I’m afraid that talking about MS-DOS and Windows 3.11, although for me (well, and for a regular MuyComputer fellow who’s all gray haired here) might lead to a pleasant conversation about the good old days, that its magic, from nostalgia because we were younger then, or probably because of a mixture of all of these, it could end forever, for the convenience of all participants.

However, and that’s why I started with “I’m afraid”, I’m also aware that for the already large and growing number of people who read us, MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 are concepts from the prehistoric era of computing, and that due to their age, they never came into contact with either the operating system or the graphic environment of the previous one. And this may make some people’s heads spin, but this ineffable couple was replaced by Windows 95, which will be 30 years old next year (although it is true that they lived together for several years).

Almost 30 years, three decades in which Microsoft had to evolve a lot to adapt to the signs of the times, as we recalled earlier when we talked about the new virtual cemetery of the company, a space in which both are evidently present. And in fact, and in line with what I commented at the end of the previous paragraph, their lives were still quite long because MS-DOS support ended on July 11, 2006while Windows 3.11 did so until November 1, 2008. If you didn’t know this, it will surely surprise you.

Do you have knowledge of MS DOS and Windows 3.11?
I have a job for you https://t.co/vcAitUnvbZ
Between you, we are talking about German railway display boards for almost all of Germany. Still running with older os. pic.twitter.com/VJJsbMcbGT

— konkretor (@konkretor) January 27, 2024

However, we’re talking about 18 and 16 years old, respectively, so you’d expect that its only use today would be what retrocomputing fans can give it, right? Well, the truth is, no. As we can read in Tom’s Hardware, A German railway company has posted a job offer for an MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 administrator. Yes, you read that right, they are looking for an expert who, in addition to experience with management tools specific to their field, knows how to manage systems using this software.

Without knowing history, we can put our hand in the fire This job offer is responsive to retirement the person or people who have been responsible for said infrastructure for decades and still today, and the problem is that many of the professionals who could respond to this demand have already gone down the same path of retirement… the immediate future that should the mentioned infrastructure actually face. Although, well, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen critical infrastructure continue to use software that was already obsolete before the turn of the century…