95 and NT were around the same time. Ms sold both OS's. USB was hard in 95, hence the term 'plug and pray''. Usb was still in its infancy though until win 2000 sp1

95 was targeted towards normal consumers and NTworkstation towards power users such as developers (guess what I had). BTW the line between PRO and consumer is increasingly blurred nowadays, its using being used more as badge of honour rather than a need. Normal consumers for instance now edit videos, use photoshop and make music. Years back people who did this were regarded as wizzkids (or nerds).

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  If someone produced a Thunderbolt audio interface that had a significant performance boost over my firewire interface and it wasn't priced out off the hobbyist's price range, I would buy it.
  

Well for me it's quite simple:
 
Thunderbolt will stay a "niche" market. It's too expansive and the interest to most of the people is just null since USB3 is good enough.
 
Yes there's a gain, but it's not that big to justify the price difference. I won't spend 4x the price (simple HDD enclosure is 80euros with thunderbolt and 20euros for USB3)of usb to get a 10% performance increase when I get the job done in all cases. And for common people,USB3 HDD are way fast enough to read divx,backup pictures and listen to mp3s...

There is an advantage to Thunderbolt if you use a laptop and a screen like Apples Thunderbolt Display. Plug all your usb drives into the display (which usually stays put) and then just the one cable from your laptop! but other than that maybe not so many other advantages.  I guess if SSDs drop in price or HDDs can become a lot faster then it is worth it.  Personally I would rather have the fastest option for future proofing even if currently I'm not able to use throughput.
 
Andy

The list is ever growing ...   https://thunderbolttechnology.net/products
 

intels recent chipsets (?) such as the one I just bought (i74930), CANNOT use TB apparantly because of the integrated graphics requirement Apple inserted... thus none of the recent boards can have TB.  I just checked, figuring hell, just ordered my ASUS P9X79... I'll find one with TB and change it.... I'll pay a hundred more... what's money good for anyway?  I'm single... buy the tools... ok?  ok... so...................
 
guess what? I just checked... and..... I CAN'T!!!   which really sucks, cause after reading about this issue... and spending a grand on a 6 core upgrade (MB>CPU>water cooler) I want to, if for no other reason than to hedge my bets... rather than spend a gazillion $$$$ for the appollo+card
 
Apparantly, Haswell is the first in our side of the "fense"... hense, the new Asus Z87-Deluxe/Quad $350 board... but it'll be a year before Haswell-E chips are available for a robust system so.... forget it!!!
 
Just sayin... here I am, eager to buy the right MB for my brand spankin' NEW state of the art 6 core INTEL CPU and I can't buy a TB mother frackin' board that works with my cpu... OY!!! 

 
Corporations really frack things up these days... and we suffer... (although this ain't as bad as global warming!)...
 
usb three for me  (hey, it rhymes!)

Check #2. Intel misspoke about Apple.

CakeAlexS
Check #2. Intel misspoke about Apple.

OK, Alex... I always appreciate your wisdom (seriously... i do!) but WTF is the reason I can't use TB on intel's fastest chip, 2 years after it's been released???
 
wait... i get it... intel has been doin' lots of stupid things as of late...like most huge corporations... ie, ignoring ARM so I guess this fits the pattern? sabotaging their own standard... Have we mutated into technological insanity? Personally I think monopolistic practices are muckin' up the works and two monopolists APPLE/INTEL created this absurdity.  
 
However, when it's all said and done, I am thankful to all the smaller amazing folks creating all the magical tools a billion $$$ couldn't have acquired 10-15 years ago...
 
 

Have we considered using a Mac and running windows?.Not sure how that goes?..Just something I am sure Apple may consider in secret places, in the dark future of TB2 and their new machine with a new OS to possibly make more people Jump platforms and sell more product?