5. Windows XP

How popular was Windows XP? After being released in 2001, Xp was the most popular OS until the end of 2011 when Windows 7 finally overtook it. In the world of software, an OS being popular for an entire decade is unheard of. Even the default wallpaper – titled Bliss, an image of a hill in California – has gone on to become famous in its own right.

4. Games for Windows Live

It seems we’re following Windows in the good/bad cycle. Games for Windows Live was an almost universally detested seervice for playing PC games online. From its planned service fee of $50 (R700), to the unreliable service and game redemption to its abandonment in 2014, this just about did the opposite of getting players online.

3. Cortana

Cortana, a virtual assistant built created for Windows, is a strange amalgamation of Apple’s Siri and the “artificial intelligence construct” from the Halo games. Regardless of your feeling towards Apple, Siri and Halo, being able to speak to your device like a person and have it do things for you is just cool. This is the future all that old sci-fi was telling (and warning us) about, and it’s pretty awesome.

2. The improvements and changes

Thirty years is a long time for software to evolve. To summarize it, On The Hub and The Next Web have brought us this gif showing off the evolution of the OS.

1. It’s EVERYWHERE

Maybe this is a terrible case of depending too much on one company, maybe it’s a case of popularity breeding popularity, or maybe it’s just become the norm. Whatever the reason, it’s difficult to go a day without coming across the OS in one form or the other, doubly so if your job depends on working on a PC. The ability to sit down at almost any PC and be instantly familiar with the way it works is an often overlooked benefit of Window’s high market penetration. While this may be moot (especially today, where most modern OSs are easy to use) for those familiar with PCs, not everyone is, and new things are scary.

[Main image – The Redish]