The story behind the default Windows XP desktop background | Hacker News Reader

The story behind the default Windows XP desktop background

artsy.net

110 pointssethbannon15 comments

>Although he signed a non-disclosure agreement that prevents him from revealing the exact price, O’Rear has claimed it was the most he’s ever been paid for an image.

I'm just ridiculously happy he got paid tons for this. There's so many stories about $BigCorps just helping themselves to this stuff and screwing artists via their legal teams that I was really hoping this wasn't one of them.

If anyone else is curious, FedEx generally won't insure a shipment for more than $50,000 without a special contract so we can assume it is more than that amount.

My completely uneducated guess would be in the $100k-$250k range.

It's iconic. At some point a high-resolution version of the image turned up online. I regularly switch to this high-res variant at work just because it's funny how people react to seeing it: https://i.imgur.com/C5ja2Kp.jpg

This is my favorite version of the Windows XP hills:

http://i.imgur.com/1xtcI.jpg

They mention a bet (there was more than one) inside Microsoft about where that photo was taken

I lost $100 cause it's NOT eastern Washington.

I love the story of the guy trying to track down the exact location of the Autumn desktop photo too:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/02/autumn200702

Years ago I used to tell customers that it was a picture of Bill Gates backyard. Most of them (if not all) believed me.

I've heard this is likely the most viewed image of all time. Any evidence for or against this claim?

Interestingly enough, I have the same type of camera (a Mamiya RZ67) and use the same type of film (Fuji Velvia 50) that were used to take this.

The "Alien Ray Gun" we used to call it. The rotating back was nifty, but in the end I prefer the square format. I did get to shoot a dozen or so rolls through a Mamiya 7, that camera was a joy to handle.

You can find 6x6 backs (as well as 6x4.5) but they're not as common as the 6x7 backs. Tried a Mamiya 7, and though I liked it, I just can't get into rangefinders. The framing not being exactly what the image will be always bugs me.

Nice, I grew up in Sonoma county, definitely looks like home. More so the area to the right that's almost cropped out, but still.. nice to know that winxp's iconic background is of home. Wish I knew that back in '01 when it was the talk of the town.

I'd have guessed this was taken somewhere in Palouse, WA because Microsoft and all... So much for Golden Hour, eh? I'm going to make another wild-ass guess and assume he's used a Circular Polarizer because the sky looks a bit too unnaturally blue on the right side of the image. :)

In the portuguese version of Windows XP this was called "Alentejo".

Yet another losing bet, it seems.

That was pretty interesting

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