Do you remember Windows 95? I'm sure that many of you do, and even though I was quite young when I first experienced it, I'm sure that it was the first operating system I had ever used. It was a marvel of graphic user interfaces and functionality at the time, and made Microsoft a boatload of money as well.
Did you know that Windows 95 had a beta program? Yep, users could pay to enter the Windows 95 Preview Program in the United States and they would receive a few 3.5" floppy disks containing the beta OS. It only cost $19.95, or around $30 now adjusted for inflation.
Reminder: Windows 95 was released on August 24, 1995. As of December 31, 2001 it is unsupported by Microsoft.
System requirements for Windows 95 are at least a 12 MHz Intel 80386 CPU, 4 MB of RAM and 50 MB of HDD space. Of course, Microsoft recommends that you use 8 MB of RAM for optimal performance. Windows 95 cannot support more than 480 MB of RAM or hard drives larger than 2 GB; luckily for 1995 this would have been huge.
The iconic plain-color Windows 95 desktop (with Internet Explorer).
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