I deployed and supported Windows 2.01 in production. IMHO, it's not really anything like a taskbar, though. It looks a bit like it if you only know Win2 from screenshots, but if you used it, it's not.
It's just an area of the desktop. Windows minimize to icons on the desktop. (The only icons on the desktop.) They zoom down into icons at the bottom of the screen, that's all. If you manage to keep Win2 running long enough to fill the bottom row, it starts a 2nd row above it. You can, if I recall, also pick them up and move them if you so wish.
In a tiny echo of the tiling windows in Windows 1.x, normal-sized windows avoid covering up that bottom area, but if you minimise all windows you can see: it's not a strip or bar or anything. It's not contained in any way. It's not a special region and nothing else goes there simply because Win2.x doesn't put anything else on the desktop itself.
I had issues travelling a few years ago, nothing serious just lots of back-to-back secondary screening. I contacted DHS and was notified weeks later my case had been reviewed. They never explained what happened but the screenings stopped.
Like so many I learned to code on a ZX80 and basically never stopped. I'm here 40+ years later, typing this on a HoloLens and marveling at the impact that little computer had on me and the world.
RIP Sir Clive
My first experience of programming was on a ZX81, we also had a thermal printer, I remember having this overwhelming sense of possibilities watching that little printer work and becoming fascinated with computers controlling machines. Much of my career has been doing hardware/electronic/mechanical systems. I have fond memories of those early times where it was an exciting time where we devoured every word about computers.
I wrote the '95 Start Menu among other bits and pieces.
Mostly the team was just a bunch of regular devs but with a few crazy-smart types making the rest of us look good. RaymondC to name but one.
Several of that original team are still at Microsoft, I currently work on HoloLens
RiscOS definitely had significant influence on early Windows releases but the Taskbar ala Windows 95 was primarily a derivative of Windows 1.0 (minimized apps at the bottom of the screen) and Cairo (a reserved screen area) and Taskman (list of running apps)
The Win95 UI was a copy from NextStep, down to the teal desktop, every nerd understood that one at the time. Sure, some elements from prior Windows version survived, like the DOS icon.
> Windows 1.0 (minimized apps at the bottom of the screen)
This could very well be the case. The Win95 Taskbar could be positioned at the other three sides of the screen, IIRC. At least it could be positioned at the top.
Mac was more of an influence on Win95 than NeXT for obvious reasons. We had a couple of NeXT machines but didn't use them much. We had a couple of Archimedes machines and at least one team member was addicted to Lemmings :)
Yes, the Taskbar could be docked on any screen edge. FWIW, I wrote some of that docking code. I preferred the left edge (ala NeXT), the designers preferred the top (ala Mac) but it broke too many apps so it ended up back at the bottom.
While RISC OS was influential, the 'app bar' idea mostly came from Windows 1.0 with minimized apps at the bottom of the screen. It went through several iterations and for a while it was a storage location for documents with no apps at all. Eventually the simple app list tested best so that's what stuck.
[I worked on parts of the Win95 UI although George Pitt I think did most of the work on the Taskbar itself]
Start Menu engineer here. There was a bunch of precedent for having a bar at the bottom of the screen (Dos apps, Windows 1.0, Cairo etc) but mostly it was a compat issue; a bunch apps broke if the Taskbar was at the top. We thought that we could maybe move it to the top when these apps got fixed but of course by then everyone was used to it at the bottom even if the 'drop up' menu wasn't great UX.
