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37 Operating Systems, 1 PC
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When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the plane, the plane will fly. -- Donald Douglas
37? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:37? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:37? (Score:3, Funny)
Try not to load any more operating systems on your way out to the parking lot, okay?
Re:37? (Score:3, Insightful)
um, what is your definition of redundant? Anyone?
Re:37? (Score:5, Funny)
um, what is your definition of redundant? Anyone?
Re:37? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:An attempt to name 37 operating systems (Score:3, Informative)
The OSes he booted were not all unique kernels, there were about 10 different linux distros if i remember right, and Win 1.0-XP i belive.
Re:An attempt to name 37 operating systems (Score:3, Insightful)
sPh
Re:An attempt to name 37 operating systems (Score:3, Interesting)
And, there's a great OS called Oberon (yeah, there's a programming language of the same name--from the same people too) but this beast required a special, rather expensive and obscure card. On an 8-bit card for an 8086 or 80286 came an array of anywhere from 4 to 8 processors. It was one of the first true multitasking OSes available--well before PC hardware really supported it.
Personally, I was proud when I had 8 OSes installed in rather small partitions on my 1.2GB drive. (Hey, 1.2GB was "big" back around '95 or so.... :)
I used a third-party bootloader called "BootIt". It had the ability to create up to 10 partitions of different types, didn't have any problems getting around that 1024cyl barrier, and was capable of booting any OS I threw at it--even the MS products were able to boot from logical partitions, even well past the 1024th cylinder!
From a technical standpoint, when I read "37 OSes, 1 PC", I thought "Yeah, how many partitions, and what bootloader?" After all, there's a bit of a fixed limit of only 4 partitions in a partition table.... But BootIt got around that by storing the actual partition info in its own partition, and wiping out the partition info in the table, rewriting it just before booting the relevent OS (and unhiding the related logical/extended partitions as well.)
Theoretically, with a nice 20GB drive, I could have pulled the same stunt with BootIt--it was also capable of booting itself.
From the article:
Well, if you count QuarterDeck's DesqView, you can throw in a whole new mix of multiple versions of DOS, Win 2.x, and Win 3.x--and you can even use it like I do--I put DesqView on a spare box an ran a Win3.1 version of IE 5 on it. I found it to be a great way to get IE "running" on linux. (I have a friend who said he wouldn't switch unless he could keep his Internet Explorer. Boy, converting Windows zealots can be kinda rough!Okay, and it felt a little satisfying--like a slap in the face of the great, evil Empire of Microsoft. Make the two platforms interoperate, somehow, even when they go out of their way to prevent it. It's one of my favorite--and frustrating--challenges.
And, coming back to the article again, you can count these new permutations separately:
Oh, and if this guy really wanted to get his hands dirty, he could start rolling out his own OS; that has been a bit of a hobby for some of us underchallenged college students. :)
And finally, one more note--I haven't seen the obligatory V2OS reference on here yet... As of around V0.89, it can be installed to a hard disk. :)
Business Model: (Score:4, Funny)
Step 2: mount everything possible in linux (not sure about partition types, inconsequential detail though), cat it all to
Step 3: Profit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apple Rhapsody x86 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Apple Rhapsody x86 (Score:5, Insightful)
It might be fun to try an build a modern version of one of these old Apple machines: Power Macintosh 7300/180 PC Compatible [apple.com]
These thing has both a PPC 604e and a Pentium 1. They could boot a PPC OS and an x86 OS at the same time. One could use a key combo to switch OSes on the fly.... they where rad
VMWare! (Score:2, Informative)
He could probably count each JDK as an OS too.
Why??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Windows 1.01
Windows 1.03
Windows 2.03
Windows 2.10
How could you even find these versions let alone tolerate installing them? Hmm... Just imagine all the versions of Minesweeper and Solitare!
Honestly, who could possible have the time to do something like this?
Re:Why??? (Score:2)
Re:Why??? (Score:2)
"Squadron leader, we have pigs at 11 o'clock high"
Incidentally, you can get yourself some OS/2 bits here [abandonkeep.com] They used to have Windows 1.01, and 2.0, but I suppose the Beast got to them. I mean, MS have got to try their best to protect their large sales volume of these products, as we enter the 21st century.
And if you're feeling really trippy, you can see some old Windows screenshots here [toastytech.com].
Re:Why??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why??? (Score:3, Funny)
Solitaire was certainly in Windows 3.0, and I'm pretty sure my 80286 had Minesweeper with its Windows install as well. Not too sure about Minesweeper. Solitaire, though, was extremly exciting to look at when all the cards bumpbed "out of the screen" when you finished. Espcially on 12MHz.
Re:Why??? (Score:3, Funny)
I can't find my favorite! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I can't find my favorite! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I can't find my favorite! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I can't find my favorite! (Score:2)
With viper Emacs finally has a decent text editor! Emacs goodness plus vi keystrokes is a beautiful thing.
Re:I can't find my favorite! (Score:3, Funny)
Add a Mac! (Score:2)
Back around 96 or 98 I decided I needed to find a better Operating System. I put Rhapsody, BeOS, Slackware, Redhat, Debian and Win9x on my PC. I liked BeOS and Rhapsody the most, but the applications I wanted weren't there; and I didn't see a future for them either. I ended picking Redhat out of the lot.
Now adays I use OS X or Win XP at home, and Redhat on my server.
Joseph Elwell.
Patience? (Score:5, Funny)
I couldn't sit still that long. Sure, some OS installations are more time-consuming than others, but in general I don't look forward to the interminable wait between prompts.
I'd also be curious to know how many reboots it took. I also want to know how come nobody cared enough to get William Shatner to go to this guy's house and say "What's wrong with you? Have you ever slept with a woman?".
Re:Patience? (Score:5, Funny)
From the article:
Were there any OSes you couldn't find? Yes. Windows 1.0. Refer to the statement on Jupiter's 7th moon in previous answer. Oh, and I couldn't find an OS that would tell me how to successfully deal with girls either.
I guess that's a no to Shatner's question.
Re:Patience? (Score:5, Funny)
Am I the only person who finds this statement a bit incongruous coming from someone with the nick "Zen Mastuh"? ;-)
Re:Patience? (Score:3, Insightful)
partition table (Score:2, Insightful)
Which reminds me... (Score:2)
Alright, let me ask this. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Alright, let me ask this. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Alright, let me ask this. (Score:2)
Where one would find Windows 1.01, though, I have no idea. Ebay, perhaps?
Re:Alright, let me ask this. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Alright, let me ask this. (Score:2)
They're all just left hanging around from my own computers over the years. *shrug* That's sort of how it works, isn't it?!
37! (Score:2, Funny)
-Clerks
Re:37! (Score:5, Funny)
Quick! Someone call the BSA! (Score:5, Funny)
* Windows 1.03
* Windows 2.03
* Windows 2.10
* Windows 3.1
* Windows 95
* Windows 98 First Edition
* Windows 98 Second Edition
* Windows 98 SE Lite (not counted as separate)
* Windows Me
* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
Not only do we need to verify that he has licenses for each of those installations, I'm willing to bet he illegally transfered licenses from their original systems!
In short, this man is a terrorist who only wishes to kill each and every freedom-loving American. Arrest him now!
Re:Quick! Someone call the BSA! (Score:2)
Re:Quick! Someone call the BSA! (Score:5, Insightful)
He is only running one at a time.
Simple purpose (Score:5, Funny)
What would *you* do to be on
Re:Simple purpose (Score:3, Funny)
I think the real question is, what would Jesus do to be on Slashdot?
Re:Simple purpose (Score:5, Funny)
Kill the trolls.
Re:Simple purpose (Score:2)
Besides, Buddha smells funny.
Re:Simple purpose (Score:2)
Of course, he often is mentioned on slashdot, even aside from his mention by you... see these articles or comments [slashdot.org].
See Matthew 25:34-40 [virginia.edu] for another thought or perspective, too.
Of course, you probably meant interviewed, which is something else entirely...
Re:Simple purpose (Score:3, Funny)
Jesus won't be on slashdot because he refuses to switch from Windows to Linux. Apparently Jesus never loses his data when his Windows box crashes because he always saves.
Hmm (Score:2)
That's a little bit of an understatement. So how many version of Windows before it starts getting redundant?
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Funny)
1 ??
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Funny)
Win earlier than 95 were shells for DOS (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Win earlier than 95 were shells for DOS (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Win earlier than 95 were shells for DOS (Score:3, Insightful)
There may be a valid technical reason for it, but the main effect was to completely shut out competing DOS implementations, as Caldera argued in their lawsuit against MS. During this lawsuit they actually demonstrated a slightly-modified Windows 95 running under DR-DOS.
Re:Win earlier than 95 were shells for DOS (Score:3, Informative)
Msdos always just barely qualified as an operating system. It had some memory layout libraries and provided some basic disk access libraries, both of which could be ignored by programs. Win3.1 added mediation of screen estate space, of the printers and of the sound card. Those were the bad old days where the high levels function, which had fairly proper mediation, were running on a non-kernel. It was the Eric-the-half-a-bee of operating systems. Painful days indeed.
With its prehemptive scheduler, Win95 introduced clock-cycle mediation. It also brought proper memory mediation (memory "protection") For the first time, Windows was providing something more than a set of ignorable library functions, which qualified it as true OS.
You will indeed find Msdos code shipping with Win95 : it's upside down. It is part of the msoldapp compatibility layer that ran 16-bits apps, and it ran them under the new 32-bits kernel. This doesn't take anything away from Win95's OS-ness.
Re:Win earlier than 95 were shells for DOS (Score:3, Informative)
- Preemptive multitasking of 32-bit Windows-based applications: Win95: Yes WinNt: Yes
- Runs 16-bit Windows-based applications: Win95: Yes WinNt:Yes
- Preemptive multitasking for 16-bit Windows-based applications Win95:No WinNt:Yes
The compatibility layer which ran old 16-bits apps (winoldapp) wasn't preemptive, but the main kernel certainly was.Re:Win earlier than 95 were shells for DOS (Score:2)
Yes, it's all hair-splitting, but it's pretty clear that the Windows GUI was a separate thing, just like Gnome/KDE/TWM/foo.
And that's not such a bad idea. Why not keep separate functionality separate? You could even make a version of Windows Explorer that didn't contain a web browser. Oh wait-- they already did that.
Here is his OS list (Score:2)
37 not quite... (Score:5, Interesting)
You can argue beyond that, but 28 is still impressive... No WinNT?
Planning issues (Score:3, Interesting)
My guess is that given these limitations, it might have been impossible to add NT even if he wanted to.
Re:Planning issues (Score:3, Interesting)
I have 98, 2000, and XP Pro (installed in that order) on my drive.
Re:Planning issues (Score:2)
Yes, it can. You can't have their system directories on the same partition, though. Same thing with 2k and XP or NT and XP. Or NT, 2k and XP.
That said, I miss DOS 6.22 and Gentoo from his list, not to mention the Apple internal OS X for i386, MS Longhorn, SunOS 4.1.3 (Sunview rocks!), Solaris, NeXTStep and the Amiga Digital Environment, although the QNX Neutrino kernel probably is a good start there. Hm. Were there ever a VMS/OpenVMS version for the i386?
My workstations typically multiboot at least three OSes, sometimes more if I'm currently migrating; DOS (6.22/98SE), Linux (Gentoo) and Win32 (NT/2k/XP).
Re:37 not quite... (Score:2)
Well, since Windows 1-Me are DOS at their heart, you probably shouldn't count them as separate, either. Only 2 in that list are not running on top of DOS.
Re:37 not quite... (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows 1.01
Windows 1.03
Windows 2.03
Windows 2.10
Windows 3.1
Windows 1-3x were not OSs, you had to have a DOS OS installed and boot in to DOS before running Windows - they were systems that ran over the top. That's excluding 95 still technically working that way but making you boot in to Windows then exit out (dressed up as logging out) to DOS.
It's the equivalent of calling RedHat two different OSs because it comes with Gnome and KDE.
Re:37 not quite... (Score:3, Insightful)
This alone does not make Windows a shell running on DOS. An OS may boot from another OS. You can start Linux from DOS, that doesn't make it any less of an OS. (even if it *only* booted from DOS)
The key is whether Windows used DOS functions while it was running or provided its own. Win95 avoided using 16-bit drivers as much as possible. Since DOS is entirely 16-bit, I think that at least begins to qualify it as a separate OS.
Make that 27... (Score:2)
Mmmm... scrollable bootloader (Score:2)
Redundant?? Yikes! (Score:2)
This must be a use of the word "redundant" I have never heard before.
What?!!? No DESQView??!? and no MAME??? (Score:2)
And put a dedicated MAME installation in there! C'mon Defender is almost an OS unto itself!
Paid for Windows? (Score:2, Funny)
Oh sure... (Score:2, Funny)
Stares in horrified silence... (Score:2, Funny)
What? No GEOS 1.0 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What? No GEOS 1.0 (Score:2)
I imagine "rare" would probably be Xenix on 8" floppy or something for some of those old monster Tandy systems...
Re:What? No GEOS 1.0 (Score:2)
For example, Geos had the best tetris game I've ever played on the PC
Travis
Re:What? No GEOS 1.0 (Score:2)
Re:What? No GEOS 1.0 (Score:2)
Beautiful print drivers. Unbelievable print quality, even from a Panasonic 9-pin. I did some work at home, brought it in to work, and the boss asked "WHAT did you print this on?"
With the right marketing (and being as much of an ass as Uncle Bill seems to be), this coulda been a contenda.
Re:What? No GEOS 1.0 (Score:2)
It was renamed GeoWorks in '92.
It had MASSIVE share problems with DOS 4.01 (which was was what included with the 286 it ran on).
Nice GUI in general, though, but certainly not an OS. Had the coolest support for Dot-Matrix printers I've ever seen (it could get a full 244 DPI from one, if you had the time to wait).
Memories... precious memories.
Windows 1.0 screenshots (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.infosatellite.com/news/2001/10/a2510
Interesting how similar Windows 2.0 looks to Windows XP, and many other GUI environments...
Re:Windows 1.0 screenshots (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Windows 1.0 screenshots (Score:2)
From the second link (Score:2)
Yes. Windows 1.0...Oh, and I couldn't find an OS that would tell me how to successfully deal with girls either.
You've just geeked 37 OS'es onto your PC. Just open your bedroom door (in your Mom and Dad's house) and wait for the babes to come stampeding in.
Theoretically... (Score:2)
What No MS BOB (Score:2)
I did 24 os's (Score:3, Interesting)
The installations of these were heavily stripped, because both msdos and pcdos will run the pcdos 7.0 utilities, along with a scattering of other utilities.
System commander provided the menu.
msdos 5.00 6.00 6.20 6.21 6.22 7.00b
pcdos 5.00 5.02 6.00 6.10 6.30 7.00 2000
drdos 6.00b 7.00
mswin 95a
os/2 3.00 4.00
nt 4.00
OS/2 3.0 was heavily stripped to 9MB total, it was used for burning cdroms.
On top of these, I ran different operating system extenders: These
dosshell [a hacked win30 standard mode]
win30
win31
win311
deskView
qemm
The other configurations were the main work client (pcdos 2000), a guest system for my mother (pcdos 2000 + win3.11 running a network install.
XOSL obviously not planning ahead (Score:5, Funny)
"24 boot items ought to be enough for everybody!" - Gill Bates, XOSL Developer, 1980
How about virtual machines? (Score:2)
Redundancy??? (Score:2, Funny)
He puts 57 operating systems on one computer, and is worried about redundancy...
37 OSes but none help with the ladies.. (Score:3, Funny)
Brain overloading!
Anyway, my mission is clear. How could anyone possibly stop when they were so close to 42?!
Seen this on Tech TV a while ago (Score:4, Insightful)
This guy was on Tech TV the other day.
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/st
There's a link to the article
Interesting observations (Score:2)
Wow, he put all those versions of Windows on it and it didn't explode?
BeOS? Huh? What? Oh, that's the road kill MS ran over using their dark force monopoly powers.
Linx? Huh? What? Where? Hasn't MS that group of infidels yet?
MS to Richard Robbins: thank you very much for creating a list of all the enemies we need to crush!
US government to Richard Robbins: Your running QNX on your computer? That must make you a terrorist, since QNX can be used to control nuclear warheads or nuclear reactors!
BSA to Richard Robbins: What? You can't find the license for Windows 1.01? That'll be 500,000 dollars, and you'll have to remove all those non-windows OS' from your computer, and sign a deal with MS stating you'll only buy MS software in the future.
Bruce Springsteen (Score:2)
__________________
I bought a bourgeois house in the Hollywood hills
With a truckload of hundred thousand dollar bills
Man came by to hook up my ISP
We settled in for the night my baby and me
We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn
There was thirty-seven systems and nothin' on
Well now home entertainment was my baby's wish
So I hopped into town for a satellite dish
I tied it to the top of my Japanese car
I came home and I pointed it out into the stars
A message came back from the great beyond
There's thirty-seven systems and nothin' on
Well we might'a made some friends with some billionaires
We might'a got all nice and friendly
If we'd made it upstairs
All I got was a note that said "Bye-bye John
Our love is thirty-seven systems and nothin' on"
So I bought a
And in the blessed name of Elvis well I just let it blast
'Til my 'puter lay in pieces there at my feet
And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace
Judge said "What you got in your defense son?"
"Thirty-seven systems and nothin' on"
I can see by your eyes friend you're just about gone
Thirty-seven channels and nothin' on...
Thirty-seven channels and nothin'
-
Funny.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why not HarrixOS too ?? (Score:3, Funny)
As enthusiastically reviewed by NTK [ntk.net]
VMWare? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Smooth (Score:2)
Or run Linux in VMWare under Win2000.
Re:And not a one of them... (Score:2)
VICE is a Versatile Commodore Emulator, i.e. a program that runs on a Unix, MS-DOS, Win95/NT, OS/2, Acorn RISC OS or BeOS machine and executes programs intended for the old 8-bit Commodore computers. The current version emulates the C64, the C128, the VIC20, all the PET models (except the SuperPET 9000, which is out of line anyway) and the CBM-II (aka C610).
The Most Expensive C64 Ever (Score:2)
I tried one a few years ago that scared me away from them: it sucessfully began emulating a C64. However, my brand new (at the time), very expensive (at the time), Pentium 100 didn't want to STOP being a C64. No matter how I tried to quit or reboot it kept coming up as a C64.
'Great' I think to myself, 'I have the worlds most expensive Commodore 64... and I don't even have a 1541 floppy.' :)
Re:no hardware limits?? (Score:2)
Re:Can you spot the reference? (Score:2)