Preface: This document was written NOT in the spirit to bash Windows, moreover to initiate good discussion.
Before Graphical User Interfaces, we had an operating system, only 3 files called DOS. It only really needed 1 Meg of RAM to function efficiently but if you had 16 Meg you were in heaven.
We had File Servers who did just that ? Serve files. We had Workstations, often diskless, that did just that ? Process the files.
We did not need a mouse, we used a keyboard. You could type a document without you hands leaving the home position.
We had universal standards of fonts called Postscript, and whether a commercial printer or an office Laser Printer the text ? it looked exactly the same.
We worked with great speed and efficiency without the Operating System Failing Over or the Application.
Technical Staff were revered as their knowledge and education was not dependant on the ease of use of the system interface. Technical Staff had both en extensive knowledge of Hardware and Software ? each dependant on the other.
We had Email and Groupware and frighteningly high speed Databases.
In the office setting your PC did not make cute sounds and people were not distracted next to you by Music Playing as others tried to concentrate.
Our PC?s were safely connected to our Servers and not by a group of Protocols that was to be later dumped in 1974 by US Military and Bell Labs trials ? as too uncontrollable and vulnerable to abuse.
Enterprise WAN?s ran with secure comms connections.
We were never waiting for technology to improve before making it possible to enhance an application.
There was no wasted time as helpdesk did not have to help people undo a mess the user had installed and did not have to help them change their wallpaper.
We had work to do ? and we did it ? and we went out for a walk to the Bank and went shopping in our lunch hour.
Put it this way ? we type text ? view it as a graphic ? and print it back to text again.
Has Technologies advancements dictated out current environment or the other way around?
Have we spent so much money for productivity gains rather than pretty bells and whistles?
Could software have taken us in another direction perhaps you once thought about?
Does Productivity and Security ultimately determine which O/S you use or which application to commit to?