood of freeware and shareware applications for the platform.  Most of the programs that shipped with Windows 3.0 were updated versions of applications that came with the earlier versions. Referred to as applets, they included Cardfile, Calendar, Calculator, Clock, Control Panel, and the Write word-processor. 

The Reversi game, which had been in Windows since version 1.0, was dropped in favor of a game that would eventually result with millions upon millions of hours of productivity worldwide to go down the drain: Solitaire. While their have been a paint program included with Windows since version 1.0, version 3 introduced a greatly revamped Paintbrush program, which is actually a Microsoft-licensed version of the PC-Paintbrush program developed by Zsoft. One can actually do graphics in color now! The previous paint programs included with the earlier versions of Windows supported only monochrome graphics.

Windows version 1 and 2.x used the MS-DOS Executive, which was a very crude file-manager/program launcher. Windows 3.0 introduced the Program Manager, which allowed shortcuts to be created within groups. While not the most intuitive of interfaces, it was functional. It was on par with the Desktop Manager that was a part of the OS/2 Presentation Manager.

Windows 3.0 also included a separate file manager. The File Manager supported the new windowing features that were introduced in version 3.0, the MDI (Multi-Document Interface). MDI was a user interface that allowed a window to have multiple windows open within it. The Program Manager made use of this interface, along with the File Manager, and some third-party programs, like Microsoft Money.


In time, Windows 3.0 would support a vast array of different hardware like various SVGA video adapters, printers, scanners, and other peripheral devices. Windows would quickly surpass OS/2 in the amount of hardware supported. Later on, in 1991, Microsoft released Windows with Multimedia Extensions, which was only available to OEM's. Multimedia Extensions was basically 3.0 with multimedia support in the form of video playback and support for various sound-cards, like the Creative Labs SoundBlaster family of audio adapters. These multimedia extensions were eventually incorporated into Windows 3.1

Three's The One
Byte Magazine
June 1990 Edition
 Archive.org
https://archive.org/details/BYTE_Vol_15-06_1990-06_Windows_3.0/page/n165/mode/2up

PCEM
 PCEM-EMULATOR.CO.UK

Windows 3.0
Wikipedia
 EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_3.0

Microsoft Windows version history: Windows 3.0
Wikipedia
 EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_version_history#Windows_3.0

Windows 3.0
Gunkies.org
 GUNKIES.ORG
http://gunkies.org/wiki/Windows_3.0

Windows 3.0
Fandom
 MICROSOFT.FANDOM.COM
https://microsoft.fandom.com/wiki/Windows_3.0

Microsoft Windows 3.0
Toastytech
TOASTYTECH.COM
http://toastytech.com/guis/win30.html

OS/2
Wikipedia
 EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2

Intel 286
Wikipedia
 EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80286

Intel 386
Wikipedia
 EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I386

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