For those of a certain vintage, Windows 95 is a classic platform. It was also a milestone release for Microsoft and indeed for computing as a whole. Highlighting how far computing has come in the two decades since its release, Windows 95 is now available on mobile. Today, the Win95 application also dropped on Windows 10, MacOS, and Linux.
Actually, the release is a step backwards as we have already seen Windows 95 on Android Wear and Apple Watch. Yes, a platform once resigned for PCs now runs on a device you wear on your wrist.
Interestingly, the Windows 95 application was created by Felix Rieseberg, a developer at Slack. He took to Twitter to show the Electron application running. Rieseberg also published the open source code for the app on Github.
It is worth noting this is a fully functioning version of Win95, including old school MS Paint, Minesweeper, Wordpad and other “apps” in all their glory. Unfortunately, there is one exception in the form of Internet Explorer, which does not work.
If you are worried about the weight of a full OS on your existing machine, don’t be. That’s because the Windows 95 app weighs a light 129MB and takes just 200MB of RAM when up and running.
Windows 95
Windows 95 was something of a giant leap in the evolution of personal computing. It introduced navigational concepts we still use today, such as the Windows Start button. It was in many ways the first step of what became the modern Windows, which was continued with Windows 98 and arguably perfected with Windows XP.
While Windows 8 tried to change the game, it failed to have the instant classic appeal of Windows 95. Indeed, in Windows 10, Microsoft has turned more towards classic Windows concepts.
