Posted by
michael
on from the chaining-bootloaders-for-fun-and-profit dept.
cpaluc writes "Bored? Surplus spare time and PC hardware? Read on. OSNews has links to a couple of articles (1,2) about a guy who installed 37 operating systems on one PC. There's something to do with your spare time and hardware."
Apple Rhapsody x86
by
green+pizza
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
He should have included Apple's x86 version of Rhapsody (developer release 1 or 2 of Mac OS X from several years ago). Either that or Darwin x86, which is available from Apple's website.
He installed these? Windows 1.01 Windows 1.03 Windows 2.03 Windows 2.10
How could you even find these versions let alone tolerate installing them? Hmm... Just imagine all the versions of Minesweeper and Solitare!
Honestly, who could possible have the time to do something like this?
Re:Why???
by
hoagieslapper
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Correct me if I am wrong here, but are Windows 1.x and Windows 2.x even operating systems? I know Windows 3.x wasn't. The OS for Windows 3.x was DOS.
Alright, let me ask this.
by
antis0c
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Where the hell did he get all these Operating Systems from? Not even getting into how does he have licenses for them all, but Windows 1.01? All the versions of QNX? I'm asking a serious question too, anyone know where?
--
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
Re:Alright, let me ask this.
by
Aexia
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I have an early CD-ROM program(some reference) that not only runs on Windows v1.xx but includes a copy as well.
Re:Alright, let me ask this.
by
Oztun
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I found a page with google that looks to have windows 1.01 and QNX links.
Windows menu
Windows 1.01
Windows 1.03
Windows 2.03
Windows 2.10
Windows 3.1
Windows 95
Windows 98 First Edition
Windows 98 Second Edition
Windows 98 SE Lite (not counted as separate)
Windows Me
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Ok I make the list realisticly at 28-ish. I count all the DOS's, Linux distro count as one, 9 Unix's (verses 11 listed), and 10 windows (all win98 as one)...
You can argue beyond that, but 28 is still impressive... No WinNT?
-- DJMD - The fourth man - Planetary
What? No GEOS 1.0
by
nickgrieve
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
This *EXTREMELY RARE* operating system was the first release for the IBM-PC. Previously, different versions of GEOS had done very well with the Commodore 64 and Apple 2 line. This GUI-based OS was primarily used in businesses and schools, and seldom saw its way into the hands of the public. This was the very first version that was ever released for PC users. The welcome screen had three buttons, for the Appliances level, Professional level, and the DOS Room. In the first level, the user is greeted by large buttons for the calculator, Rolodex, planner, and notepad. These four apps run in full screen, and there is no multitasking or task-switching. In the Professional level, the user is exposed to all the applications, which can run in windows and multitask with one another. The screen could be filled with a background (wallpaper in Windows lingo) for some fancy decoration. The accessories included Clock, Calculator, GeoBanner, GeoComm, GeoDex, GeoPlanner, Notepad, and Scrapbook. The major applications were GeoManager, GeoDraw, GeoWrite, and Preferences. There was also an icon for the client software to America Online. (At that time, it was the only way to connect to AOL). The user interface was Motif, and a dark cyan color scheme was used. In the DOS Room, a button for the DOS prompt was the default entry. There was a utility for creating new buttons for running other DOS applications, and there was a broad selection of icons to choose from, including both generic and branded icons. This version was later followed by versions 2.0, and New Deal School Suite '98.
Windows 1.0 screenshots
by
stefanlasiewski
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
For a trip down memory lane (ok, I'm lying, my memory lane begins at Windows 3.0), here's a set of Windows screenshots, starting at 1.0 up to Win XP.
I did 19 different operating systems on the 486. It's actually quite useful to fire up some specific version of dos to twinkle some version-specific bug. Here's my list.
The installations of these were heavily stripped, because both msdos and pcdos will run the pcdos 7.0 utilities, along with a scattering of other utilities.
The other configurations were the main work client (pcdos 2000), a guest system for my mother (pcdos 2000 + win3.11 running a network install.
-- OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
Planning issues
by
div_2n
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
He had six IDE hard drives. As the article states, some OS's have severe temper tantrums if you try to install them past a certain cylinder on the HD (1024). NT can't exist on the same physical drive as 2000. I am not sure if the same is true for XP and 2000 on the same drive.
My guess is that given these limitations, it might have been impossible to add NT even if he wanted to.
Re:Planning issues
by
acoustix
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
XP and 2000 can be installed on the same physical drive.
I have 98, 2000, and XP Pro (installed in that order) on my drive.
-- "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
There are 51 x86 os's. He's still missing 14!
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
The narrow definition of an OS just includes the kernel, so distribution and version variations are not counted. Here is (complete?) list of x86 os's with seperate kernel source trees. Anyone have updates? * Adrenaline * Apostle * AtheOS * BeOS * BRiX * BSD-OS * BugOS * DOS * EduOS * EROS * Exopc * Fiasco * FreeBSD * FreeVMS * FullPliant * GEM * Gemini Nucleus * GEOS * GNU Hurd * Go * JxOS * L4 * Linux * MenuetOS * MINIX * Nemesis * NetBSD * On Time RTOS-32 * OnCore * OpenBSD * OS/2 * OS-C * PETROS * PIOS * Proolix * QNX * RadiOS * Roadrunner * RT Mach NTT * SCO * Scout * Solaris * SPIN * TinyOS * Unununium * V2 OS * VSTa * VxWorks * Windows 9x * Windows NT * Yamit please ignore the rest of this comment. trying to get past the stupid comment filter trying to get past the stupid comment filte1r trying to get past the stfupid commfsent filter trying t3o get past wthe stupid cofmment fildfter trying to get past the stupid commentas filter trying tos get past the stupid comment filter2 trying to get past the stupsdid comment filter trying to get past the stupid comment filter tryinddg tod get past the stupfsid comment filter trying to get past the stupid comment filter tdrying to get padst the stupid comment filter tryifng dto get past the stupid comment filter trying to get past thes stupifd comsment filter
Old Windows Licenses
by
Jack+Admiral
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I think Microsoft allows the use of old Windows versions if you purchased a license of the newest version. For example, if you bought Windows XP Home, you could use, instead, any version from Windows 3.1 to Windows ME. You can't use Windows 2000 Pro since its upgrade path is Windows XP Pro.
Re:An attempt to name 37 operating systems
by
langed
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
IIRC, EMACS can be run as its own OS as well. Granted, it's not done much, but it is possible.
And, there's a great OS called Oberon (yeah, there's a programming language of the same name--from the same people too) but this beast required a special, rather expensive and obscure card. On an 8-bit card for an 8086 or 80286 came an array of anywhere from 4 to 8 processors. It was one of the first true multitasking OSes available--well before PC hardware really supported it.
Personally, I was proud when I had 8 OSes installed in rather small partitions on my 1.2GB drive. (Hey, 1.2GB was "big" back around '95 or so....:) I used a third-party bootloader called "BootIt". It had the ability to create up to 10 partitions of different types, didn't have any problems getting around that 1024cyl barrier, and was capable of booting any OS I threw at it--even the MS products were able to boot from logical partitions, even well past the 1024th cylinder!
From a technical standpoint, when I read "37 OSes, 1 PC", I thought "Yeah, how many partitions, and what bootloader?" After all, there's a bit of a fixed limit of only 4 partitions in a partition table.... But BootIt got around that by storing the actual partition info in its own partition, and wiping out the partition info in the table, rewriting it just before booting the relevent OS (and unhiding the related logical/extended partitions as well.)
Theoretically, with a nice 20GB drive, I could have pulled the same stunt with BootIt--it was also capable of booting itself.
From the article:
If you count my 18 DOS window managers, I have a total of 57 operating systems on my PC.
Well, if you count QuarterDeck's DesqView, you can throw in a whole new mix of multiple versions of DOS, Win 2.x, and Win 3.x--and you can even use it like I do--I put DesqView on a spare box an ran a Win3.1 version of IE 5 on it. I found it to be a great way to get IE "running" on linux. (I have a friend who said he wouldn't switch unless he could keep his Internet Explorer. Boy, converting Windows zealots can be kinda rough!:) Okay, and it felt a little satisfying--like a slap in the face of the great, evil Empire of Microsoft. Make the two platforms interoperate, somehow, even when they go out of their way to prevent it. It's one of my favorite--and frustrating--challenges.
And, coming back to the article again, you can count these new permutations separately:
DesqView
DesqView+Dos3+Dos4 (setver.exe didn't come with DOS until 5.0)
DesqView+Dos5+Win3.1+WinS extensions
Oh, and if this guy really wanted to get his hands dirty, he could start rolling out his own OS; that has been a bit of a hobby for some of us underchallenged college students.:)
And finally, one more note--I haven't seen the obligatory V2OS reference on here yet... As of around V0.89, it can be installed to a hard disk.:)
Slashdot Mirror
He should have included Apple's x86 version of Rhapsody (developer release 1 or 2 of Mac OS X from several years ago). Either that or Darwin x86, which is available from Apple's website.
He installed these?
Windows 1.01
Windows 1.03
Windows 2.03
Windows 2.10
How could you even find these versions let alone tolerate installing them? Hmm... Just imagine all the versions of Minesweeper and Solitare!
Honestly, who could possible have the time to do something like this?
Where the hell did he get all these Operating Systems from? Not even getting into how does he have licenses for them all, but Windows 1.01? All the versions of QNX? I'm asking a serious question too, anyone know where?
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
You can argue beyond that, but 28 is still impressive... No WinNT?
DJMD - The fourth man - Planetary
This *EXTREMELY RARE* operating system was the first release for the IBM-PC. Previously, different versions of GEOS had done very well with the Commodore 64 and Apple 2 line. This GUI-based OS was primarily used in businesses and schools, and seldom saw its way into the hands of the public. This was the very first version that was ever released for PC users. The welcome screen had three buttons, for the Appliances level, Professional level, and the DOS Room. In the first level, the user is greeted by large buttons for the calculator, Rolodex, planner, and notepad. These four apps run in full screen, and there is no multitasking or task-switching. In the Professional level, the user is exposed to all the applications, which can run in windows and multitask with one another. The screen could be filled with a background (wallpaper in Windows lingo) for some fancy decoration. The accessories included Clock, Calculator, GeoBanner, GeoComm, GeoDex, GeoPlanner, Notepad, and Scrapbook. The major applications were GeoManager, GeoDraw, GeoWrite, and Preferences. There was also an icon for the client software to America Online. (At that time, it was the only way to connect to AOL). The user interface was Motif, and a dark cyan color scheme was used. In the DOS Room, a button for the DOS prompt was the default entry. There was a utility for creating new buttons for running other DOS applications, and there was a broad selection of icons to choose from, including both generic and branded icons. This version was later followed by versions 2.0, and New Deal School Suite '98.
For a trip down memory lane (ok, I'm lying, my memory lane begins at Windows 3.0), here's a set of Windows screenshots, starting at 1.0 up to Win XP.
0 1w indowshistory_screenshots.html
http://www.infosatellite.com/news/2001/10/a2510
Interesting how similar Windows 2.0 looks to Windows XP, and many other GUI environments...
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
I did 19 different operating systems on the 486. It's actually quite useful to fire up some specific version of dos to twinkle some version-specific bug. Here's my list.
The installations of these were heavily stripped, because both msdos and pcdos will run the pcdos 7.0 utilities, along with a scattering of other utilities.
System commander provided the menu.
msdos 5.00 6.00 6.20 6.21 6.22 7.00b
pcdos 5.00 5.02 6.00 6.10 6.30 7.00 2000
drdos 6.00b 7.00
mswin 95a
os/2 3.00 4.00
nt 4.00
OS/2 3.0 was heavily stripped to 9MB total, it was used for burning cdroms.
On top of these, I ran different operating system extenders: These
dosshell [a hacked win30 standard mode]
win30
win31
win311
deskView
qemm
The other configurations were the main work client (pcdos 2000), a guest system for my mother (pcdos 2000 + win3.11 running a network install.
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
He had six IDE hard drives. As the article states, some OS's have severe temper tantrums if you try to install them past a certain cylinder on the HD (1024). NT can't exist on the same physical drive as 2000. I am not sure if the same is true for XP and 2000 on the same drive.
My guess is that given these limitations, it might have been impossible to add NT even if he wanted to.
The narrow definition of an OS just includes the kernel, so distribution and version variations are not counted. Here is (complete?) list of x86 os's with seperate kernel source trees. Anyone have updates?
* Adrenaline
* Apostle
* AtheOS
* BeOS
* BRiX
* BSD-OS
* BugOS
* DOS
* EduOS
* EROS
* Exopc
* Fiasco
* FreeBSD
* FreeVMS
* FullPliant
* GEM
* Gemini Nucleus
* GEOS
* GNU Hurd
* Go
* JxOS
* L4
* Linux
* MenuetOS
* MINIX
* Nemesis
* NetBSD
* On Time RTOS-32
* OnCore
* OpenBSD
* OS/2
* OS-C
* PETROS
* PIOS
* Proolix
* QNX
* RadiOS
* Roadrunner
* RT Mach NTT
* SCO
* Scout
* Solaris
* SPIN
* TinyOS
* Unununium
* V2 OS
* VSTa
* VxWorks
* Windows 9x
* Windows NT
* Yamit
please ignore the rest of this comment.
trying to get past the stupid comment filter trying to get past the stupid comment filte1r trying to get past the stfupid commfsent filter trying t3o get past wthe stupid cofmment fildfter trying to get past the stupid commentas filter trying tos get past the stupid comment filter2 trying to get past the stupsdid comment filter trying to get past the stupid comment filter tryinddg tod get past the stupfsid comment filter trying to get past the stupid comment filter tdrying to get padst the stupid comment filter tryifng dto get past the stupid comment filter trying to get past thes stupifd comsment filter
I think Microsoft allows the use of old Windows versions if you purchased a license of the newest version. For example, if you bought Windows XP Home, you could use, instead, any version from Windows 3.1 to Windows ME. You can't use Windows 2000 Pro since its upgrade path is Windows XP Pro.
And, there's a great OS called Oberon (yeah, there's a programming language of the same name--from the same people too) but this beast required a special, rather expensive and obscure card. On an 8-bit card for an 8086 or 80286 came an array of anywhere from 4 to 8 processors. It was one of the first true multitasking OSes available--well before PC hardware really supported it.
Personally, I was proud when I had 8 OSes installed in rather small partitions on my 1.2GB drive. (Hey, 1.2GB was "big" back around '95 or so.... :)
I used a third-party bootloader called "BootIt". It had the ability to create up to 10 partitions of different types, didn't have any problems getting around that 1024cyl barrier, and was capable of booting any OS I threw at it--even the MS products were able to boot from logical partitions, even well past the 1024th cylinder!
From a technical standpoint, when I read "37 OSes, 1 PC", I thought "Yeah, how many partitions, and what bootloader?" After all, there's a bit of a fixed limit of only 4 partitions in a partition table.... But BootIt got around that by storing the actual partition info in its own partition, and wiping out the partition info in the table, rewriting it just before booting the relevent OS (and unhiding the related logical/extended partitions as well.)
Theoretically, with a nice 20GB drive, I could have pulled the same stunt with BootIt--it was also capable of booting itself.
From the article:
Well, if you count QuarterDeck's DesqView, you can throw in a whole new mix of multiple versions of DOS, Win 2.x, and Win 3.x--and you can even use it like I do--I put DesqView on a spare box an ran a Win3.1 version of IE 5 on it. I found it to be a great way to get IE "running" on linux. (I have a friend who said he wouldn't switch unless he could keep his Internet Explorer. Boy, converting Windows zealots can be kinda rough!Okay, and it felt a little satisfying--like a slap in the face of the great, evil Empire of Microsoft. Make the two platforms interoperate, somehow, even when they go out of their way to prevent it. It's one of my favorite--and frustrating--challenges.
And, coming back to the article again, you can count these new permutations separately:
Oh, and if this guy really wanted to get his hands dirty, he could start rolling out his own OS; that has been a bit of a hobby for some of us underchallenged college students. :)
And finally, one more note--I haven't seen the obligatory V2OS reference on here yet... As of around V0.89, it can be installed to a hard disk. :)