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retro

bluekatt

Well-known member
my retro challance if i do it is digging up my compaq 486 and fitting it out with a second hd ( 210 mb ) and either a cd rom or an internal zip disk

the geek factor for the zipdisk is bigger ..ahem

and then use either win 3.11 or windows 95 to get online with it and see how long it wil take before i go nuts

not very long i bet

anyway id be looking for an old virus scanner firewall and browser ...and msn and aim versions that wil run on that machine anybody have any idea ?

biggest challence wil be to get windows 95 to work with the cable modem

 

wgoodf

Well-known member
i honestly thiing you would laster without going nuts if you use win3.1.

win95 kills me every time i try it. god knows how i lasted the year or so before win98 came out.

also - would you need a virus scanner and firewall with a machine running win3.1 - so bonus there too.

i once bought a toshiba libretto laptop - you know the really mini laptops. super wee things. 486 with 640 x 400 screen ( i think) very cool bit of kit. only £50 - i had plans for a 'server' of some sort. i lasted a week as it had win95 on it. it caused me so much pain i just reboxed it and sold it on at a loss.

my head hurts just thinking about it. :'(

 

wgoodf

Well-known member
What's so bad about Windows 95 then?
that was what i thought when i started using it. as a stand alone - dont do anything to it and only use big bits of software its fine. it ran a version of photoshop of the era quite well.

but do anything else, then you enter the madening world of .dll hell.

its a million times worse than trying to figure out dependances in linux. most of the missing .dll files are usually there in the system32 folder, or should that be the system folder this time and where do you bloody in hell get them, and why did the microsoft site not have a list of them somewhere, and what are they and why are they not part of the software you are using and why oh why oh why!!!

as siad i spent a week with it, trying to get wifi working and an external cd drive working. all of which should have just worked. as thats was what the instructions said.

in the end i got neither working.

such a nice machine - but with no internal floppy or cd drive and the floppy connected through pcmcia it made booting and installing other os a bit of a nightmare. i really wanted to get open gem on there.

 

wgoodf

Well-known member
win3.1 on the other hand i always enjoy using and i think it quite fun. it sits there, you can switch it on and off and you dont need a mouse to use all its functions.

 

Quadraman

Well-known member
my retro challance if i do it is digging up my compaq 486 and fitting it out with a second hd ( 210 mb ) and either a cd rom or an internal zip disk the geek factor for the zipdisk is bigger ..ahem

and then use either win 3.11 or windows 95 to get online with it and see how long it wil take before i go nuts

not very long i bet

anyway id be looking for an old virus scanner firewall and browser ...and msn and aim versions that wil run on that machine anybody have any idea ?

biggest challence wil be to get windows 95 to work with the cable modem
I used to run my 486 machine off a Syquest EZ-Drive. No hard drive at all. I had several carts with Windows 3.11 installed on them so all of my carts were bootable. I would just swap carts if what I was looking for wasn't on the one in the drive.

 

wgoodf

Well-known member
[I used to run my 486 machine off a Syquest EZ-Drive. No hard drive at all. I had several carts with Windows 3.11 installed on them so all of my carts were bootable. I would just swap carts if what I was looking for wasn't on the one in the drive.
that sounds interesting - how big was each cartridge? could you use two at a time, or was it really just like using one bloody big floppy?

if the system was widely used i guess it could have been a bit like those full OS on a usb flash disk that are around in the linux world just now.

just gotta get a mandriva flash disk - no need for one mind you - but cool.

 

MultiFinder

Well-known member
By this, could I get extra points for taking the "Windows 95 DLL Challenge"? ;)
lol

How about an endurance challenge? If you can get a version of Windows 9x running for one week, you automatically get first prize :p

 

iMac600

Well-known member
I'll bet I can do it. ;)

Just not Windows ME. Last time I used that I was almost admitted to emergency for insanity and smashing through a PC case with my bare hands.

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
Maybe i could run Windows 98 (the first 98, not 98SE, even though that is bad enough as it is) on an Ipex [}:)] ]'>

Actually...no...if i did do that i'd need to get counselling afterwards :p

 

Quadraman

Well-known member
[I used to run my 486 machine off a Syquest EZ-Drive. No hard drive at all. I had several carts with Windows 3.11 installed on them so all of my carts were bootable. I would just swap carts if what I was looking for wasn't on the one in the drive.
that sounds interesting - how big was each cartridge? could you use two at a time, or was it really just like using one bloody big floppy?

if the system was widely used i guess it could have been a bit like those full OS on a usb flash disk that are around in the linux world just now.

just gotta get a mandriva flash disk - no need for one mind you - but cool.
I think the carts were smaller than a Zip. About the same width but not as long. If you had more than one drive, I'm sure you could have more than one cart installed, but I only ever had one.

 

wgoodf

Well-known member
go go go!

i still have not managed to find the money at the same time as i find a risc laptop.

they dont come up often.

go on then. i want to know more!

 
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