A Family Tree - history of Shells

http://desktopian.org/shelltree.html
from WinCustomize Forums

An interesting display in treeform of 'all' the Windows shells [GUI Interfaces], past and present.

Knock your socks off...;)

http://desktopian.org/shelltree.html

7,931 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Tin_Omen's site used to be a daily stop for me. Hasn't updated in forever unfortunately.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
that tree hasnt been updated in a looong long while, many shells have evolved into something else (litestep: 0.24.7, 0.25, xstep, sidestep; bb4win: bblean, xoblite; sharpe), and others have been created (carbon lokai, metro, ishell (emergedesktop), NeX to name some).
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
sryo ....true....but at least it shows the early stuff....and that can be educational to those new to skinning...
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Man...I loved Norton Desktop. Had it from the first release to the end (3.0 I think) I was devestated when 95 wouldn't support it. My all time favorite was a DOS front end called QDOS. Single key, letter driven menu. Today's Drag and Drop couldn't keep up.

Thanks for the link Jafo.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
wow brings back some memories!! Heh sometimes I still use blackbox for windows. Its amazing how much has changed tho. I started on the IBM PC Jr when PCs first came out. Text interfaces unless you had time to write some sort of text based UI. C and assembly language programming.. heheheh it was a bit fun! I forget exactly who, but there was a BBS that had a sort of graphical UI back around the late 80's maybe 1990 or so... ah well.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yeah, Norton Navigator has been the best graphical filemanager there has ever been. Even Total Commander isn't to me what that tool was.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I don't about many of the apps listed, but NextStart, and HoverDesk aren't shells. I know there were a few people experimenting with running HvD as a shell, but nothing came of it.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I forget exactly who, but there was a BBS that had a sort of graphical UI back around the late 80's maybe 1990 or so

Compuserve
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
only one shell really counts.....LiteStep

uncontested best
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
only one shell really counts.....LiteStep
  ....ah, Phil, yer biased...
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

that 'tree' needs a 'tog'

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
According to that genealogy, 1999 was a pretty happenin' year. Didn't realize so many of what are considered the "mature" shells (LiteStep, Talisman, Aston) had their roots so recently.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The links to the GUI galleries at the bottom of the page all lead to microsoft.com??? Does anyone know of good, current links to some of these types of galleries?
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Compuserve




HA! yep that was it... Cant believe how long it has been!!