WinXP/Win98

[Curt Carpenter]

I recently needed to resurrect some very old hardware, and found that in order to do it I needed either WinXP or Win98.  As far as I can tell, the only way to get either of these OSs is by buying an old computer on ebay.  (I tried Wine, Win10 and Win11 compatibility modes with no luck on any of them).  Anyone have any other ideas?  This has become my white whale 

[440bx]

If I needed an old XP computer, I'd check out the local recycling stores, they sometimes have very old hardware that still works for next to nothing pricewise.

HTH.

[MarkMLl]

There's plenty of small-sellers with copies of XP on eBay. Having that on something like an XP-era Panasonic Toughbook, plus an up-to-date Linux ** , makes it a very useful "go-to" machine for things like expanding BIOS update files and putting them onto a USB "thumb", and reconfiguring difficult-to-access routers etc.

But don't ever let XP get anywhere near the Internet, it's likely to self-destruct.

** With the caveat that sometimes laptops come with "unusual" video hardware, which might be supported for a few years by Linux and then effectively dropped. I've got a Sony for the sort of jobs I mentioned where I've had to stop with a Debian which is now several versions out of date, which has a knock-on effect on the version of FPC and in particular Lazarus which will run.

MarkMLl

[creaothceann]

As far as I can tell, the only way to get either of these OSs is by buying an old computer on ebay.

You can get all kinds of software on archive.org.

[Thaddy]

Use a linux+wine. Linux is usually quite forgiving for old hardware and wine is good enough to run old XP code.
You can also try ReactOS instead of XP.
Once a linux is running, wine should be good. What did you try that it doesn't work?

[BeniBela]

I used to program all my software with Delphi 4 under Windows 98

that was much more stable than Lazarus and Linux which I use now. I should have stayed with it

I think I still have the installation CDs somewhere. I don't even know if I still have a working CD drive.

[Curt Carpenter]

I discovered a long lost box of Freescale RS08 MCUs while cleaning up my shop, and I'm trying to get the development IDE and debugger working for them (really just for old time's sake -- but it's become an obsession!)   Freescale is long gone, now NXP, and NXP understandably isn't interested in my problem.

Forget how WINE failed on trying to install the IDE from CD, and what Win10/11 compatibility mode told me about why they couldn't set the programs up.  Spent so much time fooling with it that I kind of got lost in the whole effort.  Same with trying to get a WinXP ISO I downloaded from Archive installed on an old IBM machine.  Has anyone had luck with these ISOs?

Found a working IBM Think Centre with XP on ebay for less than people wanted for an XP retail CD.  Hoping it will do the job.

(The Freescale RS08 is an 8-pin MCU with 1K of flash.  Absolutely NO IDEA what I can do with them, but breaks my heart to give up and put them in the bin!)

[creaothceann]

Do you just connect the PC to an EEPROM programmer and write the data? Is that via USB?

You could get a Windows XP ISO, set up a VirtualBox machine (or a VMware Workstation machine if you can get the VMware Workstation installation files), install XP on that, and develop in that environment.

You can forward USB devices from the host PC to the guest PC (just don't select your mouse/keyboard by mistake).

[Curt Carpenter]

I have a fancy chip programmer that can handle a few hundred different MCUs -- but not, of course, any of the Freescale devices.  And programming the RS08 is almost, but not quite, SPI. 

Anyway, wasted the day remembering the bad old days of WinXP -- but got it working (the eBay computer was DOA, but the hard drive was OK and Microsoft allowed me to install it on a working computer).   Finding drivers took forever...  Installed TurboPascal 7.0 from floppies I found in a closet!

[Thaddy]

Do you just connect the PC to an EEPROM programmer and write the data? Is that via USB?

Of course you mean FPGA, silly. There are open source fpga verilog micro sources that emulate 8086/80386/80486 and run DOS and win95/98. A vm is a lot... easier.

[MarkMLl]

Of course you mean FPGA, silly. There are open source fpga verilog micro sources that emulate 8086/80386/80486 and run DOS and win95/98. A vm is a lot... easier.

How on Earth are FPGAs relevant to this thread?

MarkMLl

[Nicole]

Try Linux. They have OSs for grandfathered problems.

[Thaddy]

How on Earth are FPGAs relevant to this thread?

They weren't until Walt Disney's litlle elephant kicked in: creaothceann confuses EEproms with FPGA's.

[madref]

I don't know if this I allowed here..... But take a look here.

[creaothceann]

creaothceann confuses EEPROMs with FPGAs

The Wikipedia page on the Freescale RS08 does say nothing about FPGAs.
The NXP page on the Freescale RS08 does say nothing about FPGAs.

I assumed that program code is provided via an external memory chip and the 1K flash memory on the chip is for storing program data, but it seems there's some extra RAM for that.