[HN Gopher] Virtual Computer Museum - VNC into Archaic Windows S...
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       Virtual Computer Museum - VNC into Archaic Windows Systems
        
       Author : throwup238
       Score  : 59 points
       Date   : 2024-01-11 12:27 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (museum.trialanderror.tech)
 (TXT) w3m dump (museum.trialanderror.tech)
        
       | cdchn wrote:
       | I think Windows 2000 is the only one I remember fondly.
        
         | jjbinx007 wrote:
         | I think it's a grossly underrated OS.
         | 
         | As good as Windows XP but without the awful garish themes - it
         | had all that made the Windows 98 GIU great but with the
         | stability of Windows NT.
         | 
         | Also, I don't think you needed to activate it and it didn't
         | have much in the way of telemetry. We'll never have a Windows
         | version as great again.
        
           | Modified3019 wrote:
           | My only computer for a long time was old thinkpad, so I
           | actually ended up skipping over windows XP entirely.
           | 
           | I finally moved on after the first service pack for vista
           | came out (in 2008), which was surprisingly alright in my
           | experience. It ended up being more stable than win2000.
           | 
           | The biggest problem with the older windows is that poorly
           | written drivers (which is most of them) had a tendency to
           | bluescreen the entire system when they fucked up. Newer
           | windows is so much more resistant to that now.
        
             | bandergirl wrote:
             | > [Vista] was surprisingly alright in my experience
             | 
             | I never understood the hate for Vista. People were overly
             | complacent and wanted a OS that ran on 128MB of ram like XP
             | did. Vista was not that. When 7 came along, it was pretty
             | much the same core, except now many computers were already
             | Vista-capable.
             | 
             | I was using the Vista _Beta_ of my 2GB-RAM computer for 6
             | months before release and it was vastly better than XP.
        
               | nickweb wrote:
               | The hate came from it being pre installed on massively
               | underpowered computers. The majority of users came to
               | vista with a new PC and it just ruined the experience.
               | 
               | I still remember trying to troubleshoot a minor issue and
               | it took half a day just because of the performance on
               | this new PC.
        
               | n8cpdx wrote:
               | Project Mojave was Microsoft's attempt to correct this
               | issue. It didn't go well.
               | 
               | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ihorvo2tEuA
        
               | serf wrote:
               | I don't remember the specifics, but I do remember that
               | Vista broke a ton of drivers I used for industrial
               | equipment. Serial controllers, that kind of stuff.
               | 
               | If I remember right it had something to do with the
               | transition to driver signing beginning around that era.
               | 
               | So, it represented a lot of labor.
               | 
               | >I was using the Vista Beta of my 2GB-RAM computer for 6
               | months before release and it was vastly better than XP.
               | 
               | you were blessed to have 2gb in 06. a lot of us didn't.
               | [0]
               | 
               | [0]: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/CrYAAOSwpOZgQFm7/s-l1
               | 600.jpg
        
               | vctrnk wrote:
               | Up to that point, most Windows iterations didn't require
               | (for the time) big upgrades to run fine. Many PCs
               | designed for a given version could run the next, maybe
               | with a little elbow grease, but the bottom line is: the
               | out-of-the-box experience on new AND upgraded PCs was
               | mostly okay.
               | 
               | Then it came Vista. An OS designed for at least 1Gb RAM,
               | preinstalled on machines who stubbornly refused to sell
               | with more than 512Mb (even 384Mb, the horror!) for a
               | looong time. I remember that, at least where I live, RAM
               | prices sky rocketed just months afther Vista came out,
               | because almost all people irremediably _needed_ the
               | upgrade.
               | 
               | It also didn't help that vendors were happy to fill new
               | systems with their auto-installing crapware. While this
               | wasn't Microsoft fault, it certainly helped to cement
               | Vista's reputation as a very heavy-weight OS.
               | 
               | Having said that. I concede the point that Vista was
               | pretty alright, provided your PC had the grunt to run it.
        
           | mepian wrote:
           | XP had much better compatibility with Windows 95/98 software
           | than 2000, especially games, as far as I remember.
        
             | anthk wrote:
             | Windows 2000 had a compatibility mode a la XP, but you
             | needed to activate it with a command. No, XP wasn't better,
             | some Direct Draw games just ran under Windows 95, 98, ME or
             | 2000 in compat mode.
        
           | EvanAnderson wrote:
           | Windows Server 2003 had all the XP goodness but without the
           | UI cruft. I ran it as a daily driver for a few years. Until
           | Windows 7 came out it was the best version of Windows.
           | Product activation was its downside.
        
           | stevekemp wrote:
           | Windows 2000 was peak-Windows for me, for sure.
           | 
           | Not quite as stable as Windows NT4, but pretty close, and it
           | benefited from added support for USB and other "modern"
           | things.
        
         | irusensei wrote:
         | I was happy with it before I got pwned by Nimda. I think it was
         | the only time I got infected by a virus (at least knowingly) in
         | my entire life. I did work supporting 2k servers and
         | workstations in my first jobs but I was already a Linuxhead by
         | then.
        
         | another2another wrote:
         | Windows 7 was also pretty decent, and managed to somewhat
         | redeem the horror that was Vista.
        
           | sixothree wrote:
           | Windows 7 was a beautiful operating system. It completely
           | redeemed the absolute "horror that was Vista" for a lot of
           | people.
        
         | ahoka wrote:
         | Just bought a T43 to run Windows 2000 this week. Just got wifi
         | working with WPA2, so I just need some decent browser and some
         | apps next.
        
           | anthk wrote:
           | Retrozilla.
        
       | irdc wrote:
       | Truth be told I had hoped for something a little more archaic
       | than Windows 95.
        
         | fragmede wrote:
         | Shoot, win95 is _archaic_? when did we get so old? Gimmie some
         | 3.11 for Workgroups.
        
       | archarios wrote:
       | Where's Microsoft BOB!?
        
       | mrpippy wrote:
       | Long ago, Insignia Solutions (famous for the SoftPC/SoftWindows
       | emulators) had a product called NTrigue which I think later
       | turned into Citrix MetaFrame? Not sure about the lineage. Anyway,
       | it was an early NT terminal server product.
       | 
       | I remember they ran an open-to-the-Internet NT 3.51 server, you
       | could download the ICA Client and connect to it. Imagine leaving
       | a Windows terminal server that wide-open now.
        
       | CobrastanJorji wrote:
       | When I hear "Computer Museum," I feel anger, and I realize that
       | I'm not yet over Paul Allen's family dismantling his Living
       | Computer Museum after his death. That place was doing really
       | great work.
        
       | nxobject wrote:
       | Interesting choice of tech stack - we're RDPing into a Win 8+
       | Windows session that, in turn, seems to be either using RDP or
       | VNC to connect to virtual sessions. I imagine that, if we were
       | creating something like this today, we'd just emulate in the
       | browser with a streaming disk!
        
         | duskwuff wrote:
         | > I imagine that, if we were creating something like this
         | today, we'd just emulate in the browser with a streaming disk!
         | 
         | Kind of like what https://infinitemac.org/ does for Apple
         | systems?
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-11 23:01 UTC)