How many people still use Win 3.1 or DOS?

[psudoazn]

I was curious about why there is a forum for something that was obsolete long ago. LOL...was 3.1 compatible with internet capabilities?

[Vernon Frazee]

Of course this forum isn't anywhere near as popular as most of the other Operating System Forums here on VirtualDr.com but, there have been roughly 3,400 threads started in here since October 1998, (over 1,000/year). Unfortunately, all posts before that time were lost (http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum7/HTML/000003.html).

As far as "why?", I can't answer for the thousands of other MS-DOS/Windows 3.1x users around the globe but, one of the reasons I still use DOS is simply because it is sometimes faster to do something in DOS than it is to do it in Windows. For example, a short while back I had to change the email address in thousands of .htm files that were stored in several dozen subdirectories. To manually do this with a Windows editor could have literally taken days. In DOS it took but a single command, which was very similar to:

   for %x in (*.htm) do sweep change %x "info@oldname.com" "info@newname.com"

A few minutes later, the DOS version of FTP was uploading, (unattended I might add), the altered files to the webserver.

Oh, and yes, I used to surf the net daily using my Netscape for Windows 3.1 browser. Also used to use a DOS browser too. Heck, even used to send/receive email and upload/download files via the 'Net before it became the "World Wide Web". http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif

Happy Holidays everyone!

[ralph3124]

Win 3.1 and DOS is around for us old-timers. Even though we may not use it, sometimes a problem pops up that you need to reference it. On another site's board-a question was asked about 3.1-just sneak over here and do a search using keywords to get the answer.

Even though 3.1 and DOS isn't recognized for problem solving by Bill Gates, don't mean people don't need help.

[davidgsmith]

Hello There,
To my knowledge, Win 3.11 is still being used by thousands of companies around the world. We also see here alot that Win 3.x is still being used alot in schools. In reality it's only been 7 yrs since Win95 and there are lots of great programs out there that work excellently with Win 3.11.

I imagine there are still many users of Win 3.x for home use also. Though not that many browsing the internet with it, I think it's Robert M here on the forum who is still using Explorer for Win3.1, Microhard even did a version of IE 5 for Win 3.x also.

In fact if you want to relive those great days of Win 3.x, just edit your system.ini file to boot progman.exe instead of exolorer.exe, this will boot you into Program Manager instead of the Desktop. You can even use File Manager!

As far as DOS goes, Vern is of course correct in that you can do some file management duties much simpler in DOS than in Windows. A few of my most favorite games are DOS games. I still use Lotus 123 Dos version 2.4 for simple spreadsheet work.

So DOS and Windows 3.x are still performing very useful functions out there in the world, and are still doing a good job at it.

Good Luck,
Dave http://members.home.net/dgsmith18/webimage/tree_ani.gif

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Check Ledger 2001 (http://www.geocities.com/asdf85016/ledger2001/index.html) *** Help (http://www.thehungersite.com) others less fortunate.

[Chuck Mielke]

My other computer uses DOS and 3.1, and is being used by my wife to manage our checkbook, and the grandkids use a lot of DOS games on it. My flight simulator games are also on it.

It is a 486DX80, and is faster than this AMDK6-2 450MHz.

I prefer DOS and 3.1, but Win98 is starting to grab me. The only reason I got WIN98 is that when I bought this new computer, back about 2 or 3 years ago, I couldn't get the MODEM to run, couldn't get DOS to run, and had lots of other problems. This Chinese clone used a Board Runner (tm) mother board, and they refused to provide any DOS support, so I figured WIN98 would solve the problems.

Wrong. However, the purchase of a new mother board, (different manufacturer) solved the problems. If I didn't need WIN98 for the software for my Juno ISP, I would go back to DOS and 3.1

I've never seen any WIN 98 games or other software that wouldn't have run just as well, if not better, under DOS or Win 3.1

[jellyktb]

Also, a few of us are old time programmers who have written our own DOS applications. I have one that I wrote that will run once under a Windows 98 session but after that it's curtains for that application. Under DOS I run it time after time without any problem.

I long to see an enhanced DOS that supports FAT32 as I have stated in another thread http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum7/HTML/003192.html . From my point of view, that would extend the life of DOS considerably.

DOS is NOT dead. Long live DOS!


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"Do right 'till the stars fall"

[This message has been edited by jellyktb (edited 12-26-2001).]

[iamverybad]

do you guys still use a chisel and stone instead of pens and pencils?

[greg_br549]

Only 2 years back I was in a Bank that was still using 3.1. My insurance agent still uses it as well. The fancy new operating systems with all of their bugs can be quite an overhead for a business. So if it still works, stick with it. Also, the old DOS games are some of the best.
One thing to remember...a lot of the shortcuts like the html trick posted above can be easily completed with programs such as Adobe Golive(which operates on win95/and above). Operating systems these days cater much more towards supporting software potential. Golive (and others)can complete the same task, as well as maintain, update, and upload large websites by a mere click and drag. So there can be a big trade off...especially if you need to be on the cutting edge. (oh what web we weave!)

[Tricomp]

I have an old IBM 8573 portable ...actually: dragable :-)
It runs happily on Win 3.11 with Internet Explorer 3.0 and you may ask: For what purpose? ...and I may answer: To gaze at the yellow plasma screen and be amazed over the technological progress within the last decade.
Heck, I also set-up old discarded 286/386 computers with Win 3.x and ship them to Romania where they are used in hospitals and orphanages. This is volunteer work which I do for free. I asked Microsoft about a Romanian version of Win 3.11 but they did not even bother to answer. Perhaps they are too busy prepairing SP2 for WinXP. IMHO Win 3.x should now be Abandon-Ware.

Happy Holidays

/tricomp

[steppenwolf]

its a wonder microsoft even came up with windows 3.0

i always thought seattle was so arrogant .redmond is near it

ofcourse micro soft doesnt want you to use it , they create bigger programs so you need bigger hardrives and more newer equip.well maybe not but are all the old drivers are they in windows xp?

[Dirk_nl]

Originally posted by Vernon Frazee:
Of course this forum isn't anywhere near as popular as most of the other Operating System Forums here on VirtualDr.com but, there have been roughly 3,400 threads started in here since October 1998, (over 1,000/year). Unfortunately, all posts before that time were lost (http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum7/HTML/000003.html).

As far as "why?", I can't answer for the thousands of other MS-DOS/Windows 3.1x users around the globe but, one of the reasons I still use DOS is simply because it is sometimes faster to do something in DOS than it is to do it in Windows. For example, a short while back I had to change the email address in thousands of .htm files that were stored in several dozen subdirectories. To manually do this with a Windows editor could have literally taken days. In DOS it took but a single command, which was very similar to:

* *for %x in (*.htm) do sweep change %x "info@oldname.com" "info@newname.com"

A few minutes later, the DOS version of FTP was uploading, (unattended I might add), the altered files to the webserver.

Oh, and yes, I used to surf the net daily using my Netscape for Windows 3.1 browser. Also used to use a DOS browser too. Heck, even used to send/receive email and upload/download files via the 'Net before it became the "World Wide Web". http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif

Happy Holidays everyone!

Hey Vernon! I like all the dos commands you have. I remember you helped me a long time ago with synchronizing 2 directories via Dos (using xcopy with a lot of several /. /. /. ) commands. I still have it somewhere http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif

Do you have a link or so which shows alot of possible and handy commands via dos? Like this one you wrote in this thread?

I have HomeSite for changing htm & php files for internet use, it's very handy and you don't have to open them one by one either. Just select a directory or select the htm files you want to change, and do a search and replace on all files.

But it's handy to do it in DOS (or command prompt) when you don't have such programs available.



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Kind Regards,

- Dirk -