The haiku originated in Japan in the fifteenth century. It evolved from a cooperative poetic form named "renga", in which several poets alternately add verses of three lines (5, 7, and 5 syllables) and those of two lines (7 and 7 syllables). The three line first verses of these works developed into the haiku form that is popular today.

Contemporary haiku have become inextricably linked with the perspective of Zen Buddhism; this makes the form perfect, in my opinion, for expressing the magisterial irrationality and humbling unpredictability of the Microsoft Windows operating system.