I was rummaging around some boxes and found an unopened copy of Microsoft BOB in its original shrink wrap. A True collectors item. Originally code named Utopia it was released as “Bob” in 1995 then pulled off the market a year later mostly due to bad marketing and subsequent derision by various pundits. In fact the product would have been a blockbuster if it was marketed to kids rather than adults. This simple fact is still lost on both the company and the critics. In a Wikipedia article someone claims that Gates said there was not enough computer power available to make the product a success. Well, there is now, why not re-introduce it? In fact the company took it off its own historical corporate timeline.

I scanned the front and back of the original box. Click on images for full-size.

bob220-front.jpgbob220-back.jpg




  1. cheese says:

    I thought the “Bubba” version was pretty funny, myself.

    I have seen some variation of Bob in office software used in the Dentistry field. The staff at my dentist office love using it.

  2. JG says:

    Well, let’s see…
    Calendar,Letter Writer, Address Book, Email: All taken care of with Outlook. Geo Safari– sounds like fun, and we have Google Earth for that now.
    Don’t know about the other apps. This was in 1995 and was revolutionary for the day. But we can do all that stuff in Windows XP now.Old news.

  3. BubbaRay says:

    My daughter and her friends used it in junior high and liked it. I believe you’re correct — had it been marketed to kids it might have been a very successful app.

    Now all the kids want is an iPhone or some variant thereof. So there’s the expensive app and the large monthly bill to go with it. Guess again.

  4. SN Harden says:

    John I think you may be right on this one. M$ should just re-package this puppy, update the UI throw in a few more bells and whistles and market it to the under 10 set. You just never know. But maybe the kids today are to computer savvy to enjoy it. Still there may be some potential here.

  5. Any year now when Chandler comes out, we should get all of this and more.

    http://chandlerproject.org/

    Of course, given that there is a whole book about the delays on that project, we may never really get there.

    http://www.bestwebbuys.com/9781400082476

  6. flyingelvis says:

    Back in the day an MS schill was on Dvorak’s radio show “Software – Hard Talk” and was pitching “Bob”. Dvorak called the dog character ‘Barf the dog’. It clearly pissed off the MS person. She corrected Dvorak but, Dvorak persisted in calling it ‘Barf the dog’. Funny, at least to me.

  7. RockOn says:

    I read about it, maybe in “Boot” magazine? wherever, they really took it to task. I don’t ever remember seeing it for sale in any stores…

  8. Asperante says:

    i wonder if Microsoft will use the same “claims that Gates said there was not enough computer power available to make the product a success” When vista goes the way of BoB 😀

  9. Esteban says:

    I bet it uses less resources than Aero.

  10. tallwookie says:

    I remember this software… not fondly, but i remmeber it

  11. James Hill says:

    Bob got Bill laid, so the product was a success.

  12. SN says:

    So where does the bidding start? How about $50?

  13. RTaylor says:

    John must be planning on a big ebay sell as part of his retirement plan. He either has large basements or paid storage. 😉

  14. Mike Drips says:

    Bob is a product that 12 years later is still better thought out, designed, packaged and more reliable than Windows Vista. I had one of those boxes too back when there was still some “fun” coming out of Microsoft, and employees were more focused on products rather than their stock options.

  15. Wan Khairil says:

    I miss the days when these kind of software were actually released… from a giant company like MS! Come on MS, get your game together and go back to what you are suppose to do; produce software. Sure people say they hated Bob, but hey, even Dvorak has a copy! Quite good reach I would say. I did use Bob back then and there was some element of fun it.

  16. JEF says:

    Check out item 220186043765 on ebay. An opened copy with the magazine is going for over $200.

  17. I can top that..I have the BOB cap and some BOB stickers.

  18. doug says:

    MS Bob came bundled with my NEC P75. Running on top of Win 3.11 it was a pig, a big useless pig. And not nearly as purty as the current pig, Aeroglass.

  19. Awake says:

    Wasn’t Melissa, as in Melissa Gates, in charge of the development of ‘Bob’, and that’s how they met?

    We might have a lot of derision for Bob… but I am still looking for a simple desktop / application suite that my elderly relatives are not afraid to use, and a modern version of Bob might just be a good solution.

  20. bbart3d says:

    That’s Melinda, not Melissa French. But otherwise correct.

  21. gregallen says:

    I never used Bob but as I understood it…

    I always thought it was a pretty good concept.

    “Windows” is such a wrong metaphor for computers. Folders is a little better — but we only organize a small portion of our life around folders.

    Much better is a house for most of your tools and a neighborhood for the Internet.

    I find lots of real people (not geeks) get confused with windows under other windows holding folders nested in folders in even more folders all linked to an icon.

    Much better would the GUI experience where users go to an entertainment center to play videos or music. They go to an office to write a letter. etc. To a cafe to chat. (Something like Second Life, I assume. I’ve never used that either.)

    Isn’t this (sort of) what Bob was trying to do?

  22. OvenMaster says:

    So THAT’S where the dog came from in XP’s Search function! Talk about re-use of old stuff lying around the Microsoft spare parts bins…

  23. ChrisMac says:

    It had killer DRM though.. I can’t remember anyone pirating a copy..

    More people prolly stole winME

  24. mmarrero says:

    Actually, it was ahead of its time. Computers are always de-evolving to become as user friendly as a concrete wall.

    It’s impressive that today’s computers are measured in Gigs, and GUI’s are actually slower than 80’s Macs. I’m not including Web page GUIs made in Java or Flash, most are a torture to use. Vista Aero is a demo of hardware 3D acceleration on GUIs, and not surprisingly, it’s sluggish.

    Why?? I remember reading that Windows 3.x menus were written completely in assembler for performance! Probably even Windows 95/98/Me used the same 16-bit code! The Mac OS had amazing optimized asm routines – QuickDraw.

  25. moflaherty says:

    I think this would be a hilarious project for Vista. A WPF version done in .NET. Open Source as well. Any takers? 🙂

  26. JEF says:

    So Dvorak,

    Will you be selling?

  27. KwadGuy says:

    Boy, I sure love that packaging. That must be the only Microsoft software to ever come in a really appealing, kind of hip, box like that. (I especially like “Barf the dog in the bottom right corner of the front).

    John’s right: If “Bob” were updated and reissued with a focus on kids, at a low price point, it would be a hit.

    Heck, if they integrated “Bob” into Vista, they might create a compelling reason to upgrade to Vista for some people. (Oops…head for the bunker, I feel bombs about to drop…)

  28. old waterman says:

    #25 More people prolly stole winME
    I not only stole ME It is still running my oldest pc.


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