Microsoft Bob

Microsoft Bob was a Microsoft software product, released in March 1995, although widely publicised prior to that date under the codename "Utopia", which provided a new, non-technical interface to desktop computing operations. It was one of Microsoft's more visible product failures. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer mentioned Bob as an example of a situation "where we decided that we have not succeeded and let's stop". Microsoft Bob was designed for Windows 3.1x, and intended to be a user-friendly interface for Microsoft Windows, supplanting the Program Manager. The project leader for Bob was Karen Fries, a Microsoft researcher. The design was based on research by Professors Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves of Stanford University. At one...