What for?
The old versions of Windows are long gone, but they continue to live on in the form of fits of senile nostalgia among those who experienced the legendary operating systems. Millennials remember using a floppy disk, installing Total Commander, and even playing standard games: from Minesweeper and the great pinball to the immortal solitaire duo of Solitaire and Spider.
The games are simple, but they greatly saved the poor children for whom they did not buy discs. The unfortunate ones could either play Minesweeper or draw doodles in MS Paint. But many people have forgotten that in fact, all these games were added to Windows not for entertainment. Stop. What for?
Here we need to remember that the first computers were professional tools, and for a long time there were not even hints of an acceptable interface for users. It was only in the mid-1980s that Apple and Microsoft released the first operating systems with a graphical interface. Basic computer skills were not common, and users had to be taught many things that are now as natural as the ability to breathe air.
For example, a computer mouse. Are you sure you know how to use it? And those who saw the computer and the Windows 1.0 operating system for the first time looked at this strange device the same way a Pithecanthropus looks at a lighter. What is it and how does it work? Unclear. To teach people how to use a mouse in a simple way, standard games were added to Windows.
Moreover, the set we were familiar with did not appear immediately. In Windows 1.0 in 1986, the only game was Reversi, where you had to fill the field with colored tiles better than your opponent. And only in Windows 3.0 – that is, in 1990 – Microsoft added Klondike to the system.
In version 3.1, the boring Reversi was killed and replaced with the great Minesweeper. And Spider Solitaire is generally new for newfags: this game was released in the era of Windows 98. But it was easier to learn than Klondike, although it hardly helped develop mouse skills as much.
All subsequent iterations of Windows were supplied with standard games simply by tradition. And in 2012, Windows 8 was released – the first Microsoft OS without standard games. It’s clear why this happened: they completed their task a long time ago.
So yes, the solitaire games your computer science teacher played in school were actually educational software for the computer mouse. And if this seems strange to you, remember that earlier in shooters you also didn’t use a mouse and didn’t use the W, A, S and D keys. But we already talked about this.
