What was the oldest OS you ever used, using real hardware or a virtual machine? Was it one of these?

MS-DOS 1.0-8

Windows 1.01-3.1, 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or 10

Mac OS X 10.0-12

For me it was Windows 7, and that was the only one I saw. However, at my local renting store some staff computers use Windows Vista, which is awfully weird

MS-DOS 3.30

Oh, you are new. I have used Linux 1 on v86!

I’ve also had a macOS X 10.7 before, it’s still usable and I have it but it’s end of support restricts me still, so I usually still use Windows 10.

mrcreatorluigi wrote:

I’ve also had a macOS X 10.7 before, it’s still usable and I have it but it’s end of support restricts me still, so I usually still use Windows 10.

Try ElementaryOS on it. Also, google “macos 8”. I used that once.

I think it was Master Control Program or MCP on a mainframe Burroughs B6700.

Of course students were not allowed near the computer, but we could submit our programs as a deck of “punched cards”, which computer operators then collected and fed into a card reader. We could come back a few hours later to get our card deck back and a printout of the results of the program.

Scratch-Minion wrote:

I think it was Master Control Program or MCP on a mainframe Burroughs B6700.

Of course students were not allowed near the computer, but we could submit our programs as a deck of “punched cards”, which computer operators then collected and fed into a card reader. We could come back a few hours later to get our card deck back and a printout of the results of the program.

Wow. How fast was it?

Emulation - Windows 1
Actual OS on hardware - Windows 2000 (on my dad's Thinkpad when I was 1 year old )
macOS 10.12 (Sierra) on a 2015 MacBook Pro.

Windows XP. I don't think the PC it was on still exists.

windows xp

mybearworld wrote:

Windows XP. I don't think the PC it was on still exists.

i have a windows xp pc in my paternal-grandparents' house, when i go there, i'll try to use scratch on it via firefox

Windows XP/pre-XP version in a store

Just flash win1 to a usb, chiroyce. Just for bragging.

I believe MS-DOS 6.22, yes I downloaded it online.

Probably the oldest one I've ever used was Windows 1.01 IIRC (if you can even call it an operating system), but the oldest one that I've “seriously used” (more than just messing with it for a few minutes) is probably Windows 3.1 (emulated; and, again, if you can even call it an operating system).

(Also, imagine my surprise when I learned that MS-DOS 3.30 came out in 1987. I thought it would have been older than that…)

hello_smile wrote:

Scratch-Minion wrote:

I think it was Master Control Program or MCP on a mainframe Burroughs B6700.

Of course students were not allowed near the computer, but we could submit our programs as a deck of “punched cards”, which computer operators then collected and fed into a card reader. We could come back a few hours later to get our card deck back and a printout of the results of the program.

Wow. How fast was it?

Information about these systems seems to be pretty hard to find online, but as far as I can tell, it was pretty powerful for its time (1971, based on a system from 1968/69 - we were sending people to the Moon when these were made). It had either a 5 or 10 MHz CPU (everything except for arithmetic instructions ran at half the clock rate), anywhere from 1 to 3 CPUs and 1 or 2 I/O processors (yep, multiprocessing in 1971), and up to 6 MB of memory (apparently there was also an optional hard disk accessory).

Yes, your cell phone is far more powerful.

Flowermanvista wrote:

Probably the oldest one I've ever used was Windows 1.01 IIRC (if you can even call it an operating system), but the oldest one that I've “seriously used” (more than just messing with it for a few minutes) is probably Windows 3.1 (emulated; and, again, if you can even call it an operating system).

(Also, imagine my surprise when I learned that MS-DOS 3.30 came out in 1987. I thought it would have been older than that…)

hello_smile wrote:

Scratch-Minion wrote:

I think it was Master Control Program or MCP on a mainframe Burroughs B6700.

Of course students were not allowed near the computer, but we could submit our programs as a deck of “punched cards”, which computer operators then collected and fed into a card reader. We could come back a few hours later to get our card deck back and a printout of the results of the program.

Wow. How fast was it?

Information about these systems seems to be pretty hard to find online, but as far as I can tell, it was pretty powerful for its time (1971, based on a system from 1968/69 - we were sending people to the Moon when these were made). It had either a 5 or 10 MHz CPU (everything except for arithmetic instructions ran at half the clock rate), anywhere from 1 to 3 CPUs and 1 or 2 I/O processors (yep, multiprocessing in 1971), and up to 6 MB of memory (apparently there was also an optional hard disk accessory).

Yes, your cell phone is far more powerful.

Well, that is disputed. I can only run projects on turbowarp.

Stained Glass Windows XP

My dad's got a really really old computer, one that's the height of a small child that I've messed around with a couple of times, but I've got no idea what OS it runs.

Windows Vista (the oldest I have ever used)
Windows 7
Android 4.1.2
iOS 7

windows xp on real hardware

windows 95 emulated at copy.sh/v86?profile=windows95

Windows XP is the first and oldest OS I remember using. I never used it a lot, there was nothing I could do on a computer at that time (except creating folders)

I also remember using Windows 7. I didn't have my own computer back then, so I rarely used it. My current PC shipped with Windows 8.1 and after Windows 10 was launched, my dad updated it.

(Even when I used Windows XP, it was a few years old. Vista was already out.)

Other OSes I have used/interacted with:
Windows 11
Android 4.3, 4.4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11
iOS 4 - 9, 14