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Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

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Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#41

Post by duxup »

avian wrote: post #25
TheAdamist wrote: post #21

>"Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think". That is a pretty misleading title to me, it sounds like they discovered many bios's have embedded windows 3.1 to run the user interface. Instead its about someone purposefully loading windows 3.1 onto their bios flash chip, and how they made it functional. "How i embedded windows 3.1 into my bios" or something would be a more descriptive title. edit: Or even…

I seem to remember that Compaq business PCs in the late 1990s/early 00s had BIOS/NVRAM setup that looked suspiciously like a customized build of Windows 3.1. You held ESC or something during boot and you got a mouse-driven interface to set various hardware settings. I remember it being quite the contrast to the more common text-mode menu based BIOS setups. I never looked into it whether it was actually in ROM/Flash o…

I remember some of those old BIOSs that were quite UI involved.

I always thought "This is really neat... not sure it was worth the effort for a BIOS..."

Granted in those days users were more likely to be in the BIOS to do something than today.

Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#42

Post by deathanatos »

First, see the screenshots / video in the original article: https://sakamoto.pl/weblog/07-windows-3-flash-edition/

That's Windows 3.1? It has the window borders of 3.1 (the weird "—" in the upper left, the white menu bar) but we've got "My Computer" and "Recycle Bin" on the desktop — desktop icons weren't introduced until Windows 95. There were icons in 3.1, but they were minimized programs, since there was so start bar at the time. (But, his video and one screenshot also have a start bar in them?)

Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#43

Post by Theodores »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #35
Wyndtroy2012 wrote: post #16

Remember the Mac OS and MacWrite fit on a single LOW-density 3.5″ floppy in 1984.

That's not too surprising. Early MacOS didn't provide much more than MS-DOS under the hood (non-hierarchical file system, manual multitasking), and the graphics were all 1bpp.

I didn't realise it didn't have a proper file system. Games were more glorified as far as user interface was concerned, e.g. the 2000 planet system with 3D graphics of the BBC Micro's Elite, running on an 8 bit 6502 machine with 32K usable RAM.

You can see the Mac OS as an expensive 'game' with the objective to write a letter, running on dedicated hardware.

Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#44

Post by muterad_murilax »

deathanatos wrote: post #42

First, see the screenshots / video in the original article: https://sakamoto.pl/weblog/07-windows-3-flash-edition/ That's Windows 3.1? It has the window borders of 3.1 (the weird "—" in the upper left, the white menu bar) but we've got "My Computer" and "Recycle Bin" on the desktop — desktop icons weren't introduced until Windows 95. There were icons in 3.1, but they were minimized programs, since there was so start…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19631562

Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#45

Post by bitwize »

microcolonel wrote: post #32
Kye wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a reference to an ancient internet meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/its-more-likely-than-you-thin...

The original from an advertisement reading: “Centipedes? In my vagina?” It's more likely than you think.

It was originally "Porn? On my computer?" and subsequently got snowcloned.

Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#46

Post by bitwize »

deathanatos wrote: post #42

First, see the screenshots / video in the original article: https://sakamoto.pl/weblog/07-windows-3-flash-edition/ That's Windows 3.1? It has the window borders of 3.1 (the weird "—" in the upper left, the white menu bar) but we've got "My Computer" and "Recycle Bin" on the desktop — desktop icons weren't introduced until Windows 95. There were icons in 3.1, but they were minimized programs, since there was so start…

Windows 3.x had at least one third-party extension that gave it a bit of the Windows 9x look and feel, including task bar, start menu, and desktop icons.

Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#49

Post by Crinus »

duxup wrote: post #41
avian wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to remember that Compaq business PCs in the late 1990s/early 00s had BIOS/NVRAM setup that looked suspiciously like a customized build of Windows 3.1. You held ESC or something during boot and you got a mouse-driven interface to set various hardware settings. I remember it being quite the contrast to the more common text-mode menu based BIOS setups. I never looked into it whether it was actually in ROM/Flash o…

I remember some of those old BIOSs that were quite UI involved. I always thought "This is really neat... not sure it was worth the effort for a BIOS..." Granted in those days users were more likely to be in the BIOS to do something than today.

Yet, the BIOSes both of the last motherboards i bought (one recently, another 3-4 years ago) had some very elaborate UIs, with skinned menus, star backgrounds and a bunch of other frivolous stuff. I think one even had some sort of background ambient sound.

Keeping with tradition though, the "help" screens of every option was as helpful as the "help" screens of my 386DX, Pentium MMX and Athlon64 desktops of decades prior, with entries such as the help for "Select frobation mode: FOO" being oneliners such as "Frobation mode, can be FOO or BARF" (but what the hell does frobation mode do and what do the FOO and BARF options mean?).

Re: Windows 3.1 in my BIOS? It's more likely than you think

#50

Post by Crinus »

peterwwillis wrote: post #38

I get the retro chic of an old Windows OS, but you could also package a window manager, web browser, text editor, and more in a floppy disk into the late 2000s using Linux. Compared to the multiple gigs of OS files needed to run Android on my smartphone, it's almost inconceivable how wasteful modern software is.

That is what you get for using 4096x4096 sized alpha blended HDR bitmaps for the icons and animated emojis on your 5" QUHD phone :-P.
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