Eighteen years after the launch of Windows 3.x, Microsofit has finally bid goodbye to the software that did much to establish its dominance in the personal computer industry.
The comparison of requirements between Windows 3.x and the latest Vista is remarkable:
Link - via TechnosailorWindows 3.x required an 8086/8088 processor or better that had a clock speed of up to 10MHz. It needed at least 640KB of RAM, seven megabytes of hard drive space, and a graphics card that supported CGA, EGA and VGA graphics.
By comparison, the Home Basic version of Windows Vista requires a 32-bit 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 20GB of hard drive space, and a graphics card with at least 32MB of memory.
Previously on Neatorama: Take a Stroll Down Computing Memory Lane
So perhaps this is 18 years after the launch of 3.0?
Let a whole new wave of cruelty wash over this lazy land!
The funny thing is that Apple's Macintosh System 6 predated Windows 3 by two years, and surpassed Windows 95 in usability. Or maybe that isn't so funny.
I've still got several old Macs that run System 6 & 7; it's good to boot one up every now & then just as a reminder of how far things have advanced.