Microsoft Discontinues Windows 3.x

rugatero writes "The BBC reports that, as of last Saturday, Microsoft is no longer issuing licenses for the 18-year-old Windows 3.x. Many here may well be surprised to learn that anyone still has use for the antiquated software, but it seems to have found a home in a number of embedded systems — including cash registers and the in-flight entertainment systems on some long-haul passenger jets (Virgin and Qantas are cited). Considering Linux's credentials as an embedded OS, this news could very well indicate the possibility of more migrations in the pipeline."

Comments

How dare they!

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 3.x is a lean, stable, functional, and secure OS! How could they do such a thing?

Re:How dare they!

[MrNaz]

Surprised? Surprised to learn that Win3.1 is still in use? I think the descriptor they're after is totally fucking gobsmacked so hard my gob flew across the room and bit me in the ass when I passed out and fell on it.

Re:How dare they!

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess it would be like one of my first game I made in assembly (on a C64). It was a "snake" kind of game and as soon as I typed run the game was displaying the "game over" screen. The reason is the game was so fast I didn't even had time to see both "snakes" going straight into the wall.

So I guess on a modern hardware, Win3.1 will be so fast the only thing you will see is a blue screen of death.

That explains it

[DigiShaman]

in-flight entertainment systems on some long-haul passenger jets

Ahh, so that's what they ment by "Every seat is a window seat".

Re:That explains it

[MindlessAutomata]

That's not the sky, that's a BSOD.

Re:That explains it

[MrNaz]

I'm trying to find something funny to say about crashing, Windows and Qantas' recent in-flight incidents. I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere...

Re:That explains it

[jsse]

That reminds me of a scary journey with Taiwan airline.

My flight didn't offer on-seat TV, but overhead TV only displayed information such as course and weather. Sometime the information pages would switch to camera view displaying what looked like real-time images from a camera shooting below the airplane.

It was good to look at, until it suddenly crashed, accompanyed by a loud sound that was probably caused by normal turbulence. Some passengers didn't know what was going on and started to scream uncontrollably.

I recognized they familiar screen, and attempted to conform the coward by saying that "Don't worry, it's just WINDOWS crashing."

More panic broke out, and the cockpit was in total chaos.

BTW, talking about the scary part, I almost got arrested for causing terror in the air. Had I not repeated what it looks like a WINDOWS crashing in my laptop I'd still be in Taiwan prison.

China Airlines uses Linux on their in-flight

[vovin]

Just in case you were interested China Airlines uses Linux on their in-flight.
I flew another airline that also used Linux but I don't recall which one. It's not very often you get to see the boot up but in one case they rebooted the system after they landed and in the other my partners crashed when we were trying to change the default language.

Re:China Airlines uses Linux on their in-flight

[PCM2]

It's not very often you get to see the boot up but in one case they rebooted the system after they landed and in the other my partners crashed when we were trying to change the default language.

Oh my God, that's terrible! My condolences for your loss, and I will never use Linux again.

Performance boost.

[Anonymous Coward]

Upgrading from Windows 3.x to Vista Ultimate should provide a significant performance boost for any application.

Oh yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

They are all nice to you when you retire. "Have fun on the beach," they say. Then one day, when you are relaxing in your hammock enjoying your time off maybe sipping a gin and tonic, the phone rings. "It's Linus and the Mac fag," they say, "They're back." "No way, I'm out of the game," you say. Then Windows ME bangs on your door, his back riddled with bullet holes, you know now and then that the computing world needs you. Up in the attic, you grab a handful of floppies and your trusty 2400 baud modem. "Fuck it," you mutter.

I still have it.

[arrenlex]

Somewhere in our basement there is still an old machine which dual-boots windows 3.1 and windows 95A.

It probably doesn't boot anymore, as it was having motherboard problems late in life, but a year or so ago I converted it to a virtual machine image under qemu. I can, within 5 minutes, boot a virtual machine into a legal copy of windows 3.1 that runs and contains useful applications that we don't have equivalents for.

It's amazing that all this software still exists and is used by people, even after 18 years. Old tech is not as dead as you might think.

Re:I still have it.

[Anonymous Coward]

we have lumber cut optimizer which is not available for new platforms. it optimizes the number of boards the lumber cutting saw can slice for a given varying shape of wooden log.

In other news...

[FlyByPC]

...Ford announces they are discontinuing production of Model-A parts. Wright Aircraft and Bicycle Company is also rumored to be considering scaling back licensing of its iconic Wright Flyer, citing loss of market share to "those new-fangled planes with landing gear and ailerons."

Re:Slashdot, where's the Obama story?

[Anonymous Coward]

And nerds everywhere rejoiced. Finally people on /. are getting laid.

Re:Slashdot, where's the Obama story?

[philspear]

Wait... what obama story? Did something happen?

Re:Foolish Linux idealogues

[cgenman]

Either spend a whole lot of time and money getting it ported over to an operating system that doesn't cost any money to license, or spend a whole lot of time and money getting it ported over to an operating system that doesn't scale with your existing hardware base, costs money, and can be end-of-lifed like the operating system it is replacing. In that view, Linux looks pretty good.

I think the part that you're missing is that windows 3.x is no longer aquirable for these applications, and as such new hardware will need to be re-engineered for a newer operating system. In this case, a free and unencumbered OS might be the right way to go... either Linux, BSD, or FreeDOS.

Re:Damn it!

[Clandestine_Blaze]

I suppose I could try putting Vista on my 33 MHz 486

Yep, just be sure that the turbo button is pressed on if you want to be able to move the mouse around.

Re:Darn

[kv9]

The bootup was significantly faster than my vista today (am downgrading to XP today;

you misspelled upgrading.

Re:Slashdot, where's the Obama story?

[iminplaya]

Yeah, they finally caught him.

Re:ATM machines

[phantomcircuit]

Ever notice that the part that is slower involves you looking at an advertisement?

Me thinks that is not a coincidence.

Re:Slashdot, where's the Obama story?

[johannesg]

Wait... what obama story? Did something happen?

Yeah, it was quite unexpected: after his highly successful second term, during which he finally managed to get rid of the national debt and negotiated some pretty decent peace terms with Australia, everybody thought he would take the position of ambassador to the Chino-Russian Mars colony. Instead he is opening a chocolate shop in Belgium, together with his wife.

Gee, were you in a coma the last 8 years?

Re:Slashdot, where's the Obama story?

[MikeDirnt69]

What if we tell everybody that Obama use *nix, McCain is a kernel hacker and Sara Palin is CowboyNeal real mom? W00T!