History
This keyboard combination was invented by David Bradley, a designer of the original IBM PC. Bradley originally designed Control-Alt-Escape to trigger a soft reboot (without warning or confirmation by the user), but he found it was too easy to bump the left side of the keyboard and reboot the computer accidentally. He switched the key combination to Control-Alt-Delete, a combination that was impossible to press with just one hand (this is not true of later keyboards, such as the 102-key PC/AT keyboard or the Maltron keyboard). More advanced operating systems use its status as a "reserved" combination for various purposes, but often retain the ability to trigger a soft reboot in certain configurations or circumstances. Bradley is also known for his good-natured jab at Bill Gates, at that time the CEO of Microsoft, and also the creator of many of Microsoft's programs: "I may have invented Control-Alt-Delete, but Bill Gates made it famous". He afterwards elaborated that it was made more famous due to Windows NT logon procedures ("Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on"). However, while Bradley implemented the key sequence in the ROM BIOS, he did not suggest it; the team of the then chief programmer of the IBM PC Project, Mel Hallerman, did.
Play me online?/Well you know that I'll beat you
/If I ever meet you/I'll Control-Alt-Delete you.
As computers became ubiquitous, so too, has the jargon. Control-Alt-Delete can also mean "dump," or "do away with".
Read more about this topic: Ctrlaltdel
Famous quotes containing the word history:
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