Which came first, Netflix or Windows?
Windows came first, by 12 years. Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0.
Side by side
| Netflix | Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1997 | 1985 |
| Date | 1997-08-29 | 1985-11-20 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a DVD rental-by-post company. | Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0. |
Netflix
Netflix was founded in August 1997, a year before Google, and posted DVDs for a decade before streaming launched in January 2007. The famous origin story — Hastings founding it after a $40 late fee on Apollo 13 — has been called a useful myth by co-founder Marc Randolph. Blockbuster declined to buy the company for $50 million in 2000.
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, Netflix or Windows?
- Windows, by 12 years — 1985 against 1997.
- When did Netflix start?
- 1997. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a DVD rental-by-post company.
- When did Windows start?
- 1985. Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0.
Related pages
- Microsoft or Windows? Microsoft
- Microsoft or Netflix? Microsoft
- Apple or Windows? Apple
- Apple or Netflix? Apple
- the internet (ARPANET) or Windows? the internet (ARPANET)
- the internet (ARPANET) or Netflix? the internet (ARPANET)
- email or Windows? email
- email or Netflix? email
- the Macintosh or Windows? the Macintosh
- the Macintosh or Netflix? the Macintosh
- Windows or the World Wide Web? Windows
- Windows or YouTube? Windows
Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)