SEE: Mobile device computing policy (Tech Pro Research)
There are limitations, networking doesn’t work and the default desktop software is fairly bare bones, although it includes old favorites such as Minesweeper, Solitaire and Paint among the Accessories. The desktop is responsive and runs smoothly. While classic versions of Windows have been available in the browser for many years, the app allows users to run a Windows 95 machine locally and save its state. The vintage OS can now be downloaded and booted in less than five minutes, thanks to being bundled into an 128MB Electron app by developer Felix Rieseberg.
How to hire an IoT Architect (TechRepublic Premium) NVIDIA moves to front of the AI pack with software, hardware, app advancesīrain Computer Interfaces may be the future, but will they be secure?ĪI investments soared in 2021, but big problems remain Some speculated that this might be a route for Win95 to be able to function within OS/2, although my own suspicion is that it was more in reference to the fact that Win32s version 1.3 had been released by Microsoft, and IBM wanted the potential to support this within WinOS/2.It’s getting easier and easier to indulge in computing nostalgia, with the latest opportunity coming courtesy of a new Windows 95 app.
The discussion had something to do with the driver having the capability to be modified / extended to allow other 32 bit code to run within the OS/2 Dosbox sub-system. If I recall correctly there was also some discussion around a comment that one of the IBM developers had made surrounding the win32s driver (the driver that allows win32s 1.25 to run in WinOS/2). And many parts of it were still very much "beta" level code. From what I recall it could run Dos and Windows software without modification, but in order to run OS/2 applications - the apps would need to be recompiled from source.
From what we know of the Power PC port of OS/2, it was a strange beast. Then early 96 - with the PowerPC version still not being completed (although they had "shipped" a version to select customers in December '95) - this was a huge part in the decision (recall that back in those days IBM still thought the PowerPC chip was going to be the next big thing!). but rather people going to the store and purchasing the OS). With the lack of anything other then a screen shot it is all speculation, but it would not surprise me to hear that someone inside IBM might have looked at this.Īt the time of Windows 95's release I suspect there was a lot of discussion within IBM about OS/2 - while Lou Gerstner may have already made up his mind, there was also momentum behind OS/2 - the Just Add Warp marketing campaign - aimed at home users - was released in the fall of '95, resulting in December 1995 with OS/2 having more sales then Windows 95 had to home users (ie, I'm not talking about pre-installed on new PCs. It is anyone's guess if this was actually done inside IBM or if it was someone who just decided to have some fun. There was speculation at the time that this "IBM emulator" was simply a screen shot of BOCHS with Windows 95 running which someone had tweaked a bit.
It was slow and painful to run even on the fastest processors available at the time, but you could install (if you were patient enough) a full copy of Windows 95 on it similar to how you can install Win95 on Virtualbox today.
If by some miracle the market react in a different way, maybe the product can revive, but that is not the common path.Īs I recall at around the same time that this so-called "screen shot" turned up, an OS/2 port of the BOCHS 386 emulator turned up around the same time. I had seen that business strategy many times, instead of going to announce the abrupt discontinuation of a software product, they minimize the dev team to only offer support, do not offer any new innovation on the product, offer only bug fixing and patches, and wait until the market just fall off so at that moment they can announce the discontinuation without a bigger impact. WSfeB, Warp 4.52 and Server 4.52 was only to continue the legacy support and to support a migration path to Java apps. So anyone inside IBM that wanted to do something more aggressive with the OS was stopped. (remember that at that time there was not Facebook or twitter. While many people was exited about Warp 4 release, some other with internal information knew that OS/2 was not going to get more investment. For what I known (maybe it is just a personal opinion), IBM's Lou Gerstner pulled the plug on OS/2 even before Warp 4 was released.