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Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Jimbob on 05 November 2008, 07:10:49

Title: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Jimbob on 05 November 2008, 07:10:49
3.x

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7707016.stm

Bread and butter to a lot of us!
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Kevin Wood on 05 November 2008, 10:15:57
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The fact that it was 100% compatible with older MSDOS applications helped too.

LMAO! As I recall it WAS an MS-DOS application. ;D

Kevin
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: tunnie on 05 November 2008, 10:19:15
i remember using it, in my early days in school me and a couple of friends were the only ones into IT, soon grew and were lucky to get a PC.
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Kevin Wood on 05 November 2008, 10:26:37
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i remember using it, in my early days in school me and a couple of friends were the only ones into IT, soon grew and were lucky to get a PC.

When I were a lad...  We were lucky to get a Research Machines 380z <shudder> http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=812

Although we did have one BBC Micro  8-) but the penalties for getting caught playing Elite were severe :-[

Kevin
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Ken T on 05 November 2008, 10:32:01
I hope they don't discontinue Win95. That's what runs the Trains driver displays on the Electrostar trains. You can just see it " you have applied the brakes, Windows must reboot for this to take effect............."  ;D ;D ;D

Ken
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Darth Loo-knee on 05 November 2008, 11:05:47
Sorry to ask perhaps a daft question, but is it the early windows they are stopping? the windows we are using now like Vista will be ok wont they? :-?
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Jimbob on 05 November 2008, 11:08:17
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Sorry to ask perhaps a daft question, but is it the early windows they are stopping? the windows we are using now like Vista will be ok wont they? :-?


Yes, this is a very old version of windows!
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Andy B on 05 November 2008, 11:09:59
Quote
Quote
i remember using it, in my early days in school me and a couple of friends were the only ones into IT, soon grew and were lucky to get a PC.

When I were a lad...  We were lucky to get a Research Machines 380z <shudder> http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=812

Although we did have one BBC Micro  8-) but the penalties for getting caught playing Elite were severe :-[

Kevin

RIGHT!
When I were a lad. All we had was a Babbage Difference Engine!
 ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Darth Loo-knee on 05 November 2008, 11:10:23
so there will be no effect on Vista then? I thought at first you meant the whole Windows company was discontinuing :o
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Martin_1962 on 05 November 2008, 11:20:22
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so there will be no effect on Vista then? I thought at first you meant the whole Windows company was discontinuing :o


Discontinuing Vista would have less effect
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: ians on 05 November 2008, 11:29:10
Well when I were a lad we were issued with a booklet of logarithmic tables.   Now that was frightening.
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: cem_devecioglu on 05 November 2008, 12:12:29
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Quote
so there will be no effect on Vista then? I thought at first you meant the whole Windows company was discontinuing :o


Discontinuing Vista would have less effect

Agreed ;)
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: hotel21 on 05 November 2008, 13:05:32
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Well when I were a lad we were issued with a booklet of logarithmic tables.   Now that was frightening.

..... and a guessing stick!    ;D

(thats a slide rule, to those who only know a world replete with electronic calculators....)   ;)
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: bertiecbx550 on 05 November 2008, 14:47:17
this is quickly turning into a montypython sketch!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Kevin Wood on 05 November 2008, 14:52:46
We used to dream of having a guessing stick. We just used to have to  just guess, if the we got the wrong answer our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.

 ;D

Kevin
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Peter H on 05 November 2008, 14:58:36
Win '95 was the first time I ever actually understood how to use a computer.  For me it is the yardstick.

Progress is a bitch sometimes, are there gatherings of folks with old computers showing off the 'original' software?

In my industry (shipping) old ships just slip away, there is no physical record of all ship types, just the odd one or 2 that get preserved because of the huge cost of maintaining and storing them.

I wonder if computers and software will be like this too but for the opposite reason, because they are so disposable.
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: TheBoy on 05 November 2008, 16:15:53
Quote
Quote
i remember using it, in my early days in school me and a couple of friends were the only ones into IT, soon grew and were lucky to get a PC.

When I were a lad...  We were lucky to get a Research Machines 380z <shudder> http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=812

Although we did have one BBC Micro  8-) but the penalties for getting caught playing Elite were severe :-[

Kevin
Our school was posh, had 2 RM 380z machines, and a couple of beebs. There was also a teletype to the county council's computer, but could only use at certain times, otherwise it crashed their payroll ;D
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: TheBoy on 05 November 2008, 16:16:55
I still have a copy of Windows 1, should I install it for a laugh....
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Mr Skrunts on 05 November 2008, 16:54:02
How wierd.   I was just talking to an old mate this morning about a computer I have tucked away upstairs.

We were on about Vista, and I was saying that I had not had anything to do with it and went on to talk about 32 and 64 bit versions, this led on to other stuff and dual booting the pair on a system got mentioned.  To this I started to tell him about my old machine.

2.3 MMX
16mb ram
8mb Rage PCI
2 x 12MB Voodoo 2


Dos 6.22
Windows 3.11
Win95 or 98
Win NT



They dont build em like they used to.   PMSL

At least it didnt have Daisy chained hard drives RRL in it and a 5.25 floppy drive.    ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Kevin Wood on 05 November 2008, 17:12:10
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Our school was posh, had 2 RM 380z machines, and a couple of beebs. There was also a teletype to the county council's computer, but could only use at certain times, otherwise it crashed their payroll ;D

We had a network of diskless (and tapeless) 380z machines. Could do anything you liked on that network. No security whatsoever. I had great fun in one lesson sending <BEL> characters to the Epson FX80 that was sitting on the teacher's desk and watching her whince every time it went BEEP. ;D Little did I reaslise it was also doing a form feed each time I accessed it. :-[ She nearly disappeared behind a mountain of fanfold paper.;D Although I covered my tracks well, I neglected to consider that the rest of the class couldn't use wordstar let alone compromise the network, so I didn't avoid the b0110ck1ng that ensued.  :'(

I preferred the Sun workstations we had at university though. If you saw someone who looked like they were taking the lesson a bit too seriously you could rlogin to their system and load a porn image into their screenbuffer before disappearing again. ;D

Kevin
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: TheBoy on 05 November 2008, 18:48:59
Quote
How wierd.   I was just talking to an old mate this morning about a computer I have tucked away upstairs.

We were on about Vista, and I was saying that I had not had anything to do with it and went on to talk about 32 and 64 bit versions, this led on to other stuff and dual booting the pair on a system got mentioned.  To this I started to tell him about my old machine.

2.3 MMX
16mb ram
8mb Rage PCI
2 x 12MB Voodoo 2


Dos 6.22
Windows 3.11
Win95 or 98
Win NT



They dont build em like they used to.   PMSL

At least it didnt have Daisy chained hard drives RRL in it and a 5.25 floppy drive.    ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I think you mean those modern fangled RLL drives, on an ST506 interface. MFM was its predecessor. My first HDD was a MFM unit, all 30Mb (cavenous in its day).
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: TheBoy on 05 November 2008, 18:52:07
Quote
Quote
Our school was posh, had 2 RM 380z machines, and a couple of beebs. There was also a teletype to the county council's computer, but could only use at certain times, otherwise it crashed their payroll ;D

We had a network of diskless (and tapeless) 380z machines. Could do anything you liked on that network. No security whatsoever. I had great fun in one lesson sending <BEL> characters to the Epson FX80 that was sitting on the teacher's desk and watching her whince every time it went BEEP. ;D Little did I reaslise it was also doing a form feed each time I accessed it. :-[ She nearly disappeared behind a mountain of fanfold paper.;D Although I covered my tracks well, I neglected to consider that the rest of the class couldn't use wordstar let alone compromise the network, so I didn't avoid the b0110ck1ng that ensued.  :'(

I preferred the Sun workstations we had at university though. If you saw someone who looked like they were taking the lesson a bit too seriously you could rlogin to their system and load a porn image into their screenbuffer before disappearing again. ;D

Kevin
Just before I left, we had a network of RM 480z (think that was model - light coloured, no seperate keyboard).  It was possible to send a broadcast on network that the roms would pick up, and allow you to controll every one on the network. Apparently  ::)


Sun? Running X11? Shouldn't be allowed, text rules.  No Unix/Linux system should ever be allowed to run graphical, too inefficient ;D
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Golfbuddy on 05 November 2008, 20:00:05
Quote
We used to dream of having a guessing stick. We just used to have to  just guess, if the we got the wrong answer our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.

 ;D

Kevin

Luxury!!! We used to dream of being thrashed to sleep wit' belt.
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Matchless on 05 November 2008, 20:36:03
My dad was an Engineer so we had two slide rules in our house, one circular and one straight.
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Mr Skrunts on 05 November 2008, 21:00:33
Quote
Quote
How wierd.   I was just talking to an old mate this morning about a computer I have tucked away upstairs.

We were on about Vista, and I was saying that I had not had anything to do with it and went on to talk about 32 and 64 bit versions, this led on to other stuff and dual booting the pair on a system got mentioned.  To this I started to tell him about my old machine.

2.3 MMX
16mb ram
8mb Rage PCI
2 x 12MB Voodoo 2


Dos 6.22
Windows 3.11
Win95 or 98
Win NT



They dont build em like they used to.   PMSL

At least it didnt have Daisy chained hard drives RRL in it and a 5.25 floppy drive.    ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I think you mean those modern fangled RLL drives, on an ST506 interface. MFM was its predecessor. My first HDD was a MFM unit, all 30Mb (cavenous in its day).

Cheers Jamie, yes thats the one, Couldnt remember the name for the MFM so didnt mention it.

Looking forward to a big clearout as I move home, so if anyone would like an MFM door stop please let me know.    ;D ;D ;D ;D  Postage may be exspensive though. ;D ;D


Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Vamps on 05 November 2008, 21:43:07
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My dad was an Engineer so we had two slide rules in our house, one circular and one straight.


You did live in a posh house, we only had one, and funnily enough it resurfaced recently and is in the garage. :D :D :D
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Martin_1962 on 05 November 2008, 22:07:50
I remember seeing a guessing stick at school.

I think it was end of them as pocket calculators had just gone mainstream
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: Kevin Wood on 06 November 2008, 00:09:17
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Just before I left, we had a network of RM 480z (think that was model - light coloured, no seperate keyboard).  It was possible to send a broadcast on network that the roms would pick up, and allow you to controll every one on the network. Apparently  ::)


Sun? Running X11? Shouldn't be allowed, text rules.  No Unix/Linux system should ever be allowed to run graphical, too inefficient ;D

Ahh, yes. It's all coming back now. 380z was black, in either a 19" rack or a metal case with integral keyboard then the 480z was cream coloured in a plastic case with integral keyboard.

I think we had a Nimbus too, which made a lame attempt at being an IBM XT, as if the XT weren't lame enough in the first place. It replaced a 380z as the network server, and livened things up a little, not surprisingly.

Kevin
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: dbug on 06 November 2008, 00:41:51
I still got a copy of 3.1 running on one of my multi-boot systems (Athlon 3300 + 2Gb RAM).  Only recognises 64Mb RAM but loads in a couple of seconds and is rock steady stable!!  Gone are the days of flaky 3.1 with 2Mb of very expensive RAM!!

Before u ask I had a customer still using Windows 3.1 up until very recently and never got round to taking it off my pc.
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: dbug on 06 November 2008, 00:44:20
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I still have a copy of Windows 1, should I install it for a laugh....

Windows 1  ;D ;D ;D - I still got versions of MS DOS going back from 6.22 to 1 :exclamation :exclamation
Title: Re: A sad day, Microsoft have discontinued Windows
Post by: BigAl on 06 November 2008, 00:51:37
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Sun? Running X11? Shouldn't be allowed, text rules.  No Unix/Linux system should ever be allowed to run graphical, too inefficient ;D
The latest version of Incident Management software we run on our Solaris boxes is now written in JAVA - what a pile of Poo!! - all because the provider has outsourced to "colleagues" that only programme in JAVA :-X