hoshiruri | Legacy MS-DOS/Windows program guide

(This guide is still under construction.)

Formatted in the same way as my legacy Android guide, but we're going by architecture (for OSes) and operating system (for programs).

I'll start with a subjective list of websites that could be incredibly useful:
- WinWorldPC (for abandoned commercial operating systems and applications)
- TheOldNet (for browsing the old internet on old machines)

- FrogFind (a proxy for browsing the new internet on old machines)
- 68k.news (similar to FrogFind but dedicated to news articles)
- Wiby (a search engine dedicated to old and light websites)
- Marginalia (another search engine dedicated to light, text-heavy websites)

Also, there exist great resources for finding MS-DOS software, whether it abandonware, freeware, or open-source:
- Internet Archive's MS-DOS Software Library
- Interesting DOS programs (dosprograms.info.tt)
- Free Software for DOS (bttr-software.de)
- FreeDOS-repo (clasqm.github.io)
- FreeDOS Update Repositories (ibiblio.org)

* * *

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES
- GEM for 8088+
- GEOS for 8088+
- OpenGEM for 8088+
- PC/GEOS for 8088+

- Windows 1.04 for 8088+; requires 320KB of RAM and 720KB of disk space

- Windows 2.03 for 8088+; requires 512KB of RAM and 720KB of disk space

- Windows 3.0 for 8088+; requires 640KB of RAM and 10MB of disk space (not recommended on 8088; here's a video on why)
- Windows 3.1 for 286+; requires 2MB of RAM and 20MB of disk space
- Windows 3.11 for Workgroups for 386+; likely similar requirements to Windows 3.1

STANDALONE OPERATING SYSTEMS

Windows
- Windows NT 3.1 for 386+; 12MB of RAM and 75MB of disk space

- Windows NT 3.51 for 386+; 16MB of RAM and 90MB of disk space
- Windows 95 for 386+; 4MB of RAM and 50-55MB of disk space
- Windows 98 Second Edition for 486DX+; requires 24MB of RAM and 225MB (FAT16) or 175MB (FAT32) of disk space
- Windows ME for Pentium+; requires 32MB of RAM and 320MB of disk space
- Windows 2000 for Pentium+; requires 32MB of RAM and 1 GB of disk space
- Windows XP for Pentium+; requires 64MB of RAM and 1.5GB of disk space

(Tip: if you're low on RAM or want to squeeze more performance from 98+ onward, try looking into 98Lite and similar projects.)

Linux
- Debian 3.0 (Woody) for 386+; requires 12MB of RAM and 110MB of disk space

- Debian 3.1 (Sarge) for 486+; requires 16MB of RAM and 110MB of disk space

- Debian 4.0 (Etch) for 486+; requires 48MB of RAM and 500MB of disk space. More info here

- Debian 5.0 (Lenny) for 486+; requires 44MB of RAM and 500MB of disk space. More info here

- Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) for 486+ (dropped later); requires 56MB of RAM and 650MB of disk space. More info here

- Debian 7.0 (Wheezy) for 486+ (dropped later); requires 80MB of RAM and 580MB of disk space. More info here

- Debian 8.0 (Jessie) for Pentium+; requires 80MB of RAM and 680MB of disk space. More info here
- Slackware 4.0 (1999); requires 8MB of RAM and 40MB (base system). Installation guide here

(More available here.)

DOS
- MS-DOS 1.25 for 8088+; requires 32KB of RAM and 160KB of disk space
- MS-DOS 3.30 for 8088+
- MS-DOS 6.22 for 8088+; requires 512KB of RAM and 5MB of disk space
- FreeDOS for 8088+; requires 640KB of RAM and 40MB of disk space
- SvarDOS for 8088+; likely similar requirements to FreeDOS

WEB BROWSERS
Internet Explorer
- IE5 (Windows 3.1)
- IE5.5 (Windows 95)
- IE6 (Windows 98, ME, 2000)
- IE8 (Windows XP)

Opera
- 3.62 (Windows 3.1)

Mozilla Firefox

- 2.0.0.20 (Windows 98 w/ KernelEx)