The Friday Funny: The Infamous Windows BSOD at Comdex 1998

If you’ve ever used a Microsoft Windows OS over the last decade or so, you’ve undoubtedly come across the infamous blue screen of death, more commonly referred to by the acronym BSOD. Arguably the most famous BSOD sighting was at Comdex in 1998, when Microsoft exec Chris Capossela — now Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer — was demonstrating the still-in-development Windows 98 to an assembled throng of Comdex attendees, with Microsoft co-founder and then-CEO Bill Gates by his side. The rest, as they say, is history, as shown by this humorous video clip:

Both Gates and Capossela took the glitch in stride. Yet it is somewhat reassuring to learn that technical problems are like opinions: Everyone has them.