Microsoft Bob Turns 12
Proof that MS never had any clue on how to make things user-friendly
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Before there was Clippy and his Office Assistant friends annoying users, before there were so many wizards built to automate tough tasks, there was Bob. Released to the world in March 1995, Bob was supposed to be a user-friendly replacement to the Program Manager in Windows 3.2. In fact, several of the "helpers" seen in later Microsoft products came from bob. Rover, the yellow dog for example can be seen when you search for things under Windows XP.
Bob is generally considered Microsoft's greatest failure, and internally one of it's greatest mistakes. Microsoft Bob is also usually near the top of the list whenever anyone writes a "Worst Programs of All Time" article.
Fun fact: The Microsoft Bob project was originally managed by Melinda French, who we now know as Melinda Gates.
Reply #5 Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:06 PM
Reply #6 Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:25 PM
raise your hand if you bought Bob..
Snidely Whiplash raises hand
honestly, i got it thinking the kids would be more comfortable using the "new" computer (486 dx2, 16 meg of RAM, quad speed cd-rom, 430 meg hdd, 2 meg pci vid card, 24.400 modem ). needless to say, Bob lasted about 3 days or less. i'd bet that if i were to dig thru my box of old software, i'd find the original Bob cd.
Reply #9 Monday, March 26, 2007 8:48 AM
I think many of the lessons learned have been applied successfully by MS in other products though.
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Reply #1 Wednesday, March 21, 2007 1:22 PM