TGC

Title: YDKF Episode 164: Operating Systems
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 04:59:36 +0000
Link: http://podcast.robohara.com/?p=593

Description: On this episode of YDKF I take a walk down memory lane through all the operating systems I’ve run, from MS-DOS 2.1 to Windows 10, sprinkling a few 16, 32 and 64-bit memories along the way. [Links] Link: Classic Text Adventures (Facebook Page) Link: YDKF Episode 149: Networks You Don’t Know Flack’s Official Forum You […]

In the late 90s I experimented with many sorts of operating systems. At one point I was convinced that Linux would become very popular due to it being free so I always kept a machine with it running so I could be familiar with it (and maybe write software for it). As it turned out, most consumers are like me and don't have time for "free" operating systems that cost more in time than Windows does in money.

Like you, I never really used Windows 3 much. I did have it but I basically went from MS-DOS 6 to Windows 95.

Your story about telling people to press Alt+F4 to change colors reminds me of a prank we used to pull -- take a screen shot of the desktop, set it as the background, and that hide all the icons.

obliterator918 wrote:In the late 90s I experimented with many sorts of operating systems. At one point I was convinced that Linux would become very popular due to it being free so I always kept a machine with it running so I could be familiar with it (and maybe write software for it). As it turned out, most consumers are like me and don't have time for "free" operating systems that cost more in time than Windows does in money.

My buddy Jeff and I were Commodore guys together and then became PC guys together. We both worked at the FAA so we both learned Novell and mastered Windows. For years, we were Windows experts. Jeff left the FAA and opened up his own web/server hosting company. I went to visit him one time and every server he had was Linux. I was really shocked! I asked him why he made the switch and it was purely financial. The government really doesn't care about the cost of software licensing, and being able to have somebody on the hook (like Microsoft) when things go really bad is important. I do wish I was more comfortable with Linux at the command line. I can get around, copy files, edit files, and do the basics, but it's so confusing and without being forced to use it, I end up defaulting back to Windows every time.

obliterator918 wrote:Like you, I never really used Windows 3 much. I did have it but I basically went from MS-DOS 6 to Windows 95.

I didn't really get into this on the podcast but I always felt like Windows 3.x was a hindrance more than anything. I could either boot into DOS and copy a file or I could boot into DOS, then load Windows, then copy the file. I felt the same way about Norton Commander and those other "shell-like" programs that were made to copy files and stuff.

Flack wrote:I didn't really get into this on the podcast but I always felt like Windows 3.x was a hindrance more than anything. I could either boot into DOS and copy a file or I could boot into DOS, then load Windows, then copy the file. I felt the same way about Norton Commander and those other "shell-like" programs that were made to copy files and stuff.

I used Windows 3.1 specifically for a few applications that were designed for it. I would always be in a command prompt to "do" anything with files/etc. I also used it for multi-tasking though you could quickly crash everything all at once before the days of true preemptive multitasking in Windows (I believe NT was the first to do that correctly for Windows).

I had friends who wouldn't use Windows at all and used other stuff like OS/2 or Deskmate.

My web servers use FreeBSD and I have to know a little when I need to SSH in on those, but I am always a little slow because I am always looking up how to do things.

Windows today is internally nothing at all like Windows 3/95/ME. You touched on this, but Windows XP is really where the consumer line of Windows was dropped and the business line became the consumer line (NT/2000). Internally they are very very different. If you have the time, this book is a great read:

Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft

Well, "really great read" if you are weird like me and like that kind of stuff.

I'll definitely check out that book, that does sound interesting.

I agree, Windows 95 and 98 were usable and user friendly, but not always stable.