Previously, I had posted about good ole Windows 1.0. Oh the memories! Well, if that wasn’t enough retro for you, here’s some Windows/386 nostalgia.
In addition to running multiple Windows applications, Windows/386 was able to run multiple DOS programs simultaneously utilizing the 80386 CPU’s protected (a.k.a. virtual 8086) mode. Each program would get its own virtual address space as if it had all the RAM to itself (less a few kilobytes of overhead for the OS to manage everything). And it looked like…OS/2! Even the promo video lauded that fact.
And here it is, the Windows/386 promo video. Warning: Make sure you’re sitting down.
More Windows/386 goodies:
- Read about Windows/386 at Wikipedia.
- Download a copy of Windows/386 (1813 KB). Oh, you only have an old 286 PC (a.k.a. IBM PC/AT) handy? There was a 286 version of Windows as well: Windows/286 (2041 KB).
What the hell?? It started out like CSI: Windows, then progressed into Stargate: Windows, then on to Flashdance: Windows. Those geniuses at Microsoft fit so much into 5 minutes!