Windows officially withdrawn from sale
Microsoft has officially withdrawn the Windows operating system. (Well, the Windows 3.x series at least.)
As of this month, the company is no longer issuing licences for the 3.x system, which launched in May 1990 and was arguably the first Microsoft system with a graphical user interface to earn mainstream use and support. The GUI was the key to the system. Beyond that, it was pretty much a better-looking version of the text-based MS-DOS.
It was the first edition of Windows which shipped pre-installed on some computers (as opposed to coming on separate floppy disks). And in a change which probably had much more effect on everyday office use, it was also the first edition of Windows to include the solitaire game.
A year after the system’s release, Microsoft issued an update to allow manufacturers to add support for multimedia devices such as sound cards and CD-Rom drives.
The system required just 640Kb memory, 7MB hard disk space and a 10MHz processor, compared with 512MB, 20GB and 800MHz respectively in even the most basic edition of Vista.
Though Microsoft withdrew support for Windows 3.x in 2001, it’s still used as a built-in system for some devices, most notably the in-flight entertainment system for Virgin and Quantas.
The BBC interviewed Andy Rothbone, author of the Dummy’s Guide Windows series. He said Windows 3.11 (the most popular edition in the 3.x series) would run reasonably well on most machines today, though obviously only with software produced in that era. But he pointed out that there are limits to the Vista-inspired trend for downgrading: 3.11 wouldn’t stand a chance against today’s online hackers.
The withdrawal (and the accompanying media coverage) may make boxed copies briefly more appealing to collectors. At the moment there are several copies available on eBay, but none seem to attract bidding wars and go for more than a few dollars.
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