eWorld.UI - Matt Hawley

Ramblings of Matt

Who Uses Windows 3.11?

February 3, 2004 19:59 by matthaw

I've been studying my server logs for usage and just general information this morning, and I have to say that I'm just stunned of the amount of outdated software that is still in use.  As you can tell from the subject, I noticed, in the month of January, that there were 46 visits by people using Windows 3.11.  Why in the world would anyone still be using this, let alone a developer.  What's even more suprising, is that it beat out Linux by 20 visits.

Another thing to note, is the use of outdated browsers.  While the top still stands at IE 6, IE 4 comes in a whopping second place, then Netscape 4, then IE 5.0, then 5.5x.  Why? I just don't understand it.  Although the real older browsers didn't make the top 5, it is interesting to note that Netscape 3 and 2 were in use during last month, maybe by those 46 users using Windows 3.11.  How do these people expect to get the best internet usage or experience using this software, it just baffles me.

Have you run across anyone still using outdated (and unsupported) operating systems or browsers recently?



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Comments

February 3. 2004 20:04

I used to have a fairly regular visitor who used HotJava 1.0...on which nothing at all worked not surprisingly...

Scott Galloway

February 3. 2004 20:13

I know for a fact that Netscape 4 doesn't even work...it doesn't like the amount of CSS that I use.  



BTW - I just checked out HotJava, the pages work but it looks like crap, however none of the controls work.

Matt Hawley

February 3. 2004 20:21

Well Matt on Scoilnet site the stats show a lot of interesting users including Mosaic, Netscape 2 and Internet Explorer...1 !

And don't forget the exotic Unix kind of browsers you can have on stats. Yes strange !

Paschal

February 3. 2004 20:21

some people are so bored they put win 3.11 in their user agent? ;)

David Cumps

February 3. 2004 20:23

I guess thats possible, but they'd have to be a rather big geek to do that.  I wonder how you do it... ;)

Matt Hawley

February 3. 2004 20:26

I've got a hit from IE 1

Internet Explorer 1 1 2/2/2004 12:41:00 AM



I didn't know there was an IE 1!!



as well as the following

reqs pages os

27 0   HP-UX

5 0   AIX

6 238 11 WebTV

7 27 0 OS/2

Christoc

February 3. 2004 20:40

Talk about having browser compat issues!



I had to do a double take when I saw your post!



Did that really say Windows 3.11!

David Yack

February 3. 2004 20:49

Maybe these people have the right idea. You don't hear about new daily security exploits being discovered for NS 2 and 3 now do you? Smile



http://

February 3. 2004 20:52

Crawlers will sometimes use odd user agent info.

http://

February 3. 2004 20:53

I usually put Commodore64 in my UserAgent.  

Shannon J Hager

February 3. 2004 22:13

Some of the "terminal" machines at my old university used Windows 3.1.  Basically they had a bunch of outdated boxes setup as dumb terminals allowing quick surf or check email.  The boxes were setup in hallways, etc in the student union, allowing people to quick jump online while walking to class.

James Geurts

February 4. 2004 00:25

You should talk to the guy i have been working for....

windows 95 and netscape 4





had to do some major stuff just to get him from win95 and office 97 to win 2k pro and office 2k pro.



at least now when he sends me a powerpoint deck his checkmarks stay the same... he likes check marks as bullet point items.... used to be due to the font differences he checks came to me as funny blocks.

http://

February 4. 2004 03:49

You want to know old?  I'll give you old...



I know of several radio stations that are still using TRS-80 Model 4's running Zenix for their accounting systems (written in a version of BASCOM)...



Bear in mind, these radio stations are located outside of the U.S. and they have an extremely limited budget to work with; but still...

Cory Smith

March 5. 2004 06:24

Hehe... I'm in the process of resurrecting an old Gateway2000 ColorBook laptop [486DX2-50, 20MB RAM (Maxed out), 1.4 GB HDD]...

Windows98 is not even an option with this old hardware.

Tried Windows95 OSR-2 w/ IE 3.02, and it ran like molasses in January. Tong  So, I loaded DOS 6.22 and WFWG 3.11 and Netscape Communicator 4.07... At least it's somewhat useable now. ;)



The older OSes do have their uses...



- Tursiops_G.

http://

March 19. 2004 07:32

Well, I'm using Windows 3.11 on a Pentium II.  We were still teaching it because the Comp/TIA A+ exam still covered it up to last year along with DOS 6.22.  And guess what!!  I'm running WinXP on a Pentium 133MHz with 128 Megs of RAM.  It runs pretty smoothly too.



Abe

Abe Duran

March 22. 2004 07:10

A browser is not outdated till the one uses thinks it is.  There are lot of older computers and use and some 3.11 is a must.

http://

March 23. 2004 08:41

I still use Windows 3.11 Windows for Workgroups on my 386 Zenith Laptop...  Some old 286,386, and even some 486 and First Generation Pentium's run Windows 95 and above too slowly... sadly, a lot of older computers also have problems with old Linux Distro's as well, so the Windows 3.11 option isn't that bad of idea... My favorite thing to do with this old laptop, is connect to the a 16 bit client of Inter Relay Chat.. and also a 16 bit verison of ICQ, thru my network.

I am really surprised, seeing how there are so many older computers out there.. that there hasn't been a company, be it Microsoft or one of the Linux companies, that haven't marketed a Operating System, just for Legacy computers. Thier is Linux, but mainly console based... Image a low cost operating system that would work flawlessly on older systems? A goldmine !

Happy - ghostrelay@yahoo.com

Happy

March 28. 2004 11:08

I have Windows 2.03 installed on a 586 I have.  I use it to play old DOS games mostly.

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April 3. 2004 05:43

dem folks dat use dem out dated 'puters be liking 3.11

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May 10. 2004 20:23

I use it at work and at home, alternatively with Linux.

It is perfect virus-proof system Smile

Well, there are some problems with unicode, but that may be solved in newer Linux.

http://

May 14. 2004 23:16

For cheap-ass computing, nothing beats DOS/3x.  I just bought a 486 laptop for a friend on Ebay for $35.  It is running WfW 3.1l with IE 3.  Most websites display fine.  I wouldn't use it to buy anything with a credit card though.



Also, lots of 3x commercial software is free these days.



Charlie Wilkes

June 2. 2004 19:27

don't forget nostalgia! i have set up win 3.11 on vmware. It's quite funny to see it's "outdated" gui again!

http://

June 6. 2004 16:14

I am now using Windows 98 SE but I also installed a Windows 3.1 version on the same disk to use it when I've got problems with the 98 version or when I want to run 16bit Windows applications without waiting for Win98 to load. Is there a page for downloading Windows 3.11? I'm very interested in it!

http://

July 10. 2004 07:28

I use Windows 3.11 and Internet Explorer 5.01/Outlook Express 5.01 to do almost everything I do on line... why? Almost no JAVA works, no Flash/Shockwave, no home page stealers, no secret dialer installs, no Gator spyware, no Win32 virus works, etc etc etc etc.



I dumbed down my 2.8 P-4 system to get away from all the drek, spam, tripe, viruses, and leechware.  I was having to scan for viruses, spyware, and general malware every 12-24 hours.  I had Kaspersky set to its most paranoid level, ran AdAware Pro twice a day, and dreaded checking my E-mail.  All of which took up my off-work time.  You know, I thought I would miss all that, but after about 12 hours I felt like I had gone uptown from the over-all speed improvement.



My aDSL connexion is finally beginning to be the benefit I had hoped it would be.  I strongly recommend a dual booting of Windows for Workgroups 3.11 with your favourite flavour of Windows.  Security through obscurity and obsolesence.



Scary thing is I can do my actually work as well in Win 3.x -- if not quicker -- than I was able to get it done in Windows XP.  If ALL hardware came with Windows 3.11 drivers I would abandon all later versions of Windows for the fast and friendly, albeit much less sassy and flashy, version that springboarded Microsoft into the lead.

http://

August 8. 2004 01:43

Can any body get me Windows 3.11 Free through the Internet

Please email me at:

abedoss@yahoo.com

http://

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