Windows 3.x

[Jaime Andrés]

Originally posted by LogicError@Jun 3 2004, 09:53 PM
Once Microsoft "retires" an operating system, Microsoft no longer has any ownership or distribution rights. Thus, you CAN put any version of Windows that has been retired online for redistrobution. As of December 31, 2003, everything below Windows Millennium Edition has been retired and no longer has any "free" technical support. Also, do you think Microsoft would give a damn if you put up Windows 3.x? :-P

I hope your day time job is not as a lawyer. I'm sure you will find that M$ still owns all rights to all windows versions whether they are supported or not.

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by LogicError+Jun 3 2004, 03:53 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (LogicError @ Jun 3 2004, 03:53 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by locustfurnace+May 30 2004, 11:28 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (locustfurnace @ May 30 2004, 11:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>MS Windows 3.0 is a retail app, and can not be shared legally. It is still under copyright by Microsoft.[/b]

Incorrect. Once Microsoft "retires" an operating system, Microsoft no longer has any ownership or distribution rights. Thus, you CAN put any version of Windows that has been retired online for redistrobution. As of December 31, 2003, everything below Windows Millennium Edition has been retired and no longer has any "free" technical support. Also, do you think Microsoft would give a damn if you put up Windows 3.x? :-P
[/b]

Incorrect.
Copyrighted works have

17 USC Sec. 302 01/06/03

TITLE 17 - COPYRIGHTS

CHAPTER 3 - DURATION OF COPYRIGHT

-HEAD-

Sec. 302. Duration of copyright: Works created on or after January 1, 1978

-STATUTE-

(a) In General. - Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author&#39;s death.

(B) Joint Works. - In the case of a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire, the copyright endures for a term consisting of the life of the last surviving author and 70 years after such last surviving author&#39;s death.

Dont make up laws, LOOKUP laws before giving your expertise.
MS never &#39;retired&#39;; a single OS from their catalog. DOS is not retired, if it were, then MS legal dept would not still be issuing C&D&#39;s.
You can NOT put it online, only the owner can decide what and HOW it can be distributed, not some online website.
Does MS still care, YES it does, it is called Intellectual Property, or IP. MS owns the IP for the life.
ONLY if they make the software fall under a &#39;Public Domain&#39; license, can people share it.
MS is in the business of making MONEY, and they make their money by selling software, they have no intention of giving someone something for free that they could still sell to someone, somewhere.
Just because MS no longer gives support does not mean it is free to steal, or that they lose their ownership of it. They no longer support it because its been replaced.
Also. Had you paid attention to the REAL WORLD. you would been aware that MS did not &#39;retire&#39; their older OS&#39;s. If you mean &#39;retire&#39; as in they no longer give support for their older software, this is not true. The date you quote "As of December 31, 2003" also. is made up out of thin air, For infact, MS has extended support until June 30, 2006 for these older titles, being 98, 98SE, ME. As it was intending to stop supporting these OS in December 2004. So nowhere does the year 2003 even get mentioned with ending support.
http://news.com.com/Older+Windows+versions....html?tag=st.rn
Merely no supporting these titles or giving technical help does not mean they expire their ownsership either.

Originally posted by -http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:ASfnTv6Q5sQJ:http://www.rosenlaw.com/html/GL15a.p...+license&hl=en
Intellectual property enters the public domain only when it grows old. Everything else, including certainly any computer software of recent vintage, is owned by somebody somewhere. It is not "free" for the taking.

The legal monopolies for software under copyright laws last a very long time. Under current law, copyright extends for the life of the author plus 70 years; in the case of pseudonymous or anonymous works, or works made for hire, copyright extends for 95 years from the year of its first publication or 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. The software industry is new, and so it is rare today to find any important software for which the copyright has expired.

NOTE: "The software industry is new, and so it is rare today to find any important software for which the copyright has expired."

<!--QuoteBegin--LogicError@Jun 3 2004, 03:53 PM
Want to bring alive an old computer but retain functionality? Debian GNU/Linux <-- Go here, get it, download it, install it, use it. Originally create for free so no legalities to worry about ;-)[/quote]

Originally?? It was and still is &#39;Free.&#39; It is Licensed software under the GPL (General Public License), it is free, but that does not mean it is no cost software. The free is &#39;FREE&#39; like in Free Speech.

<!--QuoteBegin--GPL@http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.txt
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish)....
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,distribute and/or modify the software.[/quote]

This means the source code is made freely available, but has nothing to do with cost.
There is a license, and this means legalese. Such as you can not claim you wrote the software yourself, you must credit those who wrote the code before you made your changes. You MUST release the source code and make the source code freely available, You can not restrict what someone does with the software except, they can not modify and claim to have written it or not make the source code available.
Debian GNU/Linux is a distribution (collection) of &#39;GNU software&#39; & the &#39;Linux&#39; kernel. And this is true of all Linux Distros.
Linux works well on NEW and OLD computers, It works fine a server, embedded OS, whatever you can think of, it probably has been ported to.

[REad]

dude did u know windows is based on dos? how will they give up their rights on dos or any other os they got? plus, is really stupid, if u wanted something, ud look for it, or ask, but not here, though i think its retarded, i have seen copies of windows 98 in wal mart andsome stores, and i mean windows 98, which is old, but u know... ms doesnt give up rights on something unless it sells it... common sense, has msn sold any windows version to another company? guess not...


and, win 3.xx???? at least get win 95 which is better, or just work with dos... if u know how...


linux is not recommended for noobs so dont even dream about that one

[Spy Guy]

can anyone help me get windows 1.0, and dos 1.0 for my old 80&#39;s computer?
Thanks&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;

[Pete]

Since they&#39;re not freeware or shareware, you&#39;re not going to get them here.

Having said that....Windows 1.0 is horrible. If your machine can&#39;t handle Windows 3.1 or newer, stick with DOS.

You didn&#39;t say exactly how old your machine is, but I have an old (circa 1986) IBM XT with an 8088 processor that runs DOS 5.0 handily. It&#39;s a lot more comprehensive than the abbreviated versions that were distributed with Windows. If your machine can use it but can&#39;t run Windows 3.1, I recommend DOS 5.0

Instead of using Windows, put dosshell as the last line of your autoexec.bat file. It&#39;s a user friendly interface that can be used with or without a mouse.... Much better than Windows 1.0...... It can even simulate multitasking by using swap files.

[locustfurnace]

• FreeDOS
  FreeDOS aims to be a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system (mostly achieved except Windows compatibility and some smaller issues

Still actively being developed today, A better choice over an older version of any MS, or IBM DOS&#39;s. I&#39;ve used it on a 286 laptop which was later used as an e-mail station.

[Pete]

Originally posted by locustfurnace@Aug 12 2004, 06:28 AM

• FreeDOS
  FreeDOS aims to be a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system (mostly achieved except Windows compatibility and some smaller issues

Still actively being developed today, A better choice over an older version of any MS, or IBM DOS&#39;s. I&#39;ve used it on a 286 laptop which was later used as an e-mail station.

Does it have dosshell.exe or an equilivant user interface (and all the other commands that were eliminated when Windows became the primary interface)?

That&#39;s really why Dos 5.0 is my favorite version. IMHO, it was the last version that served as a complete OS.

[locustfurnace]

I am not sure if it does have dosshell, I never used a shell in DOS so i can not answer that.
But I am positive there are many shells you can find and use. I think I may have some bookmarked somewhere, I&#39;ll have to check in a few days when I am back at my machines.

The download is about 20megs for FreeDOS, you can burn it to a CD to boot it as well. If you have the speed, it is worth checking into.

[Pete]

I checked out the freedos website. There were links to a couple of GUIs that they recommend....At least one of them requires at least a 386 processor.

"Spy Guy" didn&#39;t give us enough specifics. If he has a 386, he can use Windows 3.1 or 3.11.

If it&#39;s so old that it doesn&#39;t have a hard drive, he probably needs something that will fit on a single 5-1/4" 360K floppy. Perhaps one of the DOS 3.x versions (or equalivant). Without a HD, a GUI won&#39;t be that useful anyway.

Whatever it is, I DO NOT recommend Windows 1.0

[rhoadesb]

I doubt anyone but Mr. Gates and close associates have access to MS-DOS 1.0. I checked into this once out of curiousity. If memory serves 1.1 may be somewhere available.

I hope someone keeps these things. They are history, and may one day have antique value.