CODE: 10 Years Ago

In this article, I'm continuing our journey through the last 30 years of anything related to CODE. We're starting to arrive in a reasonably modern era. In fact, when I researched some of the background information for this article, I was continuously surprised that some of these things were a decade ago. Some of the topics discussed in this article seem like they happened

“just the other day.” I even still have some of the games and movies from 10 years ago on my “to be watched/ played” list. Wow!

Operating Systems

Let’s start our exploratory trip through time with the generation of operating systems in use. For Microsoft, things did not go particularly well a decade ago. In 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8, and oh boy! Where do I start? I remember attending BUILD 2012 at Microsoft. And when I say, “at Microsoft,” I really mean “on the Microsoft campus in Redmond,” because that particular event was held on location at Microsoft headquarters. As far as I know, this was the only event of this size (over 5,000 people) that was ever held on campus and there really wasn’t enough meeting space for it. Microsoft put up tents to house part of the event, including all the large sessions, such as the keynotes.

The event itself was highly anticipated, because Microsoft had already been on the back foot for a while, starting to slip badly in operating system market share (both Apple and Linux had turned out to be feisty competitors) and having completely lost its previously strong position in the mobile phone space (with Apple and Android dominating). Therefore, the release of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 had been anticipated with both excitement and trepidation.