Last week I was fortunate enough to service a Windows 3.1 computer and operating system. The customer who brought me the machine asked me to set it up and make it “like new” again. Problem was, the computer ran fine when it arrived.
My store is home to a revolving door of interns. Most of them come out of school and were trained on current technology. As I was working on the computer I had many gawkers; wondering why someone would spend good money to fix a machine that – well – was created around the time they were born.
The processor was a 16 megahertz and it was running on 1 (yes, one) megabyte of memory. The computer was equipped with a floppy drive and a 40 (again, yes) megabyte hard drive. I would say this machine easily weighed in at thirty five pounds. Rather than a push button, the power was triggered with a toggle switch.
I was surprised at how simple the circuitry was compared to a new computer. There was basically one circuit board with everything on it. Populating the motherboard were big chips like what you’d find in a home hobbyist’s entourage of spare parts. To me it looked like an old Heathkit assembly from the 70’s. I don’t think I mentioned yet that the date code on the computer was 1989.
Finally, after a few hours of cleaning up the system and going through it like I normally would, I was looking at a Windows 3.1 desktop. Some of you may know that Microsoft builds in more and more features with each addition of its Windows product. As you may remember, Windows 3.1 is pretty basic. Furthermore, 3.1 only consumes a fraction of the 40 megabyte’s total capacity.
After a few hours of working I felt entitled to a break and went outside for a breath of fresh air. When I came in, one of the interns was on the system fumbling around with the mouse. The look on his face was priceless as he remarked that “Bill Gates is a real marketing genius.” What he meant was, that aside from a few additions, Windows 3.1 really does much of the same thing that Windows 7 does. We’ve been duped into believing that we really need the newest and fastest.
The old Windows dinosaur really performs most of the tasks we use today. This particular machine had word processing software installed along with a handful of other utilities. With no particular knowledge of Windows 3.1 a user familiar with XP could easily start using this computer.
Now, I’m not saying that you should rummage through your cellar or attic and dust off your old computer. Due to Microsoft’s lack of service, subsequently, software manufacturer’s have also halted writing software for earlier versions of Windows. I think you would be really disappointed trying to surf the internet on such a computer.
The computer I’m on right now is 700 times faster than the machine that was in my shop last week. Yet it performs only slightly better given that I use Windows 7 and software titles made for this version of the operating system. I almost wish my customer didn’t want their machine back so I could start using it instead of this one.
Our consensus was that software and hardware manufacturers pre-plan the obsolescence of computers so they can sell the newest products. In really simple terms, most people could have used the old operating systems and hardware with the same end result. Had computer technology not evolved, I think it’s fair to say we all would have saved the money and aggravation of upgrading.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him at (978) 413-2840 or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)