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Windows 1.0: the Power of DOS, Plus Tiled Windows
jbrodkin writes "I'd always wanted my own working copy of the elusive Windows 1.0, and after a few failed attempts I got one working in a virtual machine (I had to downgrade from the latest version of Windows Virtual PC to an earlier version to get it started, but that's another story). With 416K free memory, we were able to cruise through Reversi, take a look at the first version of Notepad, as well as the now-defunct Microsoft Write, and create a 'masterpiece' in Microsoft Paint. Eventually, applications started crashing, but a simple reboot got it working again. All in all, a nice tour through computing history. Anyone have a copy of the first Macintosh OS they want to send me?"
What's the deal with Slashdot still using that Bill Gates Borg icon to represent Microsoft? That icon is so dated on both levels these days. Bill Gates hasn't worked at Microsoft in years, and the Borg reference just is no longer current or relevant. Anyone under 25 would hardly get the references.
You guys just had a redesign, and you still can't deign to use the real Microsoft icon? For gods sake you have the real ones for Facebook and Twitter, it's not like its that hard. If anything, it makes slashdot just look so horribly unfunny and irrelevant.
This is an on-topic meta comment.
...after a few failed attempts I got one working.... Eventually, applications started crashing, but a simple reboot got it working again.
Sounds like you have it working as designed. Bravo.
More music, fewer hits
Eventually, applications started crashing, but a simple reboot got it working again
Yep, that's Windows all right.
Proverbs 21:19
probably emulation of modern CPU too different from old XT/AT.
They did away with some of the oldest "features".
BTW, Dosbox would likely be better suited.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
BTW didn't the other guy upgraded from windows 1.0 to 7 making this even less relevant?
Sig? Heil
If you liked that experience, you should check out the windows really good version
http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/
The point is that it's now passed beyond satire into meta-satire; the satire is mostly on the fact that so many Slashdot commenters bemoan their portrayal as you do. The very reason it's still being used is probably because of that. Honestly, I see more comments complaining about how Slashdotters are always biased against MS than I see comments which are genuinely biased against them.
I could go for a Ballmer Zombie instead.
Now THAT is a good idea. Actually does anybody beside me think that Ballmer looks like the monster from Young Frankenstein?
It's amazing. The error dialogs and calculator have lasted on, virtually unchanged.
I8-D
It's nostalgia for those of us that actually used it.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
I wonder where someone could find and run QDOS (DOS 1.0 that Gates bought and sold to IBM). "The "Microsoft Disk Operating System" or MS-DOS was based on QDOS, the "Quick and Dirty Operating System" written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, for their prototype Intel 8086 based computer.
QDOS was based on Gary Kildall's CP/M, Paterson had bought a CP/M manual and used it as the basis to write his operating system in six weeks, QDOS was different enough from CP/M to be considered legal.
Microsoft bought the rights to QDOS for $50,000, keeping the IBM deal a secret from Seattle Computer Products." - About.com
I8-D
http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/12/19/ballmer_fester_bulb.jpg
About 15 years ago I tried installing Windows 1.0 on a then-current computer (probably a 386 or 486) and couldn't get it to work. My guess at the time was that the VGA chipset of the machine was doing a poor job of emulating the EGA graphics modes that Windows 1.0 was trying to use for (but even already in those days no one actually cared enough to test), but it could have been any of a hundred devitations from the then-current "IBM PC/XT compatible" standard that Microsoft assumed it would be running on.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
They're keeping it solely to piss people like you off. It seems to be working.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I'm not sure that I've ever seen a copy of Windows 1.0, and I was REALLY in to old versions of windows at a point. 1.01, yes. 1.02, yes. 1.03, yes. 1.04, definitely (had that running native on a P4 though I forget how easy or difficult that was...) - but not the original 1.0. Apparently there was some sort of major bug with 1.0, or memory leak, or something. If anybody actually finds a copy somewhere though... that would be amazing. I've seen things claiming to be 1.0 that are just resource hacks of 1.01 or 1.04, (usually 1.04) so I know you can "find it on the google" but I have yet to see a confirmed 1.0 disk image anywhere on the net....
The original Write might have gone away...but there is still a proxy in its place.
If you look in Windows 7's \system32 directory, you will find good ol' write.exe. I believe the icon is the same one it had in the Win 95 days. If you look at the property dialog for the file, and click over to the Details tab, you'll see that the "File description" is "Windows Write". Even in Windows 7, one can invoke "write hello.txt" from the command line.
However, the executable is tiny, and it appears to simply invoke WordPad. The executable that shows up in Task Manager is "wordpad.exe".
The 5.25" floppies probably are. I have a number of vintage computers. In my experience you can pretty much count on properly stored 5.25" floppies to work. 3.5" floppies are almost entirely unreadable on the other hand.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Because a sweaty Ballmer throwing chairs will not fit in a icon.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I played the Picard song on youtube to my 21 year old roommate. He asked 'what is pick-urd?'...
Too late. That just means that the Bill Gates Borg icon is becoming part of Slashdot lore. Newbies may not understand immediately, but they will if they stick around long enough. Besides, if we didn't allow for this sort of thing, how could we ever expect to develop our own culture? If instead Slashdot just followed whatever was trendy, then I think our days would be numbered. Of course, this may also mean that we will eventually die out, our sizable membership finally dwindling to a small number of old kooks, but even then I'd rather be a member of this club than of one of the trendier ones that come and go.
The sad thing is that this Borg Gates icon was actually updated in the past few years. They went through the effort to redraw the icon even after its outdated. If they want to recycle a bad joke, do a Steve Jobs on for Apple. At least that would be relevant and actually make sense.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
No, but it doesn't make it more valid either.
What it does do is alienate your intended audience and make them think you're like chlorine in /.'s gene pool.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
I'd love to see Gates demonstrating Ballmer's ability to perform "Puttin' on the Ritz" to a skeptical theatre audience.
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons