Microsoft Bob was a
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
software product, released in March 1995, which provided a new, nontechnical
interfaceInterface generally refers to an abstraction that an entity provides of itself to the outside. This separates the methods of external communication from internal operation Interface generally refers to an abstraction that an entity provides of itself to the outside. This separates the methods of...
to desktop computing operations. Despite its ambitious nature,
Bob was one of Microsoft's more visible product failures. Microsoft's
Steve BallmerSteven Anthony Ballmer is an American businessman who has been the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000. Ballmer is the second person after Roberto Goizueta to become a billionaire in U.S...
mentioned Bob as an example of a situation "... where we decided that we have not succeeded and let's stop".
Microsoft Bob was designed for
Windows 3.1xWindows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0...
and
Windows 95Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
and intended to be a user-friendly interface for Microsoft Windows, supplanting the
Program ManagerProgram Manager is the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. This shell exposed a task-oriented graphical user interface , consisting of icons arranged into program groups...
.
Microsoft Bob was a
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
software product, released in March 1995, which provided a new, nontechnical
interfaceInterface generally refers to an abstraction that an entity provides of itself to the outside. This separates the methods of external communication from internal operation Interface generally refers to an abstraction that an entity provides of itself to the outside. This separates the methods of...
to desktop computing operations. Despite its ambitious nature,
Bob was one of Microsoft's more visible product failures. Microsoft's
Steve BallmerSteven Anthony Ballmer is an American businessman who has been the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000. Ballmer is the second person after Roberto Goizueta to become a billionaire in U.S...
mentioned Bob as an example of a situation "... where we decided that we have not succeeded and let's stop".
Origins
Microsoft Bob was designed for
Windows 3.1xWindows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0...
and
Windows 95Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
and intended to be a user-friendly interface for Microsoft Windows, supplanting the
Program ManagerProgram Manager is the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. This shell exposed a task-oriented graphical user interface , consisting of icons arranged into program groups...
. At one point, the project was managed by
Melinda FrenchMelinda French Gates is an American philanthropist. She is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a former unit manager for several Microsoft products such as Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Encarta, and Expedia...
, who at the time was
Bill GatesWilliam Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, philanthropist, and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen.He is ranked consistently one of the world's wealthiest people...
' girlfriend (the two later married). At the time French left Microsoft, she was Product Unit Manager for a group which included
Bob and three other Microsoft titles. The project leader for Bob was Karen Fries, a Microsoft researcher. Microsoft originally owned the
domain nameA domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System ....
bob.com, but traded it to Bob Kerstein for the
windows2000.com domain name.
Features
Bob included various office suite programs such as a finance application and a
word processorA word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
. The user interface was designed to simplify the navigational experience for novice computer users.
The main interface is portrayed as the inside of a
houseA house is generally a shelter, building or structure that is a dwelling or place for habitation by human beings. The term includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to high-rise apartment buildings...
, with different rooms to correspond to common real-world room styles such as kitchen and family room. Each room can contain decorations and furniture, as well as icons that represent applications. Bob offers the user the option of fully customizing the entire house. The user has full control over decorating each room, and can add, remove, or reposition all objects. The user can also add or remove rooms from the house and change the destinations of each door. Bob offers multiple themes for room designs and decorations, such as
contemporaryContemporary is a visual arts magazine, published every month. Its website claims that it is the world's most widely distributed arts magazine, with an estimated international readership of around 7,500...
and postmodern.
The applications built into Bob are represented by matching decorations - for example, clicking on a clock opens the
calendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
, while a pen and paper represent the letter writer. The user can also add shortcuts to applications on his or her computer. These shortcuts display the icon inside various styles of decorations such as boxes and picture frames.
Bob features
Assistants - cartoon characters which can help the user navigate the virtual house or perform tasks in the main interface or within the built-in applications.
Negative awards
Bob received the 7th place in
PC World MagazinePC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
's list of the 25 worst products of all time and number one worst product of the decade by
CNET.comCNET Networks, Inc. was a media company based in San Francisco, California, United States. The company was co-founded in 1993 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie. It was acquired by CBS Corporation in 2008 and its properties were merged into CBS Interactive...
.
Legacy
Despite being discontinued before
Windows 98Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It was released on June 25, 1998, and is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit monolithic product based on MS-DOS...
was released, Microsoft Bob continued to be widely panned in reviews and popular media.
Additionally, some designs of the
Bob cartoons are still used in other Microsoft products:
- Bob's face is used in Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Mobile...
as a "NerdNerd is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests that are age inappropriate rather than engaging in more social or popular activities...
SmileyA smiley, or happy face , is a stylized representation of a smiling human face, commonly represented as a yellow circle with two black dots representing eyes and a black half circle representing the mouth...
"
- Will and The Dot were Office Assistant
The Office Assistant was a Microsoft Office feature to assist users by way of an interactive animated character, which interfaced with the Office help content. It used technology initially from Microsoft Bob and later Microsoft Agent, offering advice based on Bayesian algorithms. In Microsoft...
s in Office 2003 (Will was only in Office 97).
- The yellow dog "Rover" can be found in the search function of Windows XP
Windows XP is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, and media centers. The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience"...
- Rover's animations (like typing
Typing is the process of inputting text into a device, such as a typewriter, cell phone, computer, or a calculator, by pressing keys on a keyboard...
on a computer) inspired the Office Assistant "Rex"
- Rocky, an animated dog, appears in the Microsoft program Greetings Workshop. The filename for Rocky is Rover, as in Microsoft Bob's Rover.
See also
- At Ease
At Ease was an alternative to the Macintosh desktop developed by Apple Computer in the early 1990s. It provided a simple environment for new Macintosh users to help them to work without supervision. At Ease sits on top of the Finder desktop, providing a simple tab panel oriented graphical user...
- IBM RealThings
- Microsoft Home
Microsoft Home was a line of software applications and personal hardware products published by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Home software titles first appeared in the middle of 1993. These applications were designed to bring multimedia to Microsoft Windows and Macintosh personal computers...
- Packard Bell Navigator
Packard Bell Navigator was an alternative shell for the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 operating systems that shipped with Packard Bell computers. The shell was designed to be simpler to use for computer novices by representing applications as objects in a virtual home...
- DOS Shell
The DOS Shell is a file manager, first debuted in MS-DOS and IBM DOS 4.0 . It was discontinued after version 6.0, but retained as part of the "Supplemental Disk" until 6.22 for MS-DOS; as such, it was not a core part of the operating system throughout its evolution, but rather an add-on...
External links