Stop the Presses! Microsoft ENDS OEM licensing for Windows 3.11

[Mr. Analog]

I honestly can't believe this either but:

"Believe it or not, that headline is not a typo. John Coyne, Systems Engineer in the OEM Embedded Devices group at Microsoft, has posted a quick blog entry that broke the bad news: as of November 1, 2008, Microsoft will no longer allow OEMs to license Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in the embedded channel. That's exactly 15 years after it shipped in November 1993! Poor OEMs have so much to put up with these days; first Windows XP, and now this!"

!!!

[Lazybones]

in the embedded space I imagine that the ultra low system specs play into the long life. I imagine there are still billboard system and various kiosk type devices that may use it and have been unchanged for years.

[Darren Dirt]

I remember at the NAIT library or somewhere,  there was a small application working just fine that required Windows NT 3.5 because of something like the version of Powerbuilder or something... The app (or Powerbuilder?) wouldn't work in NT4, and this was like in 2000 when NT4 had been out for like 4 years already. 


Ah, the diversity of the needs in this crazy IT field... Legacy apps may be the bane of growth-focused OS producers and change-for-the-sake-of-change IT directors, but for the real living breathing folks that use it day in and day out "it just works" so it's often the case that you can't justify upgrading the infrastructure that it runs on... No matter how much FUD and pushy marketing comes your way

[Mr. Analog]

I agree on both parts especially since the news is coming from the Microsoft Embedded team, it is kinda funny though to think that it was discontinued from OEM after XP...