VOGONS


First post, by Muz

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Which of these two old OS, you would choose?

Reply 1 of 18, by thepirategamerboy12

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For Pentium 2s (or at least Pentium MMX) and earlier, I'd say Windows 95. I know for sure in my testing that it runs way better than 98 on that kind of hardware. Newer than that, though, go with Windows 98.

Reply 2 of 18, by MAZter

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For Pentium laptops, I prefer to only use Windows 98 because it supports usb and is more versatile in case I want to switch the hard drive from an old laptop to a new one and vice versa.

For 486 and lower Win 3.11 is fine enough.

Doom is what you want (c) MAZter

Reply 3 of 18, by TechieDude

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MAZter wrote on 2020-10-13, 16:37:

For Pentium laptops, I prefer to only use Windows 98 because it supports usb and is more versatile in case I want to switch the hard drive from an old laptop to a new one and vice versa.

For 486 and lower Win 3.11 is fine enough.

You can use USB (even flashdrives) with Windows 95B and later using XUSBSUPP, unless you also want USB2.0 High Speed.

Reply 4 of 18, by Byrd

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I'd always go for Windows 98 on any Pentium and above with 32+MB RAM. Simply because of more options with software and driver availability. Windows 95 is just that bit too basic to play around with in a retro OS sense.

Reply 6 of 18, by Cyberdyne

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386/486 3.11 Fast486/Pentium 60/66 Windows 95 original. Pentium 75+ windows 98SE with maybe 95 explorer.exe and some Lite optimizations. Pentium MMX+ 98SE full.

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.

Reply 7 of 18, by bloodem

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- For 486 I stick to DOS 6.22 or Win3.1 at most
- For Pentium MMX/AMD K6 --> Win95 OSR2.5
- Starting with Pentium 2/AMD K6-2+ and going all the way up to a Tualatin 1.4GHz/Thunderbird 1.4GHz --> I stick with Win98SE exclusively
- For Athlon XP, Pentium 4, Athlon 64 builds (and even some Core 2 Duo/Pentium Dual core PCs, which are compatible with Win98) --> WinXP/Win98SE dual boot.

1 x PLCC-68 / 2 x PGA132 / 5 x Skt 3 / 9 x Skt 7 / 12 x SS7 / 1 x Skt 8 / 14 x Slot 1 / 5 x Slot A
5 x Skt 370 / 8 x Skt A / 2 x Skt 478 / 2 x Skt 754 / 3 x Skt 939 / 7 x LGA775 / 1 x LGA1155
Current PC: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Backup PC: Core i7 7700k

Reply 8 of 18, by Joseph_Joestar

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bloodem wrote on 2020-11-04, 07:13:

- For Pentium MMX/AMD K6 --> Win98 OSR2.5

Likewise, except I use OSR2.1. Basically, the same thing just without IE4 and the desktop update (quick launch etc). I find that those two things can slow the system down a bit on older hardware, without providing any tangible benefits from the retro gaming perspective. USB support is installed as needed, and it works just fine on 2.1.

- For Athlon XP, Pentium 4, Athlon 64 builds (and even some Core 2 Duo/Pentium Dual core PCs, which are compatible with Win98) --> WinXP/Win98SE dual boot.

I like to dual boot Win98SE with Windows 2000 + SP4 on AthlonXP systems. It's a bit more lightweight than WinXP + SP3 and it handles games from the early 2000s quite well. I do have a dedicated WinXP rig that is much more powerful, but there are a few games from that era which work better with period-correct hardware (e.g. Splinter Cell wants a GeForce4).

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 9 of 18, by bloodem

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Right, I forgot to mention, for Athlon XP/Pentium 4 and even Athlon 64 I usually stick with WinXP SP2. 😀 It's much more lightweight than SP3 (and it's also more period correct anyway).
Not a big fan of Windows 2000 (even though SP4 is decent). I did test it multiple times, but somehow I always find myself just switching back to Windows XP. I remember that even back in the day, I went straight from Windows 98 to Windows XP SP1 😀 All my Win ME & Win 2000 trials had been complete failures (either had stability issues or performance issues). Then again, at that point I was on a VIA KT266 platform, with an AMD Thunderbird 1.33 GHz, and it was a well known fact at the time that Windows ME was much more usable/stable on Intel chipsets.

1 x PLCC-68 / 2 x PGA132 / 5 x Skt 3 / 9 x Skt 7 / 12 x SS7 / 1 x Skt 8 / 14 x Slot 1 / 5 x Slot A
5 x Skt 370 / 8 x Skt A / 2 x Skt 478 / 2 x Skt 754 / 3 x Skt 939 / 7 x LGA775 / 1 x LGA1155
Current PC: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Backup PC: Core i7 7700k

Reply 10 of 18, by Jo22

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I would not want to use Win95 on any hardware anymore. It's too limited and frustrating. It's a bit like Windows 3.0 vs 3.11, I think.
Both look about the same, behave about the same - but under the hood, the latter one has many advancements that come in handy.
On the other hand, many people prefer Windows 2000 over XP, also.. 😉

Edit: Then there's also nostalgia and so-called period-correctness, both of which played a minor role back in the days.
While some users typically upgraded their systems from time to time, other's did not.
So in reality, both software and hardware was used among several generations: Windows 95 on a 486DX-33, Windows 3.11 on a Pentium II and vice versa.
Thus, for example, saying that Windows 3.11 (& DOS) doesn't belong on a Pentium II might be true from a technical point of view (-> no ideal combination),
but is it really non-"period-correct" if it was not an uncommon practice in these days ? 😉

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 12 of 18, by GigAHerZ

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I have:
386DX-40, 32MB ram - Dos 6.22 (+ Norton Commander)
Am486DX4-100, 128MB ram - Dos6.22 + Windows for Worgroups 3.11
Pentium MMX 266MHz, 256MB ram - Windows 98SE

I'm skipping the Win95, as the 98 is just a better version of it, to be honest...

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!

Reply 13 of 18, by zyga64

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IMHO Windows 98 4.10.1998 (First edition) is quite snappy for Pentium 1 with 64MB ram.
It's good compromise between 95OSR2 and 98SE. Almost the same overhead and more user friendly (than Windows 95).

1) VLSI SCAMP /286@20 /4M /CL-GD5422 /CMI8330
2) i420EX /486DX33 /16M /TGUI9440 /GUS+ALS100+MT32PI
3) i430FX /K6-2@400 /64M /Rage Pro PCI /ES1370+YMF718
4) i440BX /P!!!750 /256M /MX440 /SBLive!
5) iB75 /3470s /4G /HD7750 /HDA

Reply 14 of 18, by Cyberdyne

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After Pentium 2 yo can go with windows XP easily, and hey there is a new modern unofficial kernel (All windows XP capabilities without XP requirements) for Windows 2000 so you can have a lean and mean ultra stable computer even with a Pentium without even MMX.

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.

Reply 16 of 18, by thepirategamerboy12

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The thing is, the vast majority of games and software you'd want to run on a Pentium MMX will work just fine on Windows 95. Even some games that claim to only work on 98 work on 95 anyways, such as SpongeBob Employee of the Month. Also, it is possible to get USB mass storage devices working on 95. Admittedly, though, it can be hit or miss when it comes to getting it working compared to 98. I could never get it working with my Toshiba Tecra 550CDT P266MMX laptop and had to resort to using a driver in DOS mode, but it worked first try with my P166MMX machine when I installed a PCI USB card and works quite well.

Reply 17 of 18, by Cobra42898

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Usually I'd go for 98se over 95 unless the PC didnt have USB ports. I have a 100mhz Pentium running 95C. It is lighter. On the other hand i have a 200pentium/mmx I had to run 98se on, not only because of the USB, but also because 95c didn't have all the drivers built in, but 98se did.

Searching for Epson Actiontower 3000 486 PC.

Reply 18 of 18, by appiah4

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If you have a CPU >= Pentium MMX and RAM >= 32MB then go with Win98SE, otherwise go with Win95 OSR2.5

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.