Behold! You Can Now Run Windows 95 In Linux

Microsoft Windows 95is the first operating system that I ever worked with. Back in 2003, It was the first time ever I touched the computers when I was studying 2nd year Diploma in computer science. We had around 20+ computers in our computer lab and all were running with Windows 95. I didn’t know much about computers back then and felt amazed when I was working with computers. And, I have used, installed and worked with many Windows desktop and server operating systems, such as Windows 98, XP, Windows 2000, NT, 2003 server, 2012, and Windows 7 when I was working as a system administrator. Windows 7 was my last windows operating system and I completely switched to Linux and finally settled with Arch Linux. Today, I stumbled upon an interesting project project in GitHub. Yeah, now you can run Windows 95 in Linux desktop.

Windows 95 is available as Electron app and it runs quite well on Mac OS, Windows and Unix-like operating systems. So, if you ever miss the good-old Win 95 OS, it is the time to try it out in your system.

Let Us Run Windows 95 In Linux

Download the latest version from the releases page . It is available in zip, rpm and deb format for Unix-like operating systems.

Once downloaded the app, run the following command on RPM-based systems to install it.

$ sudo rpm -Uvh windows95-1.1.0.x86_64.rpm

On Debian-like systems, you can install it like below.

$ sudo apt install gdebi

$ sudo gdebi windows95_1.1.0_amd64.deb

Once installed, you run it wither from the Terminal by running the following command:

$ windows95

Or, from the menu or application launcher.

This is how Windows 95 startup wizard looks like. Click Start Windows 95 button.

Hit ESC key to lock or unlock the mouse. You can also insert floppy disk image with .img format. There are also three more buttons on the bottom which can be used to Reset Machine & Delete State , Insert Floppy Disk and Discard State & Boot From Scratch .

Here you go! Windows 95 desktop is running in my Ubuntu 18.04 LTS desktop.

And, Windows 95 desktop running in Mac OS.

Feeling nostalgic? Me too!!

Go ahead and test your favorite windows programs, play some games and have fun!

And, that’s all for now. More good stuffs to come. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Resource:

• WIndows 95 Electron App GitHub Repository