As maligned as windows has been over the years, for the majority of kids growing up in the 90s, it was all we knew, and all we needed. Before the internet was a standard fixture, firing up the family computer felt like a much bigger deal, and far more intentional that it ever is now. You’d be writing out homework which you’d then likely spend just as long trying to print, filling in squares on MS Paint, or playing a game.
Solitaire was all I needed. Sure I’d occasionally throw on minesweeper, click a few boxes in blind confusion, but the simplicity of solitaire would keep me hooked for hours, and still does to this day. I actually have a Virtual Machine running Windows 98 to play the Solitaire of my youth. Nothing fancy, just a simple card game. No microtransactions, season passes, online play or scoreboards. Just me and the cards. You could change the card design but nothing personal, just a modest few choices, which was enough.
I truly miss when spending time on a computer felt exciting and meaningful. We didn’t need the computer and didn’t rely on it for anything. If it broke, I doubt we’d have even replaced it, at least not straight away.
We owned the computer, now the computer owns us.
