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Andrew Warkentin

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The Virtual OS Museum is a comprehensive collection of over 1,700 pre-installed and pre-configured operating systems and standalone applications running on emulators within a Linux VM compatible with QEMU, VirtualBox, or UTM. Spanning from the earliest stored-program computers of 1948 to modern OSes, it offers an accessible way to explore historical operating systems without complex setup, featuring a custom launcher with snapshot capabilities and covering a vast range of platforms from mainframes and Unix variants to personal computer and mobile OSes.

https://virtualosmuseum.org/

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Retrotechnology Media

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Retrotechnology Media, hosted by Typewritten Software, presents a comprehensive museum of historical computer software and operating environments through a vast collection of screenshots and exhibits spanning from 1983 to 2007. The site documents the visual evolution of various desktop systems and the curator’s primary desktop setups over time, serving as a resource for preservation and study of vintage computing interfaces and software history. It includes systems like VisiCorp Visi On, SunTools, HP Integral PC, and IBM 4-Color CGA Graphics. The screenshots showcase the evolution of graphical user interfaces and desktop environments during this period.

http://www.typewritten.org/Media/

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35 Years Ago, the Mac Got an Era-Defining Upgrade

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Released in May 1991, Apple’s System 7 marked a pivotal upgrade for the Mac by introducing true multitasking, virtual memory, a modern Trash Can, and key features like Force Quit, file aliases, and Apple Events that are still foundational in macOS today. This transformative update significantly boosted productivity and extended the life of the classic Mac OS, ultimately bridging the gap to the later development of Mac OS X following the struggles of ambitious but failed projects in the 1990s.

https://www.macworld.com/article/3136937

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Using a 1978 Terminal in 2026 (DEC VT-100)

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The author explores using a 1978 Digital Equipment Corporation VT-100 terminal as a main terminal in 2026, finding that while the VT-100 remains compatible with modern terminal protocols like ANSI escape sequences, practical challenges arise such as flow control issues, slow baud rates limiting screen redraw speed, and lack of support for Unicode and newer escape sequences. Despite these hurdles, with adjustments like ASCII-only mode and legacy settings, basic applications like vim and bash work, highlighting the enduring legacy and foundational role of the VT-100 in terminal technology.

https://nikhiljha.com/posts/vt100/

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Email Could Have Been X.400 Times Better

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The article explores how the X.400 email standard, developed in 1984, included many advanced email features such as message recall, scheduling, encryption, and multilingual support long before SMTP-based internet email adopted them. However, due to its complex, top-down design and difficult implementation, X.400 failed to achieve widespread interoperability and usability, allowing the simpler, more adaptable SMTP protocol to become the foundation of modern email despite lacking some of X.400’s richer features.

https://buttondown.com/blog/x400-vs-smtp-email

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Using the Internet Like It’s 1999

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The article argues that the modern internet, dominated by social media algorithms and AI-generated content, has become a less authentic, attention-extracting environment, causing users to lose true engagement and agency. It advocates for returning to an internet usage style reminiscent of 1999, focusing on protocols like RSS, IRC, and email to regain control over content consumption, prioritize real human interaction, and reduce reliance on manipulative platforms. This approach aims to revive a more genuine and sovereign internet experience, countering the current trend of distraction and artificiality.

https://joshblais.com/blog/using-the-internet-like-its-1999/

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Why Zip Drives Dominated the 90s, Then Vanished Almost Overnight

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Zip drives revolutionized portable storage in the 1990s by offering significantly higher capacity (starting at 100MB) and faster speeds than traditional floppy disks, becoming popular with users and PC manufacturers like Dell and Apple. However, reliability issues known as the “click of death,” combined with the rise of cheaper and more versatile formats like CDs and USB flash drives, led to the rapid decline and eventual disappearance of Zip drives from the market by the early 2000s.

https://www.xda-developers.com/zip-drives-dominated-90s-vanished-almost-overnight/

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Franklin’s Bad Ads for Apple ][ Clones and the Beloved Impersonator They Relied On

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Franklin Computer Corporation built Apple ][ clones in the early 1980s, notably the ACE 100 series, which closely copied Apple’s designs including BIOS code, leading to legal battles. Their marketing featured the beloved Benjamin Franklin impersonator Ralph Archbold, whose image became closely tied to Franklin’s trademark despite the company’s controversial cloning practices. Though Franklin’s products were popular for their affordability and durability, the company eventually shifted away from desktop computers to handheld devices by the late 1980s.

https://buttondown.com/suchbadtechads/archive/franklin-ace-1000/

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Original Apollo 11 Code Open-Sourced by NASA — Original Command Module and Lunar Module Code Repos Are Now Public Domain Resources

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The article reports that NASA has made the original Apollo 11 guidance computer software publicly available, including separate codebases for the Command Module and Lunar Module. The release allows people to study and run the historic assembly-language programs that helped guide the first Moon landing under extremely limited computing resources. The main point is that opening this code preserves an important part of computing history and highlights the efficiency and engineering required for early space missions.

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/original-apollo-11-code-open-sourced-by-nasa-original-command-module-and-lunar-module-code-repos-are-now-public-domain-resources

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