(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Evening, all.

Honestly, I'm not sure whether to laugh hysterically....or apologise. Profoundly.

This has just got to be one of the wackiest ideas I think I've yet come across. I was browsing ExtremeTech, a couple of hours ago.....and their lead article was 'How to run Windows95 as an app in Windows, Mac or Linux':-

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/2 ... -and-linux

The developer behind this, one Felix Rieseberg, has this to say:-

"I put Windows 95 into an Electron app that now runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It's a terrible idea that works shockingly well. I'm so sorry."

And so he should be..!!

----------------------------------------

Be that as it may, this does in fact run pretty well. It's an Electron-based app, with all code inside the app itself.....so it actually runs in pretty much real time. It is such fun.....not. (*a-hem!*)

It's a straight-forward d/l, extract & re-pack. Stupid thing is, the .deb wouldn't extract. Even UExtract turned its nose up at it; complained about 'peculiar control characters'. So, I made do with the .rpm one, instead.....which behaved itself, good as gold.

Don't blame me for the size. Unpacked, it's around 200-250 MB. Half of that size, however, is taken up by the Electron framework. Gargantuan as it is, it's becoming an increasingly useful beast these days. And to think MyCrudSoft recommended 4 MB of RAM to comfortably run Win95, back in the day...

I will warn you; the cursor really IS as slow as you remember it being..! If you've got a DPI-adjustable mouse, ya might want to consider jacking it up to maximum.... Oh, and talking of which.....you might think, the first time you go to shut down, that you've been 'got at' by the 1990s Windows viruses. You can't get off the screen..!! Help.....

Just hit 'Escape', and each click will lock/unlock/lock/unlock your real cursor. Now you can 'escape'. For REAL. (*Thank Christ...*)

64-bit only, I'm afraid. I have it running perfectly in Xenialpup64 7.5.

See what you think.....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rg6dQP ... sp=sharing

You'll find it under Menu->Utility->Windows95. I would say, 'Have fun'.....but I'm not entirely certain it's an appropriate epithet in this case. (*snigger....a-HEM!!*)

(Any subsequent law-suits about mental cruelty should be addressed to MikW, care of Toytown, Disneyland... )

And, er, no; I don't know where the 'Start' button's hiding! It's gotta be there somewhere.....

(Silly me. It's there all along; maximised, it's bigger than my old 1024x768 screen.....and of course, I've gotta use the cursor 'unlock' feature before I can even scroll down to see it... )

*jeez*


Mike.

Wow, Mike, you protest a little too much! Maybe there is something you're not telling us...

Microsoft Windows 95 was good for its era which it, of course, defined. Although I must confess that I had difficulty giving up my beloved Microsoft Windows 3.x platform.

Running Windows 95 in the Electron environment is a curiosity, but likely doesn't have much practical use. Having said that, I have run it in qemu with good results. My motivation was to perform recovery on some drives compressed with the infamous DriveSpace compression program. Before anyone uses the failure of DriveSpace as an entree to attack Windows 95, let it be known the fault lay not with DriveSpace but with my ignorant management of filesystems at the time. The upshot is that I managed to image the mounted CVF DriveSpace files and recover quite a bit. The whole experience was fairly educational.

Seeing such an old OS in a current platform has its novelty. Maybe some will find it of real value like I did. In addition to the method described by Mike for use with Electron, instructions for using qemu in this context can be found here. It works pretty smoothly.



And before I forget: 95 is Alive!!!!!
http://www.95isalive.com/

I used Windows 98 SE up until 2007 when I had to let it go because I couldn't find a driver for my 3G usb modem. That's actually when I started to look around for another smallish system and found Puppy...and also installed XP which I still have. The thing with the old Windows systems is that it required maintenance (like regularly cleaning and repacking the registry every three months or so). If you did that, it gave good and trouble free service.

that app would be an excellent and useful return to the past (a bit like CLI at Linux / Unix, but with graphic mode included) as well as an

excellent extension for Linux where Linux has nothing to propose and 30 years technical backwardness compared with the poor windows95

backwardness?

yes! for example where is ViaVoice for Puppy (or other Linux) to find

other example:

the PC development activity of Hahnes Keller (see the section "Career after diving") genial applications which did allow to write in an language, so German, and on the screen the English text (or text in some equivalent language with fewer grammatic than other ones) did immediately (not in two or more steps like in Linux etc., an non satisfying approach of solution if it would be possible to do the same in only one step ) appear on the screen as the end end of the word is entered (interval, dot etc.): That app was so revolutionary that a dealer colleague did buy ONE MILLION licenses from Hannes Keller to add that package free to all I"BM PC' s he did sell in Germany (thus ensuring a certain diffusion of this software in this country! For native English speaker, of course, no interest as the other languages would rarely meet the restricted grammar requirement excepted ...
... artificial languages, spanish used with international / latin ones of the Spanish words (it would be enough as Spanish includes the most of all Latin words, a bit like English, but more), or Indonesian (also a tongue for 1/4 milliard people with limited use of grammar!) [WAYS was a typical " memory resident" application excluded in Windows ME as well as in 64 bit Windows generations, Windows NT and following ones!]

in Windows95 you can more than only remember the operating system Windows. a lot of software having marked the micro computer developpement are available in CD's (for ex. added to PC newspapers in the past); so I did find the last minute an old CD with the full version of BORLAND's Turbo Prolog!

but the Windows95 app from Felix Rieseberg did not accept to read my CD as I did enter it into my CD drive . I have the installations re-establishing CD from M$ as well von Dell for my DELL laptop. but I am afraid as there is nothing to do (*1 as Wndows95 for Puppy can not read CD's and would probably not accept driver CD's for newer 64 bit machines...

(*1 but if your machine has yet an FD drive, as EVEweb, the genial graphic app from our Barry Kauler is so tiny, you can try to install it via floppy disk in Windows95 for Puppy and become a first feeling from coming in some kind announcing Puppy in that genial application!

see also

https://www.giga.de/downloads/microsoft ... irtualbox/

adding the help of Mr. Google!

BORLAND's Turbo Prolog!

He he, I had used (a very little) Borland's C besides of ST Pascal + (plus GFA-Assembler, a very very very little) on Atari ST in the 1980s.

Up to Windows 98SE I could use the TOSBox to use my Atari ST Software in Windows. XP did work also (with some small minor issues).

Never got the TOSBox to run in Wine.

Could become a interesting Project if it would be possible to run Windows 98SE in Puppy just like the Windows 95...

ITSMERSH wrote:Could become a interesting Project if it would be possible to run Windows 98SE in Puppy just like the Windows 95...

https://mega.nz/#!fxBUHTKR!rSKvTbgeve8v ... 3EOxTtEdn0

I love Windows. Haven't used it myself for years now, but I like how it ensures the provision of a stream of inexpensive (often free) good quality hand-me-down hardware.