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> consumer versions of Windows didn’t get Unix-like pre-emptive multitasking until Windows XP in 2002 What does this mean? I didn't remember Windows 95 and 98
by jraph 1y ago
> consumer versions of Windows didn’t get Unix-like pre-emptive multitasking until Windows XP in 2002
What does this mean? I didn't remember Windows 95 and 98 SE as having cooperative multitasking. I'm reading that 95, 98 and ME had preemptive multitasking on a Win32 kernel for 32 bit applications, and only went back to cooperative multitasking for 16 bit apps [1].
[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multit%C3%A2che_pr%C3%A9emptif#Historique https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multit%C3%A2che_pr%C3%A9emptif... (yes, the French version has this info, not the English one)
- qubex 1y agoThere was much marketing directed at the fact that as of Windows 95, applications developed with the 32-bit API onwards would benefit from preemptive multitasking. Legacy 16-bit applications coexisted in some kind of virtual machine (maybe it was called Windows On Windows, WOW for short, or maybe that was an NT thing) but they could accidentally trip each other up and bring each other down, but in theory the system and the 32-bit apps were safe. So yes, the text in the article is pretty confusing and misleading. I exited Windows in the XP SP1 days (2003) and by then most of the mishaps happened due to third-party drivers.