


The operating system is a system program that serves as an interface between the computing system and the end-user. And windows blur the distinction between the two, giving us the best of both worlds.Next → ← prev History of the Operating System Operating System Partly, we want windows because the instinct to live out in the open is as strong as the instinct to seek shelter. And, like our ancestors, we want windows because they bring in fresh air and natural light. We want them because of their heirloom quality: the way they recall the character of history's finest homes. We want them for their architecture: the shape, texture and dimension they bring to the walls of our homes, both inside and out. Our hunger for windows has never been more intense. There are windows that evoke cathedrals, gothic castles and charm-chocked cottages windows that soar two or three stories high porthole windows octagon windows windows in the roof even greenhouse room additions. Architects and builders are incorporating more windows than ever before into the homes they design and build.

Today we're witnessing what amounts to a window Renaissance. Finally, by the Victorian era, windows were regarded as standard ornamental elements, elaborately framed and paned and topped with pediments and lintels. Arched Palladian windows and Georgian fan-light windows came along, as well as bull's eye windows and bay windows and other innovations. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, as glass production and quality improved along with woodworking skills, window design began to mature. In 1696, William III bolstered the royal revenues by taxing homes according to how many windows they had. When a homeowner moved, his windows moved with him.Īnd because windows were expensive luxuries, they eventually were used to identify the wealthy. The first sash windows actually appeared in England where, under the laws of Henry VII, windows were considered prized possessions and part of the furnishings of a room, not part of the structure of the house. Sash windows that slide up and down didn't turn up until late in the 1600s. Casement windows, the kind that swing in or out on hinges, didn't come along until the Middle Ages.
