>can-i-open-16-bit-application-in-windows-8?forum=windows-all&referrer=answers
I had good luck using the 32-bit version of W8 & W10. Had to manually enable NTVDM manually beforehand.
For 64-bit Widows IIRC it would open in DOSbox, but it was actually a DOS aplication.
Now there's this:
windows 8 has reach end of life and service, they don't have all obligation to keep support channel for this operating system
What a waste of time to have uservoice pages, induce people to post/vote on them, and then just ignore them. I guess it's for the best that they nuked them. They were replaced with pages that said "tweet us". Maybe they have something more robust now, especially since twitter is politically charged/divisive.
It's like standing up complex automated phone menus, you're going to frustrate a certain number of callers into giving up, and reduce the overall number of customers you have to interact with.
We need a scale reform for modern businesses - platforms and companies like Microsoft are logistically incapable of providing good service to their customers, or moderating hundreds of millions or even billions of users, effectively separating these companies from all the harm they cause.
If you can't responsibly operate a business past a certain scale, you shouldn't be allowed to continue growth. I don't know what that looks like, legally speaking, but it's necessary, for what should be reasons obvious to everyone.
> If you can't responsibly operate a business past a certain scale, you shouldn't be allowed to continue growth. I don't know what that looks like, legally speaking
For what it's worth, I'm typing this on my Debian desktop. In my opinion, a far better solution.
Regulation is the proper tool to force corporations to behave in a way that isn’t as harmful to society. This is something that should be regulated.
> For what it's worth, I'm typing this on my Debian desktop. In my opinion, a far better solution.
It’s almost comical how you speak about better alternatives in the context of capitalist markets, where better means reaching a higher market saturation, and then offer a niche solution that has a number of users so tiny that it’s less than a rounding error in any statistic.
The capitalists already chose their winners, they just never let down a rope to the consumer market.
> better means reaching a higher market saturation
25 years ago it made sense to let things play out. Now we're looking at ownership by subscription, and people unable to actually own their own devices, with constant, ubiquitous, global surveillance for all but the most wealthy, and even them most of the time. We see a proliferation of some of the worst possible things online, and companies that are unable and unwilling to effectively moderate their billions of users with resorting to heavy handed authoritarian tactics. Tactics which, when recognized by those in power, are quickly taken over and utilized for purposes far beyond anything so prosaic as "protecting children" or "combating terrorism."
Apple and Microsoft and Google and the rest have shown us that the tech market is more or less just like the old steel and oil markets - robber barons rush in, coordinate, distill the market to a handful of effective players, capture regulation and lobby legislation to maximize their own profit, and there is no concomitant return of value to the users or the market in general.
If you're too big to run the business responsibly, you should be legally prohibited from expanding further. This is about as pro-market as you can get, it requires actual unmet needs in any market to be met, and holds those operating in the market to account for their behavior.
AMD has been making chips literally for decades with investments in Billions. They had to spin their fab business off it was too expensive to keep up with. And even now, it's taken nearly a decade of competitive and leading products to make inroads, and even then they're still under 50% of x86 computers in use.
Linux has been around over 30 years, and is just now cracking 5% desktop market share. This happens while Windows has become less than 10% of Microsoft revenue, with well over a decade of "free" upgrades.
So, yeah, if you're able to get a company started... get billions invested... able to create compelling products without triggering literal mine-fields of IP and legislative restrictions... sure, you might be able to unseat a competitive mega corporation. But unlikely in anything resembling a lifetime measured in less than decades.
And here is where "you have to spend X number of days a year doing CS" should be a requirement for every engineer, dev, product manger, and executive.
I do not think you understand the level of abject stupidity that customers are capable of. I do not think you understand how likely customers are to do dumb things and blame the company.
Companies who provide support charge more for their products to pay for it. How much? Well how many people break things and then ask for refunds. The company pays for those people by marking up all the other products.
IN any organization: first friend outside your team should be in accounting. The second should be in customer service. These are the most valuable resources you will have regarding the tempo of what is going on inside your organization. They are the front line and the oracles of "truth" (the books dont lie, unless your Enron' and then you have bigger problems).
Me: "Would you be able to pull the computer out into the light so that you can check the connection with better lighting instead of the flashlight?"
Customer: "Not really, the power is out."
I worked on the iomega side, second level support, mostly Jazz and OS/2 calls, knew it was going to be a doozy when I got a non-warm zip customer. MCI operated support call center in Chandler, AZ... pretty sure that's where Safelight Auto Glass operates now.
Related: A buddy on the Compaq side of the call center got the infamous "broken cup holder" call. He could barely contain the laughter and popped up having to tell anyone at that moment about it.
On the flip side: if you're an individual, you're at a poker table with a $50 chip—you don't have leverage—you either just take the bet or don't. So you're basically forced to research the laptop/hardware/software you intend to run to verify it's a happy path, or it at least has vendors (or a local PC store) that will help you if something breaks, and hope for the best.
So I guess the question is, would people be willing to pay for good support? Would people even pay for an OS anymore?
It's honestly pretty awe inspiring.
Microsoft, are you running low on hosting space, or something?
I mean, how does one of worlds largest software corporations, handing people OneDrive accounts left and right, not to mention all the other digital waste they're busily involved with, lack storage space for some valuable archive pertaining to use of one of the world's most popular OS and associated software suites? Someone should just forbid them to "retire" content, especially if posted by actual people.
Fortunately, The Wayback Machine / Internet Archive works overtime to take upon themselves the responsibility I think would have been best left to Microsoft.
They don’t get to become one of the biggest and most successful companies by providing free services to legacy customers.
Personally, I keep a folder for product manuals. Anything I buy will have a PDF that I archive myself.
Need to change the oily on that generator I bought from Costco five years ago? Not going to find the docs on the web anymore but I have the PDF dated 2020 right here
Obviously that doesn’t work with a searchable software doc site with questions and answers but the fact that webpages could come and go at any time, and digital archival is far worse than clay tablets of antiquity is a lesson we all have to take to heart
This info is not some special epoch to anything. Save the resource use.
This is high tech not conservative politics. What's high tech about old operating systems?
There is also historic value, it would be sad if in 30 years almost all information about modern day operating systems is erased.
sltr•1h ago
slater•1h ago
whoopdedo•42m ago
[1] https://github.com/otya128/winevdm