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When I look at today’s computers, it is easy to forget how young personal computing really is. Many of the machines that helped shape home computing and video games appeared only a few decades ago. They had tiny amounts of memory and very limited processors compared with modern systems, but they created a new relationship between people and computers. Read more
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By 2007, hardware-assisted virtualization was becoming a normal feature of x86 computers rather than something restricted to expensive servers. Intel VT-x and AMD-V added processor support that made it easier for a hypervisor to run guest operating systems safely and efficiently. Read more
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Trying another operating system used to feel like a serious decision. Installing it could mean repartitioning a disk, changing the boot configuration, and accepting the possibility that something might go wrong. For a curious user, the risk could be larger than the curiosity. Read more
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Windows Vista reached retail consumers on January 30, 2007. Microsoft promoted a redesigned Aero interface, improved search, stronger security, and new multimedia features, but the public launch quickly became dominated by questions about hardware requirements and compatibility. Read more
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AMD began shipping desktop processors manufactured on a 65 nm process in late 2006, moving beyond the 90 nm technology used in earlier Athlon 64 chips. Semiconductor “process nodes” are not a direct measurement of one transistor dimension, but the move represented a new generation of manufacturing technology. Read more
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For years, the floppy disk was one of the most normal objects around a computer. We carried documents, homework, small programs, and configuration files on a square piece of plastic that could disappear into a pocket. The 1.44 MB capacity felt useful because many of the things we moved were small enough to fit. Read more
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Microsoft made Windows Vista available to volume-license business customers in November 2006, before the consumer launch in January 2007. The operating system represented one of the largest architectural changes to Windows since Windows NT became the foundation of the consumer line. Read more
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Mozilla released Firefox 2 in October 2006. The browser added features that now feel ordinary, including session restore after a crash, built-in spell checking for web forms, improved tab handling, and stronger protection against phishing sites. Read more
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Facebook opened registration to anyone aged 13 or older with a valid email address in September 2006. Until then, the service had expanded from Harvard to other universities, then to high schools and selected organizations. Removing the school requirement changed Facebook from a campus network into a general social platform. Read more
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The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation introduced SPEC CPU2006 in 2006 as a new benchmark suite for comparing processor and system performance. It replaced SPEC CPU2000, whose workloads had become less representative as hardware and compilers improved. Read more
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The web is becoming larger faster than I can follow it. There are more blogs, technology sites, news pages, and personal websites every month. Visiting all of them one by one is possible, but after a while it starts to feel like checking twenty mailboxes every morning. Read more
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Intel released the first Core 2 Duo desktop processors in July 2006. The launch was important because it marked a clear break from the Pentium 4 era, when Intel had pushed clock frequency aggressively but struggled with heat and power consumption. Read more
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Blu-ray reached consumers in 2006 as one of two competing formats for high-definition optical video. Its name came from the blue-violet laser used to read the disc. That laser operated at about 405 nanometers, compared with the longer-wavelength red laser used by DVD, allowing data to be packed more densely. Read more
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The web feels different lately. A few years ago, many websites felt like digital brochures. We visited them, read something, and left. Now more websites are asking us to stay, write, comment, share, and create something of our own. Read more
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Microsoft released Windows Vista Beta 2 to a broad public audience in May 2006. Vista had been in development for years under the codename Longhorn, and the beta finally let ordinary users test features that would define the final operating system. Read more
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Apple released the first public beta of Boot Camp in April 2006, only months after moving the Mac to Intel processors. Boot Camp allowed owners of Intel-based Macs to install Windows XP and choose between Windows and Mac OS X when the computer started. Read more
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Amazon launched Simple Storage Service, better known as S3, in March 2006. Instead of renting a server and managing disks, developers could store arbitrary objects through a web API and pay for the storage and bandwidth they actually used. Read more
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In early 2006, Novell demonstrated Xgl, an experimental X server that used OpenGL to render the Linux desktop. Together with the Compiz window manager, it produced effects that looked unusual for desktop Linux at the time: transparent windows, smooth animations, live thumbnails, and the famous rotating desktop cube. Read more
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For a long time, using a website has followed a familiar rhythm. I click a link or submit a form, the browser waits, and then the whole page appears again. It works, but it often reminds me that I am moving from one document to another. Recently, some websites have started to feel different. Read more
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Apple introduced its first Intel-based Macs in January 2006: an iMac and the new MacBook Pro. The switch ended more than a decade of PowerPC-based Macintosh hardware and moved the Mac onto the same x86 processor family used by most Windows PCs. Read more