Windows 95 turns 25. How to take a look back in time and test it on Linux as a simple app

Although I am fully aware that some of you will complain to see this news in this blog, today there is something to celebrate in the world of software: the Windows 25 95th birthday. After a 3.11 in which there were already "windows" but everything seemed more disorderly or not very intuitive, Bill Gates and company presented something that today looks prehistoric, but with a start menu that for those of us who did not know another thing was innovative.

But hey, almost a decade later, a server started to be a Windows hater, partly thanks to the fact that its XP was more beautiful, but very slow (and Vista made XP good ...), so it is not going to to defend Microsoft systems a lot. The fact is that today Windows 95 is news and for time it is possible to run it as a standalone app on Linux, macOS and Windows itself. From the looks of it, the developer is also not a fan of the company that Satya Nadella now runs and, as a funny anecdote, when installing the package on Ubuntu, the description (in English) is «Windows 95, in an app. Sorry«.

How to install Windows 95 on Linux

Installing Windows 95 on Linux, as well as on Windows or macOS, is very simple. We just have to go to the project's GitHub page, which we can access from this link, download the file for our operating system and install it. For Linux it is as an RPM and DEB package, as well as in source code. Once installed, the application will appear with its icon in the applications menu of our Linux distribution.

Regarding the app, it must be said that it was Felix Rieseberg who had the idea of ​​creating it using Electron, which is a cross-platform framework. This is what allows it to run on systems from Microsoft, Apple and any of the distributions that use Linux as a kernel. Its operation is total, that is, as if we were in front of Windows 95 launched more than two decades ago. Of course, we must bear in mind that the system is not running as native and, on occasions and as it has happened to me (mine has cost me to make that capture), the mouse may not be as fine as it should. Regarding this, I have to say that I have tested it in a virtual machine of Ubuntu 20.10 running in GNOME Boxes.

This Windows 95 app includes in itself others such as the famous Paint or Notepad, as well as the file explorer, the game of mines and others, and all with the same design that, it must be said, we continue to see in some applications with an image ... well, sloppy.

Anyway. Whether you are going to try it or not, you know that the possibility exists and, although we are a bit haters, happy birthday, Windows 95!