Happy 30th Birthday, Windows!

On November 20, 1985, Microsoft shipped the first version of Windows, building off the success of MS-DOS and adding a graphical layer to computing that has changed the face of business ever since.

But on that date, global domination did not seem assured: The company was facing a lawsuit from Apple, and the software itself was slow and buggy. It was a tough start for software that had been announced to much fanfare two years before — and then had missed its launch date by over a year.

But if Microsoft struggled to make GUI interfaces accessible and functional, others simply failed: IBM had worked on TopView, actually demonstrating overlapping windows to Microsoft, but the shipping product failed to include a true GUI and the project’s assets were eventually acquired by Microsoft.

The team over at The Verge has a great visual history of Windows through the years. What's your favorite Windows memory? Let us know in the comments, or email me at [email protected]. We'd love to share your story.