Today, ten years ago, Windows XP Launched to the public, changing the way we used our computers. With Microsoft sending helicopters to HP and Dell with the Gold Master edition of the operating system, it was truly a new beginning for computing.
The 24th August 2001 was the day Microsoft released Windows XP to Manufacturers, this was a huge leap forward for the company, they finally had a consumer operating system running on the NT kernel. Bill Gates and Jim Allchin had a small ceremony where they signed off the Gold Edition and sent it to OEM’s via helicopter.
The operating system was due out for the general public on October 25th, but unfortunately, two major events happened during that period. The attacks of September 11 which scaled the launch party down by quite a bit, and the devils0wn release of the operating system.
Windows XP became a big success very quickly, the operating system was running on 80% of the PC’s across the world by 2002. Even today the OS runs on 40% to 50% of all PC’s.
Happy Birthday Windows XP. You’ve been a wonderful operating system over these last ten years, well done Microsoft for changing the way we used our PC’s.
