Windows 95 - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.capebreton.social/post/347724

Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995, almost three months after the release of Windows NT 3.51.

Windows 95 is the first version of Microsoft Windows to include taskbar, start button, and accessing the internet. Windows 95 merged Microsoft’s formerly separate MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows products, and featured significant improvements over its predecessor, most notably in the graphical user interface (GUI) and in its simplified “plug-and-play” features. There were also major changes made to the core components of the operating system, such as moving from a mainly cooperatively multitasked 16-bit architecture to a 32-bit preemptive multitasking architecture, at least when running only 32-bit protected mode applications.

Accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign,Windows 95 introduced numerous functions and features that were featured in later Windows versions, and continue in modern variations to this day, such as the taskbar, notification area, and the “Start” button. It is considered to be one of the biggest and most important products in the personal computing industry.

  • Cloudless ☼@feddit.ukEnglish
    905·
    1 year ago

    Better than Windows 11 in many aspects:

    • Runs on 4 MB of RAM
    • Less bloatware
    • Less invasion of privacy
    • Does not require TPM, Secure Boot etc
    • No ads
    • Not forcing you to use Edge, Bing, Cortana, or other random crap
      • Phrey@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        201·
        1 year ago

        32 bit

        But yes, rebooting for everything, including changing monitor resolution was a pain

        • Techmaster@lemm.eeEnglish
          132·
          1 year ago

          This might come as a shock to you, but Windows 95 isn’t even an operating system. It’s a GUI shell that runs on DOS, which is a 16 bit operating system. There is no Windows 95 kernel.

          • anlumo@feddit.deEnglish
            5·
            1 year ago

            It’s a bit more complex than that. Intel CPUs (to this day) boot in real mode, which is what DOS is using. In this mode, the system only has access to 640k of RAM. Windows 95 and later switch the processor to protected mode, where the system gets access to all of the RAM and also to memory protection features, so processes can’t real and write each other’s memory. However, in this mode it’s impossible to run real mode code, such as the one provided by DOS.

            DOS games had a trick where they briefly switched back to real mode to execute DOS functions (mostly reading and writing to disk) and then back to protected mode, but I don’t think that Windows 95 did that.

            • Techmaster@lemm.eeEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              I used DesQview in DOS and then switched to OS/2 Warp when it came out. DesQview was really cool.

        • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
          82·
          1 year ago

          32 bit hacked and kludged onto a 16 bit system that was still MS-DOS at the core. It was a mess. A highly unstable “wonder how it’s even working” mess. The “lol Windows always bluescreens” memes came from this era because of this. The switch to NT and pure 32 bit from boot to desktop for consumer OSes with Windows XP made the stability issues mostly a thing of history unless you had bad drivers or hardware.

          • Techmaster@lemm.eeEnglish
            31·
            1 year ago

            And then starting with Vista, Windows went to 64 bit. It was a complete rewrite of Windows and is way more stable because it requires every driver to be signed by Microsoft. You can disable the signed driver requirement, but then you’re risking stability.

            • ripcord@kbin.social
              4·
              1 year ago

              It wasn’t a complete rewrite of Windows.

              Maybe if it was your first NT-based Windows, like you previously had 98 or ME or something, then it might appear that way.

              But Vista was a fairly incremental update. Lots of things changed but nowhere close to a complete rewrite.

              • Techmaster@lemm.eeEnglish
                11·
                1 year ago

                It was a whole new kernel. They didn’t rewrite every single utility, but the kernel was a rewrite along with things like diskpart and the boot loader. The core of the OS. They also dumped all of the old 16 bit legacy apps.

                • aksdb@feddit.deEnglish
                  4·
                  1 year ago

                  I would like to see a source for that. I know they rewrote critical subsystems (like the audio and video stack), but the whole kernel? I don’t think so.

      • RheingoldRiver@kbin.social
        31·
        1 year ago

        Also, the part no one ever brings up: No per-program volume control. Ugh. That was so actively irritating until they finally added it (was it in XP? or not until 7?)

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          No per-program volume control was entirely the fault of whatever program you were using, not Windows. The Windows audio API supported global and application-level volume from the beginning with Windows 95 (even Windows 3.1 had it). Even if Windows 95 had not had application-level volume control, a developer could have implemented it for their application since they were composing the audio data sent to the API for playback (in other words, they could have just attenuated all the sample values to a lower volume).

      • FederatedSaint@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        1 year ago

        Do you change your IP address, like, ever? DHCP and forget over here in my homelab. I do have like four reservations but they never change.

    • jmondi@programming.devEnglish
      291·
      1 year ago

      A horse is better than a car in many aspects:

      • eco friendly fuel emissions
      • built in gps, FSD, and autopilot mode
      • naturally low maintenance
      • built in companion
      • traffic jams are a breeze
    • Diplomjodler@feddit.deEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Well. 4 MB was a bit of a stretch. I remember buying a RAM upgrade to 8 MB to get it to run decently. Cost me 200 DM on top of the 200 for the Windows upgrade. It was a huge leap compared to Windows 3.1, though. And this stuff just was a lot more expensive back in the day.

    • HellAwaits@lemm.eeEnglish
      41·
      1 year ago

      Sure, but you would get hacked far more easily and also MS did try to force users to IE back in the day IIRC

  • comedy@kbin.social
    40·
    1 year ago

    I remember the install CD had the Weezer “Buddy Holly” video on it. It felt pretty fancy

      • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Microsoft made no point to credit Edie Brickell in that video clip, they only credited Geffen Records.

        I figure many if not most people probably didn’t even know who she was, other than the pretty woman that sang the nice relaxing song in the street.

  • digdilem@feddit.ukEnglish
    19·
    1 year ago

    As someone who was working in IT support at the time - YAY! NO MORE FUCKING TRUMPET WINSOCK!

    • Yewb@kbin.social
      13·
      1 year ago

      Oh god quit bringing up the pain!

      IRQ conflicts when trying to install a modem and a soundcard!

      • wmassingham@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        I was configuring COM ports just last week. Turns out the software is so old that it only supports COM1.

  • imgonnatrythis@lemm.eeEnglish
    81·
    1 year ago

    And this marked the very first and last time I felt a sense of genuine excitement about an OS upgrade.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.mlEnglish
      12·
      1 year ago

      You weren’t stoked for XP? XP is the OS that got me into computing. Before XP computers were a novelty to me. When XP came out they finally seemed powerful enough to accomplish cool things with.

      • imgonnatrythis@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        I learned a lot with XP because it required constant trouble shooting. Was a buggy mess imo. I was more excited about hardware advancements and cool games at that time.

  • mycatiskai@lemmy.oneEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    My dad barely knew how to run things in windows 3.1 but he still regrets the day he installed windows 95 because it was all downhill from there when it came to him knowing what was going on.

    • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      You mean those little discs that you throw a bigger, heaver disc on top of? You’ve gotta share a pic sometime

      • Luci@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        I’m currently searching boxes. No one was taking them so they gave me like 20 of them.

    • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
      21·
      1 year ago

      Haha I remember this. People who downvote you probably are too young to remember.

    • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I like how they selectively edited that so that you don’t hear Mick singing “You make a grown man cry”…

      • mindbleach@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Microsoft marketing hasn’t gotten any better about song choices. A few years ago their ads had soft bleep-bloop tunes and “go baby, go baby, yeah we’re right behind you.”

        The song is “Cherry Lips,” by Garbage. It’s the twink anthem.

        And it’s still not as tone-deaf as whichever Bill Hicks target picked out “hey ho let’s go” from the god-damned “Blitzkrieg Bop.”