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Windows 95 Turns 20
Etherwalk writes: Windows 95 turns 20 tomorrow, August 24, 2015. Users looking to upgrade from Windows 3.1 should be warned that some reviewers on the Amazon purchase page have been receiving 3.5" high-density floppy disk versions instead of a modern 150 kbps CD-ROM disk. Do you remember first seeing or installing Windows 95? Do you have any systems still running it?
Yes I (AC) remember it - it was a fantastic upgrade from W 3.11 for Workgroups:
- the new UI/desktop made it much nicer than 3.11, the file manager was much better
- the Recycle Bin made it much simpler to 'recover' accidentally deleted files, no more FAT16/32 undelete tools (anyone else remember Revive or was it Revival?) for most mistakes
- the Plug'n'Play feature did work ok for well known extension cards, everyone I know found it way cool not to fiddle with deep technical settings just to get a sound blaster to work
At the time it looked amazing and although slower (on my old 486DX2@50MHz) it showed a new way to use the computer - the future to the 2000s looked bright.
Although at the last Win 9x in the series - Windows ME - I switched to Linux full time (mostly for stability), I remember W95 fondly.
I think the briefcase you are referring to was used to sync documents between computers/locations. Though I didn't use it I think the idea was you could put things into the breifcase, sync documents and then restore them at another location.
In the late 1990s, I volunteered at a education centre where I was tasked with restoring old computers, basically going through donated machines, ripping out the still-good pieces, cobbling together a few working PCs from the parts and installing Windows 95 on the final product. Spent a lot of time moving hard drives, RAM sticks and processors around to find working combinations. I think that was one of the only times I encountered Windows 95 in person.
To be fair, Command & Conquer had a pretty awesome installer.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Obligatory throwback
Virtually nobody had 32mb of RAM back then. 8mb was pretty typical for new, nice computers. You couldn't have twenty browser windows open, that's for sure, but people managed OK with lots of swapping and patience.
We had DOS/Windows 3.x PCs before getting the Windows 95 PC, and so we kept to the old use and booted under DOS by pressing the F8 key. See, a for us a PC was a gaming machine during the whole of the 90s, just like home computers in the 80s. We didn't have a modem or a printer. In 1998 Windows finally replaced DOS for games so we booted to the Windows desktop. We used to have only one Windows 3.1 game besides Solitaire, Minesweeper and Paintbrush, and that was Myst.
Perhaps a very few shareware/freeware/demos on Windows 3.1. In early Windows 95 era, some games were DOS-only then some had both a DOS and Windows executable.
One really great game that needed Windows 95 was Jedi Knight. Huge 3D maps, CD Audio music and FMV scenes. Good old times, before Internet, MP3 and OS that needs 1GB RAM and more than 10GB hard disk space to run.
In 1995 memory was about 90-150 PER megabyte depending on where/when you got it. I know I bought it. 16MB was high end machines that cost 2500+. Dont think so? Go dig up a computer shopper from 1995. You will see what we are talking about.
In 1997 the memory cartel was getting broken up so yeah you could snag 16 meg and not blink. Think I bumped up to 64. It was ~100 bucks.thru a local mom and pop shop.
> Gotta tell you - you sound like a real classy professional.
That seems confusing. Please, re-read what I said. I said that making multiple concealed copies of licensed software hidden by virtualization to violate their licensing would be illegal. Where, exactly did I say "but we do it anyway"? I don't, myself do it, and I would have a long professional talk with any of my colleagues I caught doing it.