Archived copy of A Swedish wolf in Norway

Microsoft Windows 3.11 for Workgroups was the last version of the old Windows product before it was merged with MS-DOS, had its 32-bit support updated and was rebranded as Windows 95. Whereas it has not been sold to end-users in over a decade, it seems that it has still been licensed for OEM customers for embedded systems. That is, until November 1st. After that, it is really the end.

Although it doesn’t work very well with modern hardware (at least some version combinations of Windows/DOS has problem when the PC has more than 800 or so megabytes of memory), it can be successfully run under emulation, I have a similar system like that set up under VMware at home. I do use Opera 3.62 for browsing, though. Opera 3.62 was the last version of Opera released in a 16-bit version. There was some effort put into getting 4.00 to run on 16-bit, but it was abanondend as the 16-bit Windows market quickly faded away.

The old DOS world lives on, however, FreeDOS is actively being developed as a free clone of MS-DOS. I have seen it used on downloadable BIOS upgrade disks from motherboard manufacturers, for instance, as it easily fits to a floppy disk and gives full access to the system.