We know what you're thinking. Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0 in 1985. How does that make for 30 years?

Well, it doesn't if you're talking about Windows with a capital W. But the operating system that dominates the planet now didn't spring forth from Redmond fully formed. All the elements that make up what we'd call a windowing operating system were created a lot earlier.

How windowing gave birth to Windows is a long tale of technological development, cultural synergy, and 1970s rock stars. It starts just one short year after the Summer of Love. It features hardware from Intel and intellectuals from the San Francisco Bay Area. And the story gives poker-playing suburban school kids a starring role.

So where does Windows come from? Who invented the mouse? And where does a guy from Roxy Music fit into all this? For answers to these and other questions, follow the timeline, starting back in 1968.

Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride...

	1968- 1972	1973- 1977	1978- 1982	1983- 1986	1987- 1991	1992- 1995	1996- 1998
	The formative years	The swingin' seventies	The disco years	The economic miracle	I fought the law, and Microsoft won	Windows everywhere	The year 2001--give or take

Matt Lake's first computing experience was with command-line Unix. While he can still GREP with the best of them, he's been using Windows for ten years--and has the hairline to prove it. He writes the Corporate PC column for Computer Currents and is currently editor of the Computer Press Association newsletter.