Windows 3.1 replacement media (!!)

[cleverhandle]

I kid you not...

I'm just getting involved with a program that has HS students renovate donated PC's and then teach younger students at local community centers basic typing and computer skills. The coordinator of the program has 100 legal, paper licenses for Windows 3.1, but recently discovered that the last set of installation floppies developed a bad disk. Of course, the kids hadn't thought to make backups, and I guess the coordinator just never thought about it before. So is there any easy place for me to get replacement media?


And yes, zealots - I will be pushing for Linux. Teach the kids the reality of the software industry...

 

[cleverhandle]

...

 

[Zim Hosein]

This info might help, or at least put you in contact w/ the right MS people:

U.S. customers can contact the Microsoft Order Desk at the following phone number:
(800) 360-7561, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific time.

Canadian customers can contact the Canadian Order Desk at the following number:
(800) 933-4750, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific time.

Hope it helps

 

[n0cmonkey]

Are these really old machines that cant take newer MS OSes?

 

[Goosemaster]

I apoligize if this is wrong firsthand...


If you "look" there are places onlin where 3.1 can be had...since you have licenses for them, I find it to be the quickest solution...or call MS...

 

[Abzstrak]

I'd call MS, they'd probably give you free copies of win95 or something just for the PR... Offer to let the local media know if they donate something.

Or use linux.... win31 is useless

 

[earthman]

I'm sure you could buy a set online or on ebay for a few bucks, if nothing else.

 

[RalfHutter]

This guy has a set for $23.

 

[alanatswbell]

Bump for a PM

 

[monckywrench]

Since your licenses are legit bagging a copy online is the easiest route and very low effort. Most sites have the files as zips, but if you use Winimage to create self-extracting floppy files and then burn those to CD you can crank out floppies as required with zero hassle.

 

[MGMorden]

Or use linux.... win31 is useless

I disagree. Sure it's old by today's standards, but internet works fine in Win3.1 (I used it for a long time; when I first got internet I was using Win95, but after my 1gb hard drive crashed I had to revert to an older machine w/ an 80mb for almost a year. Win3.1 was definately the best choice here, taking up a measly 10mb on the disk). There are web browsers for it (I ran IE 3.0 IIRC on my old machine. it was decent on a 486 SX 20mhz with 6mb of RAM (or it might have been 75mhz DX by then; sometime or another I put an overdrive chip in that machine). There are also email programs out there for it and Office 95. When you've got web, email, and office apps on a machine then you can do useful things. Heck if you can deal with text interfaces even 286's could be put to use (I used them in school. along with an ANSI-text version of MS Office. My aunt used a 286 w/ Windows 3.1 for a long time but it was painfully slow). Believe me there are people in parts of this world that would kill to have our computers from 15 years ago. They can do just as much now as they could back then (actually alot more given the software developed over time).

 

[Abzstrak]

I disagree. Sure it's old by today's standards, but internet works fine in Win3.1 (I used it for a long time; when I first got internet I was using Win95, but after my 1gb hard drive crashed I had to revert to an older machine w/ an 80mb for almost a year. Win3.1 was definately the best choice here, taking up a measly 10mb on the disk). There are web browsers for it (I ran IE 3.0 IIRC on my old machine. it was decent on a 486 SX 20mhz with 6mb of RAM (or it might have been 75mhz DX by then; sometime or another I put an overdrive chip in that machine). There are also email programs out there for it and Office 95. When you've got web, email, and office apps on a machine then you can do useful things. Heck if you can deal with text interfaces even 286's could be put to use (I used them in school. along with an ANSI-text version of MS Office. My aunt used a 286 w/ Windows 3.1 for a long time but it was painfully slow). Believe me there are people in parts of this world that would kill to have our computers from 15 years ago. They can do just as much now as they could back then (actually alot more given the software developed over time).

Sorry, but linux can do all this and more, and can run on some pretty slow hardware (especially going back to 2.2.x). And he doesn't need any licenses, which is why I suggested it.

and also, win31 on 6mb of ram sucks. Win31 sucks for web access too, todays websites run like hell if at all on IE3 or netscape 3.

 

[sciencewhiz]

linux runs horribly on 6mb of ram too.

The web != the internet