On Sun, 11 Jun 2017 17:55:19 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Anything can run command line & single app, even an
Apple II. Add multitasking & GUI and it's another story.

Reminds me of a funny story from way back. Microsoft released Windoze
2.0 with a new feature, cooperative multitasking. Included was a
rotating wire frame graphic intended to show that it was possible to
run multiple copies of the program in separate windows. The problem
was that each additional copy of the program required more overhead
than it saved. As I vaguely recall, it took 150% more time to run
time to run a 2nd copy of a program. It was faster to run one program
at a time than to use the cooperative multitasking. Run enough copies
and the machine would grind to a halt. MS solved the problem by
removing the demo program.

I had an impressive 24M RAM, but ISTR the HDD was just 100s of M.
So many times I hoped it would die. So did people that used it.
But it never did. Many more modern PCs came & died, but not that
486. I guess you got a better machine when they cost well over
£1000 new.

ISTR that I paid almost $1000 for that 1GB hard disk.

However, you don't have to worry any more about keeping a machine or
operating system alive for 20+ years. The new and improved paradigm
is that nothing is expected to last more than 5.0 years.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624
MS does it a little better, but not much:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet
Maybe Windoze 10 will have a "Best used before Oct 13, 2020" sticker
on the box?


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558