10 Classic Operating Systems You Can Run in Your Web Browser

PCBWay your faithful One-Stop PCB Prototype Partner: www.pcbway.com/ - Please support the channel by supporting our sponsors.
Using classic Operating Systems can be very nostalgic and great fun, but setting them up on original hardware or emulation can be a huge hassle. I explore 10 classic operating systems you can run directly in your web browser with no setup required!
My retro gaming podcast: theretrohour.com
My Twitter: / danwood_uk
My Facebook: / danwooduk
Operating System Links:
Amiga Workbench Simulator: taws.ch/WB.html
Windows 3.1: classicreload.com/win3x-windo...
Windows 3.1 with CD-ROM: www.pcjs.org/blog/2019/05/31/
Macintosh System 7: archive.org/details/mac_MacOS...
Windows 95: www.pcjs.org/blog/2015/09/21/
OS/2: www.pcjs.org/blog/2015/12/27/
Windows 93: www.windows93.net/
Atari ST: jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/ata...
Windows 1.0: www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/s...
EmuOS: emupedia.net/beta/emuos/
#RetroGaming #RetroComputing #Nostalgia

[@danwood_uk]

Here's the QNX link: copy.sh/v86/

[@smithadmin]

Thank you!

[@ej2095]

Wasnt QNX meant to be the next Amiga OS at one time.

[@danwood_uk]

@@ej2095 yeah that’s where I first tried this demo, I think it was on a CU Amiga cover CD to go with their feature on how it would be the new AmigaOS.

[@Anthony_Matabaro_3D_360]

Thank you. Great video by the way.

[@vinniethemoocher6066]

I live in Kanata, Ontario Canada (just west of Ottawa). This area came to be known as "Silicon Valley North" because of the high density of high-tech R & D firms, e.g., Bell Northern Research (Nortel), Mitel, Newbridge, &c. The QNX lab and RIM Technology sites are just a couple of km. from my house.

[@deltaray3]

Back in 1997 when I was working tech support for an ISP. I made a backend support website that simulated 4 different OSes using screenshots and image maps. It simulated Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, and Mac OS 8 I think. It worked well for the other support techs to be able to reference different OSes of the time for helping people get connected. I have it somewhere on a backup, maybe if people are interested I could show it in a video or put it somewhere.

[@dodovomitory3496]

make a video about it!

[@lego5745]

That would be sick to upload somewhere or show off in a video. Would really love to see it in action!

[@BertGrink]

If it isn't too big, perhaps you could upload it to archive.org ?

[@imark7777777]

That's a crazy idea. doing tech-support myself I find my stack of laptops with various operating systems handy.

[@residentgrey]

The scripting capacity that comes out of the box, doing quite extensive applications was possible yet few ever really knew. Way later on, some modders developed this to a degree that will astonish.

[@haurenox7686]

My first OS was Windows 95, I have to admit I'm always submerged with nostalgia when I see videos about it. Using a computer back then felt magical especially when the only experience I had with them as a kid was with Amstrad CPC, the interactivity of modern OSes was just mind blowing. Great era for technology and computer enthusiasts.

[@Administrator_O-5]

Dan, I'm a former Network Engineer, I graduated high-school on May 28, 1995 & began career working full-time as a Computer Tech on August 15, 1995, eventually working my way up to Network Engineer by 2000. Your channel is extremely valuable & brilliant. Thank you for making this video.

[@radrup]

I feel like a wormholes opened up and took me wayyy back to my early days .. what a trip!! Thank you Dan 👍🏽

[@ActionRetro]

Well there goes my afternoon. I didn't know PCJS had all of this stuff!

[@esseferio]

And there will go my saturday, I guess :) (nice seeing you here :))

[@David_Phantom]

Fancy seeing you here!

[@nyccollin]

What is a PCJS?

[@spungbopscarepans]

Personal Computer Java Script… best name i’ve heard

[@jaydub8085]

I absolutely, positively am SO glad I found your channel! This is the kind of stuff I love!

[@rogerlawrence233]

Thanks for that. I missed a whole day of writing, playing Quake. But it was worth it.

[@metalheadmalta]

Spent the morning playing Quake 1 !!!! you, sir, are a bad influence! Love it! :-)

[@lilmsgs]

I had about a dozen amigas about 20 years ago, rendering video toaster, Lightwave, et al for a little business I had. As you know, nothing on the market at that price/desktop capability could match the capability. I used to work for DEC as a VMS/Ultrix systems engineer. The AmigaOS was very VMS-like. It was great.

[@Studulikeuk]

It's crazy to think you can actually run EmuOS on a phone. Actually I have tested all of these and to an extent they all work. Generally screen sizes are an issue as some things display off screen a little. How times have changed. Great video!

[@patchso]

Another great video. Thanks Dan. Amazing what you can run in a browser nowadays!

[@joeharley1423]

Always a highlight of my week when you upload Dan! Loving the OS videos at the moment.

[@rmhartman]

QNX was a fantastic OS for embedded real time process control. Note: I was using it before they added a GUI, and before they started becoming unix-compliant with their system calls. I wrote my own, rather minimal, windowing interface to use with the raw graphics for an application I was writing at the time. Micro-kernel, damn fast event response time, but able to use higher level language (e.g. C, and IIRC even C++) rather than just assembly.

[@randomactsofvideos313]

Very Awesome compilation!! I'm re-living my early computer days! Thanks!

[@allannyholmnielsen5559]

Excellent! Thanks, Dan. Really love the EmuOS one... the TAWS one is a gem also of course. Amiga Forever!!!!! :D

[@mccstuff]

Surprising to me how quickly I picked up using an Amiga OS again and how similar it is in many ways to Windows today. Thanks, I enjoyed that.

[@rricci]

It's like riding a bicycle. I had downloaded an emulator that had a emulator for a computer that I hadn't used in at LEAST 40 years (TRS-80 Model I Level 1) and I typed a program from memory without errors. I was stunned that I remembered it that clearly!

[@azstraphsterling8217]

This is awesome. Never knew they had converted a bunch of these OS to run off the browser like this.

[@jamesdecross1035]

Wow, this is really quite amazing!

[@theshowman8478]

Absolutely Brilliant !!!! Thank you for this !

[@detectingretro6313]

Nice one Dan

[@leonjones7120]

Thanks very much for your interesting review of several OS.

[@technomancier]

Thank you for this one because of this I just subscribed awesome Please do a part 2

[@jgroneng]

This was very interesting. Very cool!

[@simonthomas5113]

Good work on this vid. I do miss the early exciting days.

[@NicksLocker]

man my mind is just blown seeing this, that is so cool.

[@richardharding760]

Wow what a great step back in time,and as you say in the video,we can trace some "today"windows programs back to the 1990's.

[@mrs7195]

Win 95 was my first OS that I used on the first computer that I bought myself back in the day. I did have some minor experience of using a computer before (C64, my friend's Amiga, PC clones at school etc.), but Win 95 really brought computing to my everyday daily life in a whole new way.

[@user-nk2ux6pw6i]

Absolutely like you! My first graphic OS was Windows 3.1. back in 1993. Before that since my first job in 1990 I had been using DOS only PCs.

[@busterj11776]

great post, thanks

[@gregoryhayball]

This was good. More please.

[@zaugitude]

Great video! Thanks especially for the Windows 93 site.

[@fordgary3000]

MAN THIS DEMONSTRATION OR THE VIDEO LOOKS REALLY SODAMN GOOD AND AWESOME FOLKS.

[@MegaManNeo]

Oh I remember the QNX LiveFloppy myself from trying it in the early 2000's along the lines of MenuetOS or the Windows 1.01 LiveFloppy version! Running OS/2 has always interested me however since I still fail to get it running anywhere, so thanks for sharing this.

[@imark7777777]

MenuetOS that's the one I remember! I still have it on a desk somewhere. I get it to load and just barely work and then somehow I lost the master copy of it in a hard drive erasely I think. Then there was an updated version that didn't work on any of my hardware.

[@imark7777777]

I managed to acquire a laptop drive my first and only at that time. It was in a box or some stuff it even came with the laptop 44 pin adapter. I managed to get the thing to boat and surprise it was a os/2 warp! Never heard of the thing at that point I would still rocking a hand down 3.11 system and the home system was 95 and my friend was 98. Unfortunately as it was booting I got to see the start up screen and barely the desktop and the drive slid and shorted out and died. I've always been curious ever since.

[@cheater00]

Absolutely lovely video. Thank you! The one thing I miss is: for MacOS 7, there was a myriad of desktop customizations - kind of like winamp skins, but for the desktop. Maybe you'd like to cover these one day?

[@skyoreece9805]

Great video x

[@Soruk42]

Nice to see an Acorn monitor! Another even more retro OS (and system) you can run in the browser, it is the BBC Micro OS in the form of JSBeeb.

[@mortarmopp3919]

This is awesome. Didn't know these sites existed. A few others I'd like to see: OS/2 Warp, GEOS and BeOS.

[@CooChewGames]

Neochrome... haven't thought about that for a long time; seeing the screen though brought it all back :-D

[@jengelenm]

That win 98 mp3 player at the end of the video i remember! It was great!

[@jaymax7225]

Winamp

[@denisrogge960]

OMG... YOU SAVED MY DAY!!! THANK YOU!!!

[@rricci]

Saved or wasted???

[@denisrogge960]

@@rricci totally saved!! My day was wasted until i found this video. Now i am playing around with Atari ST (my very first Computer was a Atari 1040 ST and i wish i could play this fckn James Bond Game with that Boat just for one more time in my life!!!) and WIndows 3.1 + 95 for hours... its a lot of fun!!!

[@rricci]

@@denisrogge960 Have you tried a stand alone emulator?

[@denisrogge960]

​@@rricci Not until today. To be honest. The opportunity to do that was not in my mind till today. But i searched for that game a few minutes ago (its called "Live and Let Die" - i didnt was remembering this) and found not an Atari but an Amiga 500 Emulator. Unfortunately i have to work first now. But tomorrow or at the weekend i will figure out how i can get this run on my Linux (maybe i have to use Wine for that - i dont know... i was never playing around with any emulators). And if this will not work i will install a Windows just for that... i promise!

[@rricci]

@@denisrogge960 ​ May I remind you that "work" is a 4 letter word while "gaming" is not? /s

[@Krashulka]

The Amiga was amazing in its day, sadly crap company policies and bad marketing of the Amiga killed it in the end. As a gaming / gfx pc, it was miles ahead of any other home pc at the time.

[@Big_Tex]

Ah those were the days, I had OS 7 on my Mac LCIII and my dual boot Win 3.1 and OS2 Warp on my home brew, though I soon abandoned that for Win 95.

[@ColdSphinX]

There is also JSLinux runing as a pc emulator in a browser since 2011. Including Windows 2000 and FreeDOS.

[@harrybarrow6222]

It is important to at least mention UNIX. Why? Because it is the ancestor of so much. Inside MacOS is BSD UNIX, with a graphical UI on top; the cmd app gives you the UNIX command line interface. Linux is a reimplementation of UNIX in Intel, plus graphics. Android is a version of Linux that runs on phones. Windows has the POSIX subsystem to give you almost the full set of UNIX commands. UNIX is really well-written, simple and clean. It was written to run on a 64K (that is K, not M or G) DEC PDP-11. I used UNIX in various forms on various computers for many years. It is definitely my favourite OS. 😀

[@xWatexx]

This is how far technology has come since then. We can emulate an entire computer running that OS in a web browser.

[@Chris-op7yt]

thank you

[@PeterFreitag]

Thank you

[@midierror]

Shufflepuck was SO LEGENDARY. I think I spent about 1/8 of my youth swinging the mouse all over the place after that puck I seriously would love to full screen the mac OS on my dads laptop and see what happens

[@TheDoctorFlay]

So glad you decided to include Win93 as it is more usable than you expect for a parody.

[@rricci]

I never heard of Win93 until this video. I have to take a look at it.

[@bernardofortes6539]

Fantastic

[@d2factotum]

How did you get that Mac emulation to work? When I tried it, it failed to load the 3 main ROM files and wouldn't start.

[@ImGumbyDangit]

My first version of Windows was called Windows 286 and it came on 5.25" disks. It came with my AST Premium 286 that I bought from a Microsoft programmer and came loaded with other Microsoft Software including excel and word. I wish I still had that machine.

[@ecophreak1]

EmuOS is an absolute gem, how do you stop shortcuts interfering with playing a game of classic doom on it though?

[@OldDogNewTrick]

Wot? No CP/M? Yes, I confess. Am an old computer nerd from way back. Have a collection of emulators to run various old operating system environments. And yes, I did pick up Windows 95 at midnight when it became available.

[@RobA500]

My experience of QNX was from the Amiga OSXL package, I ran it on a triple boot system along with windows and Linux. On the same hardware Linux was much faster and better than windows but QNX just blew both of them away. As a comparison at the time Windows could handle 1 video at a time move the window and it would stutter and break up. Linux did the same with 2 videos running simultaneously but less stuttering when window moved. QNX took 4 videos in it stride and moving a window didn’t even phase it. Mind 4 different videos at the same time was a bit of an audio mess like watching 4 tv’s on different channels.

[@bswierko]

Which ones allow running your own uploaded files (code)? Which ones are real emulators not simulators?

[@weshumphrey6299]

I feel so old. Thanks.

[@DevilbyMoonlight]

going from an Amiga 4000 to a Dx2-66 back in 92 felt like a real step backwards, as such I held on to the a4000 and continued to run a BBS on it until broadband killed the uk BBS scene off

[@bits2646]

Nice !

[@stevenjlovelace]

Is there anywhere you can run a later version of OS/2, with the Presentation Manager GUI? (I know it's a persnickety OS to emulate.)

[@daviddunmore8415]

Is there a version of Xerox Star's OS that runs in a browser?

[@Rowantheyoutuber]

Can't wait to use the Amiga os in browser You need to find more websites like this!!!

[@georg841984]

i have a 386 runing dos and win 3.1 and i still use it for writing down stuff and retro gaming

[@signalzero77]

This was an awesome video. the only one of these I knew about previously was Windows 93 and now I cannot wait to explore EmuOS!

[@diosyntaxa]

Oh, Spaceballs - State of the Art! \o/

[@pascalillustration3650]

I'm searching the speech program 'Say' from the Amiga 500. Or at least I think it was called 'Say'. It was on Amiga workbench 1.2 or 1.3. I'm not sure, but I can not find it in the emulator.

[@gerrytemple5044]

Very interesting - thank you! But missed the mention of the Sinclair ZX-81 live website! And - just wondering - is there no C64 site? Cheers!

[@winclouduk]

Love the video. My first windows was Windows 3.11 not 3.1 :-)

[@lyndonfisher1974]

3.11 for Work Groups YESSSSS

[@agod5608]

Thanks for the list. All my library if in retro books. Hud list will makey unused library totally functional again. I have plenty hardware ad I possess 23 computers.

[@onfire4Jesus2]

That's pretty cool. I noticed the full screen option doesn't give true full screen, not on Windows 95 anyway. It leaves a border on the left and right sides. Maybe it's because the emulator is using a resolution lower than what my laptop is set at.

[@Ayrshore]

6:45 - works better if you put the CD in the right way up!

[@bazpearce9993]

I run WINUAE. A pretty good Amiga emulator. Have you covered any 8-bit emulators Dan?

[@Utahsaint]

Nice Dan. Also, shit I’m getting old.

[@MrRainbowCalendar]

Thanks, and without that oops blue screen!! 🤣😂🎈🤸

[@cappaculla]

PCB Waaaaay

[@BilisNegra]

In Chris' voice, of course.

[@NewportBox100s]

EmuOS looks amazing. Wow. 😳

[@tomorrowsveggies296]

Does anyone know how I can start figuring out how to make my artist website be a desktop

[@NoobixCube]

Windows 95, such a revolution that it almost had Microsoft catching up to where Apple was four years prior ;-)

[@tekk9995]

Really Dan - Amiga on #10 ? Even putting AtariTos in the top three... aaahhh ;) Great vid m8..

[@danwood_uk]

Haha, I just randomly numbered them. It’s not in order of greatness.

[@anthonynorton666]

These OSs were running on machines whose speeds were measured often in the low megahertz range. Where does Java Script come in. Couldn't you just run the object code (machine language) into a program that emulates the instruction set of the microprocessor and the GPU and Sound Cards?

[@budy859]

As a 15 year old who loves old conputers with a budget of 0 youer "pain in the backside" totaly rings true lol.

[@tonanornottonull7132]

Ah QNX, my old friend. Any Canadians from Ontario may remember the old ICONs that schools had in the late 80s/early 90s. These were QNX devices. And for any newer-year Ford owners, guess what OS just mentioned delivers your Sync ;)

[@wobdq248]

Very interesting.But I prefer the real experience with a retro computer. It's just not the same. Exception: The emulation of the Mac on the Amiga :-)

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Are you aware of the virtual Windows 95 and Apple System 8 that run in the Electron software framework?

[@zappedguy]

Before Windows 3.0 arrived on the scene, there was a very useful and friendly GUI called GeoWorks. It had more applications than windows pre-installed: Besides a writer, a spreadsheet and even a database, it had a drawing and a paint app. It was more user friendly for novice computer users. I ran it on a state of the art 386-33 with color graphics. It would actually run on a 286 with monochrome graphics. It was way ahead of it's time , but was killed off by computer vendors pre-installing windows.

[@BlueHorde]

Interesting note - at one time the GeoWorks Graphical Environment Operating System, GEOS, may have been running on more machines than Windows. Remember those ubiquitous AOL floppy disks that ran on DOS? That graphical AOL interface was GEOS. Although AOL later filled the world with Windows based CDs, it began as a pared down graphical OS running on top of DOS. The full version of GEOS came with the equivalent of OFFICE, and was able to operate much faster and more efficiently than Windows. tedium.co/2019/06/20/geoworks-geos-history/

[@zappedguy]

@@BlueHorde yes, it was faster and easier to use.

[@stevematthey6676]

Loved GeoWorks in my early days of computing. I still kinda miss all of the clip art included. There may have been an early version of Corel Draw in there somewhere in the suite of apps.

[@leebumble]

Crikey, I didn't know you could actually run an operating system in a Web browser. You learn something new everyday don't yah?

[@FactsBeFacts]

People have been doing it for 10 odd years.. You are just a web noob.

[@BruceJnr]

my first IT job included running an early online web store which ran on hyper card

[@leonjones7120]

I recently saw a job going in a local bus service requiring knowledge of Gem for their bus scheduling! Talk about mean I.T. spending!

[@butsukete1806]

My nostalgia goes to stuff like VAX/VMS, NeXTSTEP, SunOS, HPUX and IRIX.

[@joegee2815]

These are cool. If only to remember what we suffered back in the day. I actually played around with Windows 1.0 before deciding that it was total crap and wouldn't go anywhere. So yeah, don't ask me for insight into the future because I underestimated how people will accept mediocrity. But I will explore some of these for when I want to get my Quake on without going through the hoops to figure out how to emulate it on my Linux desktop.

[@turbinegraphics16]

windows 93 is nuts, they have a recreation of myspace and wolfenstein 3d with all sorts of wierd stuff in it.

[@pawer_themaw]

I got Word for Win2 to work on 3.0

[@CaribouDataScience]

I still miss the old Windows 3.1 File manager .

[@robertgonzalez9116]

where are the links?

[@madmotorcyclist]

I know of one you can't run. Symbolics Lisp Machine OS. Was so far ahead of its time in the early 80s.

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

DOS, Desk Mate(Tandy), Mac OS.

[@Caolan114]

Just discovered this channel and wanted to try some classic pc nostalgia but I hate the confusion that Is virtual machines

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

You probably should have done more research on this one. The original Windows 1.0 was based upon the same work done by Xerox PARC and was based on a desktop paradigm. Windows 3.1 wasn't an OS, it was just an interface over top of the OS.

[@asciimation]

I really ought to finish my ASCII version of Star Wars one day. Not sure anyone ever watches to the end to realise it's not complete!