First, there was the Windows API and DLL Hell. Revolution #1 was …
Read Ron Burk’s hilarious “A Brief History of Windows Programming Revolutions” (Editor’s Forum, Windows Developer’s Journal, December 2000).
[update 2000-12-30]
Because the “Editor’s Forum” URL is always for the current month, this is a local copy (with permission).
[update 2009-03-21]
My local copy of “A Brief History of Windows Programming Revolutions” has always been popular, especially on Russian-language sites. Burk himself has even linked to it from other postings of his. Because it has received a burst of popularity the last couple days, I’ve embedded links directly to the permission email and back to my blog (which I should have done long ago).