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Windows is 40 years old
- Thread starter maflynn
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Kind of makes me want to break out my copy of GeoWorks Ensemble, LOL.
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Steve Adams
macrumors 68000
Holy poop balls. Going down foggy memory lane here now folks ha ha.
eltoslightfoot
macrumors 68040
Oh man, this GEOS was so ahead of its time! I loved GeoPaint.
boppin
macrumors 6502a
boppin
macrumors 6502a
Steve Adams
macrumors 68000
The old turbo button on the 286 and 386 systems we had. That was fun. my game is not playing fast enough. Hit TURBO!
XboxEvolved
macrumors 65816
Yeah, so am I and I also get more terrible as the years go by but somehow keep making more money. It's amazing.
b0fh666
macrumors 6502a
Steve Adams
macrumors 68000
dmr727
macrumors G4
Turbo mode meant that the processor would run at the speed intended, but a lot of older games from that era would run much too fast. In other words, the reason for the button was to provide a way to slow the computer down.
I think maybe I had known that at one time, but I had forgotten!
Steve Adams
macrumors 68000
b0fh666
macrumors 6502a
meaning the turbo was on all the time... and we disabled it when tetris got way too hard 🙂
Ah, yes. The halcyon days of Win 2.0. An unbelievable leap in technology that caught us all by surprise.
Actually, it was a steaming pile of bovine muffins but we didn't know any better at the time since the only thing to compare it to was Dos and CP/M. Or Windows 1.0, but a discussion of that gem would likely get me banned from the forum.
I remember that 2.0 was somewhat ok for the mundane apps available at the time, but if you tried to start a dialup session with another session active, forget it. Walking and chewing gum at the same time was in the future.
Actually, it was a steaming pile of bovine muffins but we didn't know any better at the time since the only thing to compare it to was Dos and CP/M. Or Windows 1.0, but a discussion of that gem would likely get me banned from the forum.
I remember that 2.0 was somewhat ok for the mundane apps available at the time, but if you tried to start a dialup session with another session active, forget it. Walking and chewing gum at the same time was in the future.
splifingate
Contributor
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
From what I remember reading/hearing, Windows 386 was the only version of Win 2.0 that had anywhere near useful multitasking. I also suspect that the performance problems were as much hardware as software.
I remember seeing "screenshots" of Win 1.0 and saying it was ugly is being too kind. OTOH, that was when CGA was the base graphics adapter and retina displays were in the far distant future.
throAU
macrumors G4
Anyone who had been using non-pc platforms knew better.
Windows 2.0 came out the same year the Amiga did, and after the Mac.
Amiga OS 1.0
Windows 2.0
WinWorld: Screenshots for Windows 2.x 2.0
WinWorld is an online museum dedicated to providing free and open access to one of the largest archives of abandonware software and information on the web.
winworldpc.com
AmigaOS had fully pre-emptive multitasking from the start. Windows 2.0 couldn't use more than 1MB of RAM, either.
edit:
Actually Windows 2.0 was 2 years after the amiga 1000.
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The Amiga was what we dreamed about having, but that was an expensive machine and way beyond our bank accounts back in our younger days. I seem to remember it being the first Micro with a color monitor. One that worked, anyway. There were a few add-on S-100 color cards but were fairly insignificant and also very expensive.
The 386 was a solid processor. It ran Windows 3.0 and 3.1 very well - at least as well as a GUI shell over a Dos base can run. Lots of system freezes and reboots if the application software glitched. It also ran OS/2 very well and far more bug free than Windows, but it was a dog in performance - one of the many times that software outran the hardware.
I never heard of a Windows 386 version. I assume it means 3.x
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
Nope, it was a version of Windows 2.x specifically written to run on the 386 and it predated Win 3.x. There was a rather humorous video made about Win 386 - with comments that the last half of the video was directed by monkeys hooked on crack. [N.B. I did a quick trip to YouTube and the video was actually a Microsoft ad for Win 386 - still looks like it was directed by monkeys on crack.]
The 386 convinced me that a little of the software running on mainframes and large mini's (e.g. VAX) could and would run on microcomputers.
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MagicHAM
macrumors 6502
Back in the day my first computer was the IBM PS/2 Model 386 with 2MB ram, that my aunt and uncle had donated to me when I was 10. It lasted until high school where we got a Windows 98 Machine (Around 2000) Dad and I had fun playing much games on it (including the old lexicross, dos based puzzle game that is sort of like based on wheel of fortune but set into the future) -
I have created that old setup with some old dos software and windows software that I have and the ibm version with windows 3.1 in a virtual machine using Pc em. Which is a great way to play with old operating systems.
I have a Windows 95 virtual machine as well and plus recently I was mucking around with IBM OS/2.
The consumer edition of Windows has been for the most successful. (I am aware of the enterprise ones, and have set up a few domain networks virtual machines, exploring them features - don't worry, its not connected to the internet). For the most part Windows 9x was very successful and 95 saw that era start.
But before Windows 95 came along, I used to love customising 3.1 with different shells, and we had something called PC Tools Desktop and Norton desktop, poor dad, hehe would get pissed off because I kept changing the shells. LOL
Learning how to use config.sys and auto exec.bat to configure the computer with drivers and the what not, was fun. Then Windows around 7 got too boring, it lacked zest and it really felt it had gone in the corporate direction.As much as I hate Windows 11 and 10 (which is still used by m y workplace while It is testing out our database and software in a lab with windows 11), but unfortunately it is a ncessary evil.
The browser wars in the 1990s and the case against Microsoft really made the case of how bad they were at treating their customers both at the consumer and corporate level and having an uneven playing field that basically pissed netscape out of the game because Internet Explorer was bundled with Windows 95 as a default browser.
I feel the history is repeating itself again especially with their aggressive push with Microsoft Edge.
My top favourite Windows for me is
1. Windows 3.0/3.1 (sport of like the 8/8.1 mismanagement and **** lol 3.0 was good but had so many errors but 3.1 fixed many of them , likewise with 8.0/8.1)
2. Windows 95
3. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 - Clean effective, locking down settings to piss off students was fun to see when I doing volunteering at my school in 2000 for work placement, they were in the middle of testing Windows 2000 pro and servers.Got to see how behind the scenes stuffed worked with the NT server based exchanger for staff, mysql etc etc.
I have created that old setup with some old dos software and windows software that I have and the ibm version with windows 3.1 in a virtual machine using Pc em. Which is a great way to play with old operating systems.
I have a Windows 95 virtual machine as well and plus recently I was mucking around with IBM OS/2.
The consumer edition of Windows has been for the most successful. (I am aware of the enterprise ones, and have set up a few domain networks virtual machines, exploring them features - don't worry, its not connected to the internet). For the most part Windows 9x was very successful and 95 saw that era start.
But before Windows 95 came along, I used to love customising 3.1 with different shells, and we had something called PC Tools Desktop and Norton desktop, poor dad, hehe would get pissed off because I kept changing the shells. LOL
Learning how to use config.sys and auto exec.bat to configure the computer with drivers and the what not, was fun. Then Windows around 7 got too boring, it lacked zest and it really felt it had gone in the corporate direction.As much as I hate Windows 11 and 10 (which is still used by m y workplace while It is testing out our database and software in a lab with windows 11), but unfortunately it is a ncessary evil.
The browser wars in the 1990s and the case against Microsoft really made the case of how bad they were at treating their customers both at the consumer and corporate level and having an uneven playing field that basically pissed netscape out of the game because Internet Explorer was bundled with Windows 95 as a default browser.
I feel the history is repeating itself again especially with their aggressive push with Microsoft Edge.
My top favourite Windows for me is
1. Windows 3.0/3.1 (sport of like the 8/8.1 mismanagement and **** lol 3.0 was good but had so many errors but 3.1 fixed many of them , likewise with 8.0/8.1)
2. Windows 95
3. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 - Clean effective, locking down settings to piss off students was fun to see when I doing volunteering at my school in 2000 for work placement, they were in the middle of testing Windows 2000 pro and servers.Got to see how behind the scenes stuffed worked with the NT server based exchanger for staff, mysql etc etc.