---
title: "Which came first, Facebook or Windows?"
description: "Facebook vs Windows: Windows came first, by 19 years — 1985 against 2004. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/facebook-vs-windows/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Facebook or Windows?

**Which came first, Facebook or Windows?: Windows**

1985 — 19 years before Facebook

Windows came first, by 19 years. Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0.

## Side by side

|  | Facebook | Windows |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 2004 | 1985 |
| Date | 2004-02-04 | 1985-11-20 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | TheFacebook launched for Harvard students only. | Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0. |

## Facebook

Facebook launched on 4 February 2004 restricted to Harvard email addresses, opened to other universities through 2004 and 2005, and to anyone over 13 with an email address in September 2006. It is six years younger than Google and a year older than YouTube. Its predecessor Facemash, which compared students' photographs, was shut down by the university within days in 2003.

## Windows

Windows 1.0 shipped in November 1985, twenty-two months after the Macintosh, and it was not an operating system — it was a graphical shell running on top of MS-DOS, and remained so until Windows NT in 1993 and the consumer transition with Windows XP in 2001. Version 1.0 could not even overlap windows: they tiled, because Apple's legal position on overlapping windows was unresolved.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Facebook or Windows?

Windows, by 19 years — 1985 against 2004.

### When did Facebook start?

2004. TheFacebook launched for Harvard students only.

### When did Windows start?

1985. Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0.

## Related pages

- [Microsoft or Windows?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/microsoft-vs-windows/)
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- [Windows or YouTube?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/windows-vs-youtube/)
- [Python or Windows?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/python-vs-windows/)
- [Java or Windows?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/java-vs-windows/)
- [JavaScript or Windows?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/javascript-vs-windows/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]