Windows 2.0

Nina Kalinina retraced the history of Windows 2: Final Fantasy of operating systems:

It is common knowledge that Final Fantasy could have been the “final” game for the studio, the first and the last in the series. It is far less known that Windows 2, released around the same time, could too have been the last. If anything, things were more certain: even Microsoft believed that Windows 2 would be the last.

An interesting timelime retrospective of GUI leading to Microsoft Windows 2 and 3. Including some of the technical details demonstrating how the PC platform was challenging:

For the decades to come, booting of operating systems on IBM PC-compatibles would start with the OS talking to the keyboard controller to turn the damned thing off.

Also the mention of the Apple lawsuit, the one where they claimed to own the GUI. Or the OS/2 bet, IBM operating system, system that Microsoft was fully committed to, until they decided to no longer be. Lots of major application vendors ended up betting on OS/2 instead of Windows. And when they realized, it was too late: Microsoft had already ported their applications to Windows following their experience with the Mac versions, like Excel.