Saturday, July 12th 2008

Microsoft Windows 3.11 to Finally Disappear Forever

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!
Source: Ubergizmo
Add your own comment

31 Comments on Microsoft Windows 3.11 to Finally Disappear Forever

#1
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
Posted on Reply
#2
Paintface
candle_86Lol 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 :)
Posted on Reply
#3
evil bill
I remember upgrading my 486 DX2-66 from 4MB to 8MB - £100 that cost me :eek:. When I upgraded from 3.11 to Win 95 it came on something like 14 floppy disks :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#4
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
i ran 95 on 32MB of ram, hah i win, evil cash register!
Posted on Reply
#5
Gam'ster
Lol, who can see train delays coming because of upgrades ?
Posted on Reply
#6
BrankoJ
So which OS will replace Win3.11? Windows 95? Millenium? WinNT 4.0?
Posted on Reply
#7
Unregistered
Maybe the cash registers go for Vista :)
So You Never Get Your Money Again! :D:D:D
#8
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
win 2K would be the next one up, i'd bet. its old, needs minimal resources and is stable nowadays.
Posted on Reply
#9
Unregistered
I have a windows 1 on two floppy discs,reckon it will run crysis :laugh:
#10
panchoman
Sold my stars!
Musselswin 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 :shadedshu:
*i ends up in jail... without my moneh :(*
Posted on Reply
#11
Unregistered
My mate got a blue screen on a automated checkout thingie in tesco's.It looked like it was running win95/8. lmao
#12
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
Posted on Reply
#13
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
kenkickrWhat 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.
Posted on Reply
#14
Steevo
With minimal hardware requirements, and a simple clean stack it runs fine, plus who writes viri and vermen for it anymore?
Posted on Reply
#15
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.
Posted on Reply
#16
IcrushitI
evil billI remember upgrading my 486 DX2-66 from 4MB to 8MB - £100 that cost me :eek:. When I upgraded from 3.11 to Win 95 it came on something like 14 floppy disks :laugh:
13 disks to be precise. I still have them and every disk and copies there of, all my programs from Dos 6.
Posted on Reply
#17
flashstar
I have a Windows 3.11 builders box with ps2 mouse and floppy disks. :rockout:
Posted on Reply
#18
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 :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#19
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!:rockout:
Posted on Reply
#20
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 :mad:
Posted on Reply
#21
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
imperialreignDOS 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 :mad:
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.
Posted on Reply
#22
imperialreign
Musselsi 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 :cry:
Posted on Reply
#23
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.
Posted on Reply
#24
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
Posted on Reply
#25
yogurt_21
dang, that had to be the fastest loading os I've ever had. well I guess an thlong 64 on windows 98 is close.
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
Dec 23rd, 2024 12:56 EST change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts