A Canadian developer has launched the Virtual OS Museum, a free collection that brings together over 600 historical operating systems, from 1948 to Android. The idea is to offer easy access to old software without requiring technical knowledge, allowing anyone to download and run these systems on their PC. The complete collection weighs 174 GB, although there is a lightweight version of 14 GB for those who want to try it out without filling up their disk.
How access to historical systems works 🖥️
The platform organizes systems by year and type, from MS-DOS to early versions of Windows, Mac OS, and Linux distributions. Each system comes packaged in files ready to use with virtualization software like VirtualBox. You don't need to configure anything: download, unzip, and run. This makes it easy to try out environments that marked eras, such as the first Windows or mainframe systems. The lightweight version includes a selection of the most representative ones, ideal for the curious with limited space.
174 GB of nostalgia that will make you delete photos 💾
If you decide to download the complete collection, prepare your hard drive: 174 GB of pure history that will make you wonder if you really need those cat photos. But be careful, because once you boot up Windows 1.0 or a system from the 80s, you'll realize how much you valued having a mouse that worked. That said, at least you won't have to look for drivers for the dot matrix printer.