As noted by TechCrunch, a savvy Chinese programmer over the weekend posted to an Apple iPhone forum to report his success with installing Windows 98, Microsoft’s incremental follow-up the classic Windows 95, onto his iPhone 6.
Apple’s iPhone is probably more,
uh, sleek than the beige PC you used to run Windows 98; but according
to the industrious programmer who put it together, the setup still
works.
It may be a funny or possibly
intriguing idea to forgo Apple’s new and useful iOS 8 for a
generations-old desktop software platform, but no one, including our
expert tinkerer, would ever imagine trying to make actual use of a phone
running software from the Clinton administration.
Raise your hand if you would
want an iPhone that can’t make a call or reply to text messages. How
about an iPhone that can’t run any apps? Yeah, us neither. Besides, the
App Store has plenty of versions of Spider Solitaire, so you’re set on
that front.
All the same, this type of
“proof of concept” hacking is well-charted territory, as programmers
have enjoyed slipping desktop operating systems onto pocketable
devices.
Just last month, a similar brand of retrofitting saw Samsung’s Gear Live tweaked to run Windows 95, with much worse results, of course. And, in a slightly more practical use case, Android phones, known for their software versatility, have been reconfigured to run Linux, the fan favorite desktop software among most computer programmers.
So, sure, parlor tricks of this
type might be worth showcasing. But if you want to really change the
world, you’ll have to figure out a way to get an Android phone to run a
version of System 7 that can also run a version of Candy Crush and send
texts via iMessage. Also, it should be able to microwave a Hot Pocket.
Hackers, you have your assignment.
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