10 million Athlon, Prey (or not), and Windows NT, and the end of an era (PCGH-Retro July 31)

…1996: Windows is growing up. On July 31, 1996 brings microsoft Windows NT 4.0 on the market. The operating system for professional use combines the modern Windows 95 interface, including the start menu and taskbar, with the stability of the modern NT platform, which, unlike Windows 95 and its successors, is no longer based on the outdated 16-bit DOS kernel. This means that NT 4.0 is an all-round modern 32-bit operating system, it is relatively safe, fast and easy to use thanks to its modern interface – but it is hardly suitable for games and multimedia applications, which is why NT is used on hardly any private computers as before . The NT platform only really became suitable for the masses five years later, when Windows put the professional and home user versions of Windows on a common basis with XP.

…1998: [Update 2013: Im Kommentarthread wurden berechtigte Zweifel an diesem “zweiten” Screenshot geäußert und unsere originale Quelle zu diesem Thema ist nicht mehr verfügbar. Bitte genießen Sie den Screenshot als unabhängig davon, ob er der zweite oder x-te ist].
On July 31, 1998, 3D Realms released the second screenshot of the shooter Prey, which was in development. The title was announced in 1995, it should use state-of-the-art technology and appear after Duke Nukem Forever. But the development is suspended from 1999 – the planned portal technology is simply too ambitious for the current state of the art. 2001 development is resumed by a different team, the Doom 3 engine is licensed; The new Prey finally comes onto the market in July 2006 – almost five years before the Duke.

…2001: AMD, at that time still the owner of some of the most modern chip production facilities in the world, proudly announces that the Dresden factory, AMD’s Fab 30, has already delivered the 10 millionth Athlon processor in the second year after its introduction.

…2012: We mentioned 1996 earlier, but on another July day of that year, Microsoft launched its Hotmail email service. And a little more than 16 years later, on July 31, 2012, the Redmond company announces the im in-house news center/blog the quasi-successor outlook.com, a cloud-based webmailer (that’s equal to 2.5 buzzwords), which is said to bring the biggest evolutionary step in years for web-based e-mail processing. Although it was not explicitly stated at this point in time that Hotmail would have to believe in it, it was immediately clear to every reader of the blog entry. With that, the story of the widespread pioneer among webmailers is coming to an end.