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Mikerochip · 21 July 2019, 20:41

I bought a Samsung 486SX25 Laptop with mono screen, 6MB ram, and 80MB HDD!

It came with Windows 3.11, and McAfee anti-virus, which I quickly removed.
It was the first time I'd seen commerical AV software, and I wasn't a fan.

I bought it to program Borland Turbo Pascal that I was using in College, and later on I bought Windows 95, on floppy disk!

It said 8MB ram was the minimum but I installed it anyway... and lo and behold, it worked!!

Windows 95 came on 22 floppy disks! And took almost 90 mins to install, from what I remember.

I think it took up something like 50-60mb of my 80mb drive, which only had 10 or so mb free after it was installed. So, I used TASM and TP which were quite small thankfully.

I always thought the 3.11 interface had a lot of neat ideas, but some of them were slightly backwards.

I played a lot of Solitare and Minesweeper, as well as some dos games on it. And eventually got a 12" Amstrad PC monitor. It was glorious to see the 3.11 backgrounds in colour finally!!

It annoyed me though, that some games needed specific versions of specific programs to run though, and often messed up the whole install.

I'm looking at you, Quicktime for windows!
Uninstalling older versions, or installing newer versions on top of itself, often left 3.11 unusable. I know it's not microsofts fault, but still. It was an annoyance.

Especially since I had DOS 6.2 to install, then Win 3.11, then DOS 6.22 (to get the upgraded windows handful of program. Can't remember what they are just now)

I remember backing up my WIN.INI file quite often.
This turned out to be a lifesaver far too many times to count.

Having to figure out stuff like LoadHigh, and which device driver was required for which piece of hardware myself was a bit of a shock to the system, too, even though windows did away with the 640k limit, mostly.

Fun fact, I eventually ended up using Windows 3.11, the real install, not the Win 3.11 for workgroups.

It was released after 3.11WFWG, and some of the files had later build times/dates, but it still disappointed me that the home/non network 3.11 still used the 3.1 splash screen.

I had only used an Atari ST, and GEM before 3.11, so it was a huge step up!
I'd only seen pictures of AmigaOS 1.3 before that, and wasn't a fan of the almost neon blue!

And eventually, after windows 3.11 and Win95, I found out that other people continued DOS support, and that Caldera and Novell had a DOS7! And GEM ran not just on TOS on the Atari, but on DOS as well!

I was amazed that GEM and the above DOS7 still looked almost as well as Windows 3.11 but requiring much less resources. (They didn't achieve the same things, sure, but for general day to day PC work, it was fine)

21 July 2019, 20:41	#16
Mikerochip Registered User Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: Ireland Posts: 304	I bought a Samsung 486SX25 Laptop with mono screen, 6MB ram, and 80MB HDD! It came with Windows 3.11, and McAfee anti-virus, which I quickly removed. It was the first time I'd seen commerical AV software, and I wasn't a fan. I bought it to program Borland Turbo Pascal that I was using in College, and later on I bought Windows 95, on floppy disk! It said 8MB ram was the minimum but I installed it anyway... and lo and behold, it worked!! Windows 95 came on 22 floppy disks! And took almost 90 mins to install, from what I remember. I think it took up something like 50-60mb of my 80mb drive, which only had 10 or so mb free after it was installed. So, I used TASM and TP which were quite small thankfully. I always thought the 3.11 interface had a lot of neat ideas, but some of them were slightly backwards. I played a lot of Solitare and Minesweeper, as well as some dos games on it. And eventually got a 12" Amstrad PC monitor. It was glorious to see the 3.11 backgrounds in colour finally!! It annoyed me though, that some games needed specific versions of specific programs to run though, and often messed up the whole install. I'm looking at you, Quicktime for windows! Uninstalling older versions, or installing newer versions on top of itself, often left 3.11 unusable. I know it's not microsofts fault, but still. It was an annoyance. Especially since I had DOS 6.2 to install, then Win 3.11, then DOS 6.22 (to get the upgraded windows handful of program. Can't remember what they are just now) I remember backing up my WIN.INI file quite often. This turned out to be a lifesaver far too many times to count. Having to figure out stuff like LoadHigh, and which device driver was required for which piece of hardware myself was a bit of a shock to the system, too, even though windows did away with the 640k limit, mostly. Fun fact, I eventually ended up using Windows 3.11, the real install, not the Win 3.11 for workgroups. It was released after 3.11WFWG, and some of the files had later build times/dates, but it still disappointed me that the home/non network 3.11 still used the 3.1 splash screen. I had only used an Atari ST, and GEM before 3.11, so it was a huge step up! I'd only seen pictures of AmigaOS 1.3 before that, and wasn't a fan of the almost neon blue! And eventually, after windows 3.11 and Win95, I found out that other people continued DOS support, and that Caldera and Novell had a DOS7! And GEM ran not just on TOS on the Atari, but on DOS as well! I was amazed that GEM and the above DOS7 still looked almost as well as Windows 3.11 but requiring much less resources. (They didn't achieve the same things, sure, but for general day to day PC work, it was fine)