Thinking of Buying Windows

RodimusProblem · 03-01-2005, 06:10 PM

I'm thinking of buying a copy of Windows. Windows 3.1. Not Win95, not Win98, Win3.1

I happened to notice it's cheap on eBay.

I miss 3.1, and still have hundreds of 3.1 programs.

Is there anything I should watch out for on eBay (disk labels etc) ?

Will Lilo boot it ? (It does WinXP fine).

marsques · 03-01-2005, 06:13 PM

haha...

scuzzman · 03-01-2005, 06:24 PM

There shouldn't be a problem with LILO booting it, but keep in mind you'll need DOS 6.22 installed as well.

amosf · 03-01-2005, 06:35 PM

Getting working floppies would be the biggest problem.

lilo will boot the various DOS versions. Even 95 is a DOS boot really.

Not sure how 3.1 will go on modern hardware tho. Might be better in a VM of some sort...

RodimusProblem · 03-01-2005, 06:35 PM

Quote:

keep in mind you'll need DOS 6.22 installed as well.

So I'd need to buy both DOS 6.22 and Win3.1 ?

DOS 6.22 is over my spending limit ($20), maybe in a few months I'll get both.

I was kinda sure there was something missing.

amosf · 03-01-2005, 06:49 PM

There are versions of dos available that should work with 3.1... Maybe freedos or a drdos. I used to use drdos waaay back. You can download some free dos versions on the net...

scuzzman · 03-01-2005, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by amosf
There are versions of dos available that should work with 3.1... Maybe freedos or a drdos. I used to use drdos waaay back. You can download some free dos versions on the net...

I didn't know if these would work with Win3.1.

amosf · 03-01-2005, 10:03 PM

I haven't tried lately, tho I used to run 3.1 on dr-dos... It wouldn't hurt to buy 3.1 then download a dos to try it out. If it didn't work then you buy a dos later... But as I remember it was 95 that broke the DOS compatibility...

AlexV · 03-01-2005, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by scuzzman
I didn't know if these would work with Win3.1.

FreeDOS and Windows 3.1?

Google is your friend...

J.W. · 03-02-2005, 12:29 AM

Dude, it's your money, spend it however you like -- J.W.

RodimusProblem · 03-02-2005, 09:53 AM

FreeDOS looks interesting in and of itself.

DrDos appears to have a $25 license fee unless I mis-read something on the site.

It's always fun to tinker with software -- unless you buy product X and discover after the fact that you need product Y to run it.

Megamieuwsel · 03-02-2005, 11:40 AM

The DRDos license-fee is for the 8.0 version.
The earlier versions , up untill & including 7.03 are free as in beer.
I found DRDOS 7.03 way easier to handle than FreeDos , btw.

RodimusProblem · 03-02-2005, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Megamieuwsel
The DRDos license-fee is for the 8.0 version.
The earlier versions , up untill & including 7.03 are free as in beer.
I found DRDOS 7.03 way easier to handle than FreeDos , btw.

And where did you see that?

7.03 has a license fee, and no other version besides it and 8.0 seems to be offered.

http://www.drdos.com

Mega Man X · 03-02-2005, 04:50 PM

I still use Win 3.1 in a really old machine. It's a 386 Compaq Laptop with 8 MB RAM. I can run Dos, Win 3.1 and Grey Cat Linux with IceWM in that machine. It really was cool with Win 3.1... I'd love to have a WM in Linux with the same functionality

amosf · 03-02-2005, 05:33 PM

It's hard to get linux on a 386 with a good gui these days...