retrocomputing

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Windows 95 let installers trash its files then fixed the mess behind their backs (www.theregister.com)

submitted 3 days ago by Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social to c/retrocomputing

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[–] dgriffith@aussie.zone 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What in the futhark is that ugly ass OS.

It was the first step up from Windows 3.11 which was basically a DOS GUI. It was rough, but definitely an improvement. Compare that to the latest "updated OS" from Microsoft now.

And 30 years ago it was quite easy to do dumb shit that completely ruined your system, be it in DOS, Win95, or OS/2.

Example from OS/2 - deleting the image file used for the desktop background in presentation manager (OS/2's core GUI) meant your system could no longer boot, and when you can't just google shit to sort things out, you were essentially up for a reinstall at that point.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

OS/2 sorely lacked user rights management (but then DOS/Windows didn't have any either). Other than that, it was an amazing system at the time. It's a shame that the industry went with Windows.

[–] NachBarcelona@piefed.social 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I really have to try it, I never saw OS/2 in action.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

There never was any software for it, and they added a windows compatibility layer, ensuring there never would be. But it actually was a single user modern operating system with all the trimmings. Lost opportunity.

But we got Unix back, so it's not too bad.

[–] NachBarcelona@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

Fail safes were absolutely non existent it seems. The OS/2 fun fact is something else lol.