Windows 3.1 rebooted: Microsoft's DOS destroyer turns 20

The Register ^ | 6 April 2012 | Tim Anderson

[moose07]

I find the combination of Windows 7 and Office 97 to be excellent. I bought Office 97 with a student discount and have installed it on every operating system since then. Win 7 is the most stable so far. I am dreading the day when it won’t install on a new OS. I do have a copy of Office 2003 stashed for that eventuality.

Office 2003 works beautifully on Windows 7,don't miss out. :)

[Tigermoth]

I worked for a software duplication company when Windows 3.1 was released. We went from a one building, 5 day-a-week, one shift company with 35 employees to a five building 24/7, 3 shift company with 400 employees in one month.

Windows 3.1 was a huge success.

[freedumb2003]

Have you removed the trial version of Office on your computer?

ZINDA! HIS FACE BLACK HIS EYES RED!!!

Trial versions are the cancer on the body technologic...

[jrestrepo]

I used Mosaic.

[freedumb2003]

>>Windows 3.1 was a huge success.<<

I was deploying Windows 3.1, using Netware on Token Ring. Windows 3.11 was a life-saver.

I knew a guy who was deploying on Banyan Vines. I don’t think he survived...

[freedumb2003]

>>I used Mosaic.<<

What, too good for Viola? ;)

[matt1234]

Windows is a crutch for people that can’t handle DOS. (That’s what we said in the late 1980’s.)

[FreedomPoster]

>>OK, all the last are just old Windows jokes

I was a HIMEM.SYS bada** back in the day. I’d get all the drivers and crapola up there for max availability of the lower 640k of RAM.

Win7 really likes 8G of RAM in my experience. Does OK with 4, but really likes 8, especially if you keep a lot of stuff open, which I tend to do.

[fremont_steve]

I’ll take that bet and raise you 1.

1) Buying MSDOS from Seattle Computers for $40K.
2) Deciding to emulate Apple and implement a GUI whose current incarnation is Windows-7.

Both were shrewd decisions.

[running_dog_lackey]

I’m waiting for Microsoft Bob to become a collector item. I’ve still got mine in the original box.

[AppyPappy]

I remember installing Mosiac on my 486/120

[dayglored]

> Windows 3.1 was not a true operating system (OS) It was an “operating environment” containing a graphical user interface (GUI), which sat on top of DOS, making it easier for the human user to interface with the computer. DOS still performed the underlying functions of the OS. Windows 95 was the first true non-DOS Microsoft OS.

Not true.

Win95 and Win98 and WinME all required DOS underneath. They hid it better and better, but it was still there.

The NT branch releases -- NT3.x, NT4, NT5/Win2K, NT5.1/WinXP, NT6/Vista, NT6.1/Win7 -- all are independent of DOS.

[Poser]

Color Wordstar for DOS was the bomb! You could hack the serial number and colors with Norton Utilities.

[fremont_steve]

Uhm - no.

I used Linux version 0.12 in 1992. I couldn’t believe what it could do compared to Windows, et al. This was the first really usable version of Linux. You had to have a Minix partition to use it, and the ability to do a hex-edit to the binary to tell it which disk to find said partition.

Where windows had non-preimptive multi-tasking, Linux had full Memory protected multi-tasking capabilities. Where Windows had to have memmaker to help it manage 16Mb - Linux had Real Virtual Memory, and could run 64Mbyte tasks. Even in it’s infancy it was in a different league.

The first version of Linux required that you download all the utilities you wanted to run and compile them yourself! Want LS - compile it! Then “SLS” came along and did the very first distributions. 50 Floppies! Heaven!

[dayglored]

> I’m waiting for Microsoft Bob to become a collector item. I’ve still got mine in the original box.

Hate to tell ya, but it is probably as much of a collector's item now as it ever will be.

On the other hand, ya never know...

The PlaySkool / Fisher-Price look and feel of Windows 8 Metro could take over Windows-land, and if it does, I predict that "MS-BOB" will stop being an ancient, weird, abandoned novelty and start being revered as "decades before its time".

And dear Melinda Gates, the chief driving force behind MS-BOB (and oh-by-the-way Bill Gates' girlfriend at the time) will be seen as "prescient" and a true visionary of the user interface of the new millennium's second decade.

[mamelukesabre]

I never used windows 3.1. I went to windows 3.11 around 1995 directly from DOS, automenu, and VAX.

[GeronL]

I still find Linux is hard to use. I have PC Linux and Puppy Linux on CD’s that I can boot from. I can get online easily enough, that much is something anyone can do. If that is all someone wants, then I’d definitely go with Linux.

[GeronL]

I downloaded some Linux games, like Scorched 3-d, that I cannot get to work.

[AFreeBird]

The author clearly doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. Win 3.1 didn’t kill DOS because it REQUIRED DOS.

NT and latter variants killed DOS, as did Linux and Mac OS.

[GeronL]

from wiki....

Released right as the Internet was beginning to become popular, Bob offered an email client where a user could subscribe to MCI Mail, a dial-up email account. The price was $5.00 per month to send up to 15 emails per month. Each email was limited to 5000 characters, and each additional email after the limit was reached was an additional 45 cents. A toll-free phone number had to be called to set up the account

Oh yes, that was gonna happen. lol.