The article mentions Windows XP which certainly had IE with tabs but the problem predates that.
Earlier versions of Windows (95, 98, 2000) featured a single window per site. So if one wanted 3 "tabs" one would need three separate windows. But the browser windows were not isolated. An issue in one window would impact ALL of the web browser's windows.
In addition, there was some issue with IE in particular. A crash in IE would sometimes make the taskbar and desktop disappear then restart.
More generally, browsers did not have isolation. This made for a much worse user experience.
[–] M95D 2 days ago
[–] bhelkey 2 days ago
Turns out tabs were added in IE 7 [1] about 2/3rds of the way through Windows XP's lifecycle.
> Like I said, technologies were just being invented... Each new version was better than the one before. Can you say that now?
That is largely what the article is saying. Software is getting worse BUT software improved by leaps and bounds for quite a while. These improvements compounded over time meaning that new software (while regressing) is still much better than software from the 1990s and 2000s.
There was a setting to open each window in a separate process. Even Windows Explorer (the file manager) had this setting, in case it crashed extracting a thumbnail or something.
IE crash would take down Windows Explorer because it was integrated into it since Win98. A bad ideea, IMO - the point where bloat began.
Like I said, technologies were just being invented. Back then things improved (mostly - see IE integration as a counter-example). Each new version was better than the one before. Can you say that now?