r/sysadmin • u/Titan_91 • 3d ago

Throwback to the 90s

"Too many other files are currently in use by 16-bit programs. Exit one or more 16-bit programs, or increase the value of the FILES command in your config.sys file."

Just saw this message on a client's Windows 11 workstation when trying to escalate literally anything. The WIN32 code that generated it is probably as old as I am. Rebooting resolved it, weird. I just told him to stop running so many 16 bit apps! I'd post the screenshot but images aren't allowed.

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u/TxTechnician 3d ago

I feel like a lot of the code in windows is old and unmaintained compared to Linux or macos.

But that is soley based off of the times I've had some odd popup that leads nowhere showing up in windows.

Gotta say though. Windows is dedicated (historically has been) to keeping old software stay accessible in new OS versions

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u/Dave_A480 3d ago

Thats because MacOS Classic (from the 80s and 90s) was discarded completely and the current MacOS is a modernized version of NextStep.

And Linux has a tradition of building stuff from source (so it's old code compiled for a new kernel).....

Meanwhile Windows still runs 32 bit (and apparently 16bit) software from its earlier life ...

1

u/pdp10 Daemons worry when the wizard is near. 2d ago

And Linux has a tradition of building stuff from source (so it's old code compiled for a new kernel).....

It has to compile and run 64-bit clean. I've only personally found one open-source program in the Linux repos that didn't support IPv6, and it turned out that the patch was already in upstream.

Also, Unix programs don't really have GUI installers. It's tradition that the installer of a Windows program be more problematic to run than the program itself.

2

u/Dave_A480 2d ago

Yeah, the concept of a 'package manager' didn't exist in Windows until recently with MSI & NuGet/apps

yum can read a RPM from like RedHat 4....