Microsoft Windows 3.11 to Finally Disappear Forever

[malware]

Now we all know that Windows 3.11 is long gone, but after that you read this strange title again and start wondering? Yes, although you know that retail distribution of Windows 3.11 has been out for very long, it had been around for a good 15 years selling through the so called Embedded Channel. Windows for Workgroups (WFW) 3.11 is still used in a countless number of low-horsepower platforms such as cash registers and train schedule displays. That's until today, when Microsoft is officially ending all sales of Windows 3.11 for good. Microsoft's John Coyne announced:

for those that were not aware, we recently announced that effective November 1st, 2008, OEM's will no longer be able to license Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in the embedded channel. Now we all know that it's been long gone in the standard (retail/OEM) channel, but one of the unique things in the embedded business is that we allow the classic OS products to be sold longer than the other channels. it's *finally the end of an era!

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[candle_86]

Lol does this mean they are gonna upgrade the cash registars at work lol

We run Windows 3.11 on a 486DX4 computer lol with wait for it, wait for it, 8mb of ram

 

[Paintface]

Lol does this mean they are gonna upgrade the cash registars at work lol

We run Windows 3.11 on a 486DX4 computer lol with wait for it, wait for it, 8mb of ram

i ran windows 3.1 with 16mb of ram back then, it couldnt handle more

 

[evil bill]

I remember upgrading my 486 DX2-66 from 4MB to 8MB - £100 that cost me . When I upgraded from 3.11 to Win 95 it came on something like 14 floppy disks

 

[Mussels]

i ran 95 on 32MB of ram, hah i win, evil cash register!

 

[Gam'ster]

Lol, who can see train delays coming because of upgrades ?

 

[BrankoJ]

So which OS will replace Win3.11? Windows 95? Millenium? WinNT 4.0?

 

[moto666]

Maybe the cash registers go for Vista
So You Never Get Your Money Again!

 

[Mussels]

win 2K would be the next one up, i'd bet. its old, needs minimal resources and is stable nowadays.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I have a windows 1 on two floppy discs,reckon it will run crysis

 

[panchoman]

win 2K would be the next one up, i'd bet. its old, needs minimal resources and is stable nowadays.

you're most likely right, and that was my guess as well. win 2k is the best NT dist. for the job, as it does not waste time with fancy graphics, contains, minimal bloatware, and is extremely stable (probably more stable then xp and vista).

i think the main reason behind this is because ms is in trouble, due to limited vista sales, and their profits are falling low, and they need to push for more upgrades, and now they are targeting a new niche to push.

oh god i hope that i will not see more blue screens on train schedules, cash registers, and atms..
--------
[me] lalalala time to withdraw some money from the bank.. running low on some rubber and need to buy more
*goes to atm*
[me] yes now, lets see, lets withdraw $500 bucks from this here debit card, that should be enough for now
[atm] please take take the money from the bot---
*BSOD*
[me] NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! FUCKING GIVE ME MY MONEY
*puts foot brutally through the atm screen*
[cops] Oh yay.... another mexican idiot that doesn't know how to work an atm
*i ends up in jail... without my moneh *

 

[Deleted member 24505]

My mate got a blue screen on a automated checkout thingie in tesco's.It looked like it was running win95/8. lmao

 

[kenkickr]

What about OS/2 Warp? LOL The last thing I did on 3.11 was run a Gameboy emulator for Pokemon...for my daughter, yeah, for my daughter. :shadedshu

 

[Mussels]

What about OS/2 Warp? LOL The last thing I did on 3.11 was run a Gameboy emulator for Pokemon...for my daughter, yeah, for my daughter. :shadedshu

why would you run a gameboy emulator for an FBI agent? (see the sig above your post)





To be honest, this really was a surprise that 3.11 was even in use. shoulda been nerfed a long time ago.

 

[Steevo]

With minimal hardware requirements, and a simple clean stack it runs fine, plus who writes viri and vermen for it anymore?

 

[lemonadesoda]

I remember UPGRADING to WFW3.11, and being impressed with how much better it was than any Windows before. It was with WFW3.11 that we moved over to Excel and to Lotus Notes. Wow. Those were the days... and two super productivity tools right there.

Looking at the WFW screenshot is auite funny. Doesnt it look terrible! LOL.

BUT with the announcement of the abandonment of WFW, what does that mean for it w.r.t copyright? Does it officially become abandoned? Is it in a grey zone... since MS official says it will not longer attempt to extract any commericial activity from the product.

... but more importantly, what is the replacement for WFW and those low powered simple embedded devices? I'm still waiting for that elusive micro-NT kernel. Where is it? We want it for embedded devices.

 

[IcrushitI]

I remember upgrading my 486 DX2-66 from 4MB to 8MB - £100 that cost me . When I upgraded from 3.11 to Win 95 it came on something like 14 floppy disks

13 disks to be precise. I still have them and every disk and copies there of, all my programs from Dos 6.

 

[flashstar]

I have a Windows 3.11 builders box with ps2 mouse and floppy disks.

 

[imperialreign]

it's a shame to see the most stable WIN platform finally being shut out . . . somewhere around here I still have the original install disks for 3.1 . . .


I guess everyone running WFW will have to revert back to DOS 6.22 if they're concerned about stability

 

[thoughtdisorder]

Man I loved WFW 3.11! I remember kicking and screaming (practically) when making the change to Win95. It was almost like you could feel MS taking some of the control from the people who really new how to work in DOS, etc. So long ole friend!

 

[imperialreign]

DOS was 1337 if you knew what you were doing . . .

I've still got a few MS-DOS operation manuals around here that list all the DOS commands, their flags and what they do . . .


man, I was ticked when I found out with XP there was no longer a DOS mode . . . only a command prompt

 

[Mussels]

DOS was 1337 if you knew what you were doing . . .

I've still got a few MS-DOS operation manuals around here that list all the DOS commands, their flags and what they do . . .


man, I was ticked when I found out with XP there was no longer a DOS mode . . . only a command prompt

i was using DOS today for a bios flash of my viddie card. DOS is still alive and kicking, on a bootable CD near you.

 

[imperialreign]

i was using DOS today for a bios flash of my viddie card. DOS is still alive and kicking, on a bootable CD near you.

yeah . . . but . . . it just feels so limited

 

[Baum]

I've got win 3.0 on 11 floppy's as OEM and the retail of 3.11 on 18 floppys in ger/eng lang don't know why i keept them for such a long time.

and for this new: MS you stupid as hell, linux will replace the embedded 3.11 version as 98se and xp embedded just crash.
we change xp embedded every day to bloated xp home standart as it runs stable.

 

[candle_86]

well at Jack in the Box where i used to work, everything ran on a PII 333mhz system with NT 4 lol, i found that out oneday when i got an error on the registar, something about an error in ntkrnel