Old Operating Systems Never Die 875
Harry writes "Haiku, an open-source re-creation of legendary 1990s operating system BeOS, was released in alpha form this week. The news made me happy and led me to check in on the status of other once-prominent OSes — CP/M, OS/2, AmigaOS, and more. Remarkably, none of them are truly defunct: In one form or another, they or their descendants are still available, being used by real people to accomplish useful tasks. Has there ever been a major OS that simply went away, period?"
MacOS 9 (Score:5, Funny)
Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:5, Funny)
Was it THAT good, or is it doubly obsolete? ;)
Re:Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:5, Funny)
OS/2 is clearly half an OS. So OS/2 + OS/2 = OS.
Re:Yes, there is (Score:4, Funny)
Noone is using WIndows to do some real job.
Who's Noone, and what's he/she using Windows for? Sounds fairly self-defeating, really; I mean, no one important is using it anymore, so Noone might need a new set of talents soon...
What about the Abacus? (Score:4, Funny)
The operating systems behind many abacuses have since passed away. May they rest in peace.
Re:Yes, there is (Score:4, Funny)
s/this afternoon//
Re:ME (Score:1, Funny)
You are wrong.
I send old copies of Windows ME to my sworn enemies.
Re:ME (Score:4, Funny)
I'm using ME for a useful task - I have it on a PC in the garage that I'm using to prop up a pile of lumber.
Re:Yes there is... (Score:1, Funny)
Widnows Vista was stilborn.
Re:ME (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yes, there is (Score:4, Funny)
It's Peter Noone, of Herman's Hermits. Like his performing career, it's still chugging along.
I'm not even angry... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Mandatory (Score:2, Funny)
They are re-releasing that as Windows 7... oh wait, no somebody said it has cool new features like... ummm new themes, a fade-in effect on the start button and the biggest revision to the task bar since win95... its 10 pixels taller.
Re:MacOS 9 (Score:5, Funny)
Did you receive the fax about the IE6 users?
Re:Atari (Score:5, Funny)
Are you kidding? TOS is still used through-out the computing industry. In fact its normally pretty big news when people make TOS modifications as they are behind some of the biggest pieces of software out there in the world.
What people don't know is that the team behind TOS shifted its emphasis towards specialising in very hard to understand and complicated programmes that were designed to confuse those who read them, like Perl but with longer words. This new coding approach was then adopted by Lawyers everywhere which is why everyone now clearly states they have a "TOS" for their website/software/whatever.
Over beer in 1993 an Atari developer was asked by someone what TOS stood for and jokingly said "Terms of Service". This name stuck, particularly with the lawyers and hence TOS now dominates as the underlying operating system for legal documents.
What most people don't realise is that you can run "Chess Master 2000" on the Supreme Court.
Re:Multics (Score:5, Funny)
I've been officially dead before, twice actually. So that's no guarantee it's not around.
Re:Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:3, Funny)
See, that's why IBM lost and Microsoft won. IBM was stupid enough to divide their OS in two while Microsoft started with a multiple of 95. The problem is, though, that Microsoft lost their train of thought and are back at OS * 7, but still.
Re:Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:5, Funny)
At 1920 screen resolution...
Weren't screens made up of a 10x10 array of clay tablets back then?
Re:Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:5, Funny)
Windows in any form has always been a PIG on any machine that didn't have enough memory to run a proper Unix.
This includes Windows 95.
Windows wins no awards in the "slim OS" category. At best, it might have a slight edge (molasses in january vs. amber).
Re:ME (Score:5, Funny)
It's not all bad, though. When he asked me to install AOL on his computer (under protest, mind you) and get him set up, I set up AOL to use pulse-dialing (think old-school rotary phone) when making its calls. It turns out that, once set, you can't unset that, so, every time he tries to get on to the Internet at home, he has to sit there and wait... "TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK... TICK-TICK-TICK... TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK..." and so on for about 45 seconds or so. I told him it was my way of getting even.
Re:I'm not even angry... (Score:4, Funny)
Nope. Still Alive.
Re:Gentoo?? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:They don't die (Score:3, Funny)
You can't fade away properly when you only have 16 colors, you insensitive clod!
Re:ME (Score:5, Funny)
If only the same could be said of the users of said medical computers...
Re:MacOS 9 (Score:2, Funny)
I need OS 9 to play Mille Bornes. A Mac without Mille Bornes is like Windows without Solitaire.
Re:Bob (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft had one that never made it.
I'm pretty sure Bob was reincarnated as Clippy.
Re:Win 3.1 (Score:1, Funny)
"modern" and "WinXP" don't belong in the same sentence.
Re:What about Pick? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes (Score:3, Funny)
Re:ME (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ME (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think anyone willingly uses Windows ME for any useful task anymore.
Were they ever able to? ;)
I had a firewall machine with windows ME that had an uptime of over 3 months at one point. I then took it down for fear that breaking the laws of probability like that would cause the universe to fold in on itself.
Re:ME (Score:2, Funny)
Why are you befriending elderly men?
Re:Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:4, Funny)
once installed, didn't really run though.
NOS (Score:3, Funny)
My freshman year at CSU the CS department retired their Cyber Mainframe running NOS. We joked that it stood for "No OS".
You can find an emulator for the Cyber - even so it doesn't come with the OS (in this case it is truely "No OS"):
http://members.iinet.net.au/~tom-hunter/ [iinet.net.au]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_Cyber [wikipedia.org]
-CF
Re:Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:3, Funny)
OS/2 + OS/2 = OS
Let x = OS.
OS/2 + OS/2 = x
Multiply each side by 2*(OS/2), then subtract x^2.
4*(OS/2)^2 - x^2 = 2x*(OS/2) - x^2
Factor.
(2*OS/2 - x)*(2*OS/2 + x) = x*(2*OS/2 - x)
Divide each side by (2*OS/2 - x).
2*OS/2 + x = x
Subtracting out x, and dividing by 2, we find that
OS/2 = zero
And so we see why it failed.
Re:ME (Score:4, Funny)
Re:And what about Plan 9? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Why is OS/2 mentioned twice in the article? (Score:4, Funny)
Hedley Lamarr: Qualifications?
Applicant: Rape, murder, arson, and rape.
Hedley Lamarr: You said rape twice.
Applicant: I like rape.
Re:What about the Abacus? (Score:2, Funny)
using a time machine? (Score:3, Funny)
So Apple invented a time machine, sent engineers forward in time to copy the Amiga, then went back in time to create the Mac before the Amiga even existed? Wow, that's actually more impressive.
4 8 15 16 23 42 (Score:3, Funny)