Specifically from the introduction of Windows 95 tying Windows and MS-DOS together. While Windows was an application running on DOS Microsoft tried various schemes to break compatibility when it was run on other competing DOSes, and Windows 95 was the final stroke of that strategy by tying the GUI inextricably into the OS.
No it's worse. Tying the OS and GUI together to the extent they are in modern post-95 Windows is a major cause of the learned helplessness OP is talking about
Are you saying this is the result of MS policies from the windows 1-3.1 era?
Specifically from the introduction of Windows 95 tying Windows and MS-DOS together. While Windows was an application running on DOS Microsoft tried various schemes to break compatibility when it was run on other competing DOSes, and Windows 95 was the final stroke of that strategy by tying the GUI inextricably into the OS.
Is it better for you now that windows is the whole OS and not just the "gui"?
No it's worse. Tying the OS and GUI together to the extent they are in modern post-95 Windows is a major cause of the learned helplessness OP is talking about
Maybe but I can't personally blame someone for improving their product and throwing away DOS entirely.
They ditched DOS with XP, so ≈22 years ago.
Yeah i don't understand. Are we talking a Windows/Linux or as I've taken to calling it Windows plus Linux?
The situation with Windows and DOS is as if ChromeOS took over so decisively that Linux became nothing more than a historical curiosity.