Vintage computing - Old Operating System and Software on Top of Ancient and Slow Hardware?

Old Operating System and Software on Top of Ancient and Slow Hardware? - Not quite that. When we say vintage we mostly assume it is charming in some special way and then usable also. You was a kid and saw your dad or grandpa  using it. Or we wanted this particular thing in the past but couldn't afford it and now you find it on Ebay and think again.

The world of Vintage Computing emerged almost unnoticed . May be because PCs and Laptops and their influence on us and connection with us had to go through some evolution. But here we are. People are buying Vintage Laptops. My friend told me his story. One day last year he saw IBM ThinkPad 600 on Ebay. It was in good cosmetic condition, but was listed "for parts or  not working" due to not booting, giving errors. This classic IBM laptop was expensive business grade engineering masterpiece 20 years ago. Build as a tank, with gorgeous and best among laptops keyboard. With hinges sturdy no matter how long you was using it.


My friend used to work as IT engineer in one organization 20 years ago and had experience with both IBM laptops and Microsoft MSDOS and Windows 95/98 family of OSes - most common software running on those old laptops. He decided to give it a try. He bought the laptop for $30 and spent another $3 for replacing dead CMOS battery in that laptop. Magically laptop booted to Windows XP Desktop. Laptop had Pentium II CPU running at 300MHZ and had 128MB of RAM memory installed. This was obviously not enough for Windows XP and he decided to go back to Windows 98 - which is what this laptop was designed for and built, and luckily he had one Windows 98 installation CD left from the past. Windows 98se - the last and best OS fully compatible with DOS mode .

In fact it is built and installed on top of MSDOS. And ThinkPad 600 laptop with Pentium II running windows 98 just fine. You get a nice desktop - no any difference from what you get in windows XP, Vista or 7 - they are all same in their structure and organization - Control Panel, Start menu etc. Though there is a bonus when you have Windows 98 desktop in front of you - you can play old DOS mode games - famous Doom2, Heretic, Quake, DukeNukem3D and thousands more, probably still on CDs in your friend's garage.
 

Long story shot, after feeding his nostalgia, playing and tuning Laptop and Windows 98, he decided to sell it. He spent quite some time restoring past glory of this vintage, so he raised the price and it was sold for $200. Since then he restored and sold more that 20 of different Thinkpads.

Who is buying these vintage laptops? I would divide them into 3 categories. First are people who actually will be using these laptops in their work or business. There are still many specific applications developed for some company or organization and they require MSDOS mode, also some places still use equipment with Serial (RS232) and Parallel ports, which are no longer supported by modern PCs and laptops. Second category are those who just want to feed their nostalgia , play old DOS games. And Third category are passion people collecting old laptops, whole lines manufactured by IBM, COMPAQ, etc.

So vintage computing is passion, nostalgia and still functional niche.