The Internet was one of the greatest milestones of the contemporary era. As early as the ’90s, companies knew that the invention developed decades ago would go even further as electronic commerce and digital entertainment became more and more common. Today, it is one of the greatest tools we have at our fingertips. While there are times when it is considered a double-edged sword, the Internet endures, transforms and adapts to daily needs and power went beyond computers.

Bill Gates had already warned of the power of the Internet in the golden age of Microsoft and its flagship product, Windows. While he often talked about the benefits of the internet for the benefit of the company, the truth is that the vast majority of what he described about the internet was true. And I knew back then that the Internet would go beyond the Windows PCs Microsoft sells. actually, what the connected age would also reach television It was also something very present. Today we see that nothing is going well.

Windows as main engine on multiple devices

In a 1997 report to investors, Bill Gates himself, still the director of Microsoft at the time, argued that connected networks, the Internet, and also about a future where television is also connected. While we’re pretty sure all of this has come true today, perhaps the futuristic idea of ​​including Windows in a television could have caused a strange heart attack.

Image: Chastity Booth (SlidePlayer)

Bill Gates used Windows technologies (particularly Windows CE) of many devices. create an interconnected ecosystem. He was already considering bringing Windows to televisions at the time, which is exactly why he bought WebTV, thinking that it would speed up the process and that Microsoft would be ready to make the leap if needed.

“We purchased WebTV to accelerate the days when TVs and PCs use Windows technologies, providing complementary information and entertainment resources at home. Windows CE, a compatible subset of our Windows family, makes consumer electronics manufacturers’ jobs much easier. Personalized TV show guide or apps that let you view web pages and check simple email on your TV, control your home’s heating and lighting systems, and even connect a digital camera and send or email photos over the Internet”.

As we can see, here Bill Gates defined the term Smart TV almost perfectly 13 or 14 years before it hit the market as we know it. Gates stated in the report a future where television is the center of the homeIt allows us to control almost every aspect of the house while at the same time continues to provide us with all kinds of entertainment.

While the concept has practically become reality, having a Smart TV or set-top box with Windows would be a big deal. And although we still have some devices with such poor features and mediocre performance today, it would be torture to think of seeing a Windows TV in 1997 without all the technological advances we have today.

We are not only talking about a slow and poorly optimized device, but we must also take that into account at the time. streaming and network infrastructure not yet available enough to fulfill this task.

Although this idea was not very common, it did eventually come true. The most prominent example was MSN TV, a product born after Microsoft’s acquisition of WebTV in 2001. In fact, at that time Microsoft expanded to multiple environments as we remember it was the year the Xbox was released in North America. or Windows Mobile a year ago.

MSN TV wanted to make the initial WebTV concept a reality, but with Windows CE as main engine. The device was also offered as a kit with a keyboard and remote control. But the idea didn’t take off and most of the internal team started working on Xbox or Mediaroom. MSN TV received an overhaul with an updated design, but the service said goodbye (too long) in 2013.

There were other set-top box projects from independent companies that dared to use Windows CE and were not very successful. The truth is, the first decade of the 2000s was a series of experimentation years, until after a while they started hitting the button up and down. And there is still much room for improvement in this respect, but one wonders how the big representatives of the industry at the time envisioned a future in which television became the core of home control and entertainment.

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