Fond Farewell: Windows 3.11

Overheal

Gizmodo wrote:

In a short and slightly poignant posting on his MSDN blog, a Microsoft systems engineer has announced that Windows 3.11 will be officially discontinued four months after XP's unceremonious removal from the consumer market. The secret to 3.11's 15-year lifespan was the embedded space, where it has dutifully provided a platform for countless low-horsepower cash registers and train schedule displays. To be completely fair, 3.11 has only been "available" in the sense that embedded systems OEMs could buy it through limited channels, just as they will be able to purchase XP Embedded (which is a full-featured Pro version of the OS) into the foreseeable future. At least you can fudge a little and tell your kids that XP has "gone to a better place," but don't even try to pull that crap with 3.11. It's dead, and those spoiled brats have to learn what that means someday.

So long man. We're going to miss you.

Those were the days. Making paper airplanes in Word's wizard (the whirly gig was the bees knees) and such were the days when i was afraid to touch anything i didnt know about - the character map in particular. I dont know why. I was afraid of deleting the computer or something, I guess. Having said that those were the days when any 5 year old could navigate the folder structure in the dos prompt with relative ease to get to their favorite DOS based games, like Dr. Riptide, and Commander Keen. Then there was those 2 platformers I cant remember the name of - the Space Miner one and the Secret Angent one. Both classic.

Alun

I've still got a Windows 3.11 Virtual Machine that is fun to crank up every now and then. Especially if someone asks if they can use your PC for a bit, and you start it up and put it into full-screen mode for them with Netscape started up

Jonathan

I miss microsoft golf.

after taking your shot, you used to be able to walk away and come back in 10mins and the next view would just about have loaded.

Kevster

Thanks for the thread, Overheal - This brings back fond memories. I can hear the 'crank, crank, crankling' (are they even words!?) of my computer's hard-disk loading up Windows 3.11 all those years ago in my head right now... ...

Overheal

Kevster wrote: »

Thanks for the thread, Overheal - This brings back fond memories. I can hear the 'crank, crank, crankling' (are they even words!?) of my computer's hard-disk loading up Windows 3.11 all those years ago in my head right now... ...

I can still remember each and every whirr and rev and beep and chink the machine would make as it started up to desktop


it was almost musical.

SantaHoe

Ah good old 'Clock'... they don't make apps like that any more.
Runs full screen too doesn't it?

Kevster

SantaHoe wrote: »

Ah good old 'Clock'... they don't make apps like that any more.
Runs full screen too doesn't it?

Yeh - you're right! I used to put it up full-screen while I was doing other work. I hated wearing watches and, of course, I had no mobile phone back then to tell the time.

... ...ah, the good old days (and I'm only 25).

tman

I still fondly remember the day when my neighbor got a new pc, complete with this fancy new operating system, AND A COLOUR MONITOR!!!!111
For some strange reason I stuck with DOS until '95 came out, and even then moving over to a gui felt strange...

I have a 286 laptop which was running Windows 3.11 when I got hold of it but I decided to be even more retro and put Windows 3.0 on it.

I had no idea 3.1x was still in any form of support phase - thought it was long dead by now!

Ruu_Old

Program Manager. Had Windows 3.1 on my Wang 386. 6 3 1/4" disks for installation I think. I used to push the Wang to the limit, even endured the long wait for Windows 95 to load and I think it had 16MB RAM.

SolarNexus

Had Windows 3.1 on my Wang 386

LMFAO!!! no comment!

win 3.1 was my first experience of computers ever, so I too feel the nostalgia. i managed to fook up alot of those computers by del * the entire windows directory :P

Overheal

I remember my dad got a modem installed on it, so we went into dos and tried to do it the good old fashioned way - randomly it was great hearing someone's answering machine through the modem speaker.

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

I remember my dad got a modem installed on it, so we went into dos and tried to do it the good old fashioned way - randomly it was great hearing someone's answering machine through the modem speaker.

Was it this? (replacing the 1 with whatever port the modem's on)

echo atdt number > com1:

Often used that to test old ISA hardware modems to see if they were working.

Alun

Still running here

Overheal

you have to play with the robot pack of cards!