While most of us are focused on the future of Windows 10 and all the new features that will be showing up with Redstone later in the year, there are some who are a bit nostalgic. And if you’re in that category, Archive.org may have just the thing you need: Windows 3.1 and over 1,500 of its apps available straight in your browser.
You can try out the old operating system directly in your browser thanks to a very impressive DOSBOX emulation, that’s running in JavaScript. Alongside the vanilla OS you can try out 1,500 apps, or programs as they were known back then, that were available for Windows 3.1 at the time.
There"s even a hilarious presentation app running on Windows 3.1 that touts the upcoming Windows 95, its Start Menu and the new operating system’s capabilities. Of course if you decide Windows 95 is the OS for you, you can also run that in your browser. Who knows, maybe upon seeing this that airport in France will finally be tempted to upgrade.
Games, calculators, pizza delivery apps and other programs are also available thanks to the work of those at Archive.org and the generosity of Microsoft and other companies.
It’s pretty cool to see this implementation and method of conservation that gives users not only the chance to see what a product from the past looked like, but also to try it out and feel what it was like to actually use. For the modern internet user that probably never got a chance to try out Windows 3.x, this could be an eye-opening experience and may give some a new appreciation for the incredible advances that we’ve seen during the past 24 years.
You can try out the operating system and its apps by heading to this page.
Via: Ars Technica