Microsoft Discontinues Windows 3.x 384
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."
China Airlines uses Linux on their in-flight (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Deep in the bowels of MSland.... (Score:1, Interesting)
"We had a good run team." One of them says as they walk off into the sunset.
Re:Incredible (Score:1, Interesting)
I've seen Win 3.0 code still in use in a major chain restaurant's back office systems as recently as 4 years ago. The systems worked fine with actual Win 3.0 and OS/2. The applications ran as-is on Win 2000 without many changes.
Tried, tested systems are usually more stable than new systems with lots of new code.
Go figure!
ATM machines (Score:5, Interesting)
OS/2 1.3 lived on for many years in ATM machines. Unlike Windows 3.1x, it was considered the most rock solid 16 bit OS out there. What did a majority of the machines get replaced with?... oh Windows.
And as I've said in earlier stories, that's a bummer.
Here in California we still have two types of Bank of America ATM machines. The older models, with the amber monochrome screens, I am told still run OS/2. The newer ones, with the color LCD screens, run Windows, and they are MUCH slower than the old ones and their interface is much less streamlined and intuitive.
Now I ask you: It's an ATM machine. What was gained by the transition? The new ones allow you to do some fancy things -- such as setting preferences, so you can hit a "Quick Cash" button and get a predetermined amount with one keypress -- but most folks are just trying to get money out of the things and never spend the time to configure their own preferences. Really the only benefit of the new machines was the ability to show color ads during the transaction, but otherwise the OS/2 software was perfectly capable of handling the required operation (and even more so).
Sometimes I wish more applications developers had experience with the embedded systems world. Know what I mean?
Re:China Airlines uses Linux on their in-flight (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:ATM machines (Score:5, Interesting)
They also use the windows default sounds... Incorrectly! The ATM's use the "Error Beep" to confirm proper operation. After years of conditioning, it drives me nuts.
At least do a little legwork [pdsounds.org].
Re:China Airlines uses Linux on their in-flight (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I still have it. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:I still have it. (Score:1, Interesting)
On a funny level, I'm curious what you think is a useful application on windows 3.1 that we magically somehow don't have an equivalent of. What do you have in mind?
My university lab has a 15-year old piece of scientific equipment that still works perfectly. It cost about $200,000 new. It is controlled by a pc running windows 3.1. Not windows 3.11, and not windows for workgroups, they won't work.
Now, you could replace it all with new equipment (over $100k), or spend a lot of time fooling around with circuit cards, analog-to-digital converters, oscilloscopes, and write some complex software to control it all from a modern pc, or just run windows 3.1.
And they have quite a few old computers with PCI slots (hard to find these days) stockpiled in case of failure.
Re:Darn (Score:2, Interesting)
Man i pine for the old days.
I had a 486DX2 running at 66MHz with 8MB RAM and windows 3.11 WFW. It used up 24 3.5 floppies.
I even cracked a shareware which provided simulated taskbar for Win 3.11 (this was just after Win 95 release). The code was COOKIEFEAST.
I also tried to run the JDK 1.0.2 on it by adding 32-bit extensions to the Win 3.11 but it never ran.
The bootup was significantly faster than my vista today (am downgrading to XP today; call up Dell and tell them to shove their Vista DVD up their a**** and send me an XP CD).
Hmm, coincidence? (Score:3, Interesting)
The place I just started working at decomissioned their old point-of-sale software only a couple months ago. They still have to use it for reporting and I was asked to troubleshoot their printer the other day, so I had them start up the software and print something, and there was the unmistakable look-and-feel of a Win3.1 app. <shudder> Well now I know why they had to decommision it! (It was running under Win95 though.)
Re:I still have it. (Score:5, Interesting)
On a funny level, I'm curious what you think is a useful application on windows 3.1 that we magically somehow don't have an equivalent of. What do you have in mind?
One word (well, two words really, but only one when smashed together like marketing people like to do): SkiFree [ihoc.net].
Sure you can get a 32-bit version that runs under XP and even Vista, but come on! That's nothing like playing it the way it was meant to be played - 16 bits, 100% CPU usage, and Windows 3.1. Everything else is just a poor copy.
win 3x on Stress test machine in wafer fab (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:ATM machines (Score:4, Interesting)
If they are like the color BofA ATMs I've seen in Northern California, they play full motion video ads, which are maybe not what customers want, but presumably very significant to banks.
In modern machines... (Score:3, Interesting)
...Windows 3.1 installs so fast, that I can hardly see anything other than the reboot option, after installation.
And the GUI is so fast, and so snappy, sometimes I have to do things twice just to check if the action has been done.
Of course, the GUI system in Windows 3.1 was only one layer (Win32 drawing directly to the frame buffer), while todays systems are 7 or 10 layers before a pixel is actually drawn on the screen.
Re:How dare they! (Score:4, Interesting)
Surprised to learn that Win3.1 is still in use?
I've got an old Compaq Portable II, which has Windows 3.0 installed on it. It's got an 8MHz 286 CPU, and a whopping 1.5M of RAM.
Now, surprisingly enough, it doesn't feel slow. Complex windows take a noticeable amount of time to draw, but it does have unaccelerated graphics (I don't mean 3D, I mean even graphics primitives in hardware - it's just an EGA card, which is a plain vanilla framebuffer). I can only imagine how responsive it would be on a more modern CPU...
Re:Incredible (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:China Airlines uses Linux on their in-flight (Score:5, Interesting)
Probably because it's powered from the cabin bus, which is the dirtiest and least reliable power supply on the aircraft. It will also glitch by design when switched between external and internal power.
Re:I still have it. (Score:5, Interesting)
PCI slots? Don't you mean ISA?
On the other hand, you spent $200,000 on a piece of proprietary equipment that depends on a single piece of proprietary software? Being forced to keep win3.1 (you'l never be able to get a new copy legitimately) and a stockpile of antiquated hardware to run it on is the price you pay... Perhaps you should press for open specs and open code next time you buy a $200,000 piece of hardware, if your spending that much the company should bend over backwards to provide what you need...
Or was it just a lack of forward thinking? Never thought about long term support for the equipment you bought?
Why discontinue a software product? (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems to me that it's somewhat silly to actually "discontinue" a software product. After all, it's software. It's not a physical product. It's something you can download, and it seems somewhat nutty to not accept coin for it if asked.
There are exceptions when you don't want a prior product like XP to compete with a current product, say vista, but win3.1 is some of those cases where there is really no threat of it competing with a current generation product.
I'm not saying that microsoft shouldn't abandon support for win3.1. Far from it, only it seems to make little sense since win3.1 was used on a number of systems, and if you lose your drive and for some reason simply have to have that legacy system operational, there is some wisdom is keeping the product available for purchase. Otherwise you run into some questionable situations where you "need" win3.1 but can't buy it.
IBM for example at one point offered PC DOS 5.0 as a free download. It was a commercial product but by 1998-1999 it had NO commercial value. According to wiki you can get PC-DOS 2000 (Chinese Edition) for free. They seem to understand the value of this being a vital port of legacy systems, and make it available. Microsoft offers a ton of files from their dos distribution available.
That's my only bitch, if you need it, the only solution is hunting around for it, or pirating it.
ftp://ftp.boulder.ibm.com/software/dos/ [ibm.com]
Re:How dare they! (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, they're perfectly fine when single-tasking, and being used as a GUI framework for a kiosk app. And, because they take so little resources...
Re:How dare they! (Score:3, Interesting)
"The system is either busy or has become unstable" is a Win9x error, no?
Windows 3.1's error of choice was the General Protection Fault... but it was better than the Unrecoverable Application Error of Windows 3.0...
But, the bigger problem in Win3.x is running out of "resources," especially in Windows 3.0... while newer versions of Windows were still susceptible (I've actually successfully run a Win2k machine out of resources - it took a very, very buggy beta version of Opera that had serious resource leaks, and 16384 GDI handles to be used up (contrary to popular belief, there AREN'T unlimited GDI handles left over, as opposed to 200 for 3.x, but I did it,) 3.x's multitasking capability was hindered not by the poor cooperative multitasking model, but by the limited resources.
Re:Me too! (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, pixilated. Nothing like wimmin' hopped up on flavored sugar and booze. Damn, but I love Halloween!