Discord client that works on Win95*, Win98 and above
31 comments
·February 3, 2025extraduder_ire
pjmlp
"General limitations under Win32s (131896)", surviving technical note.
https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/archive/ftp.microsoft.com/MISC/KB/...
Lammy
The ‘s’ does stand for ‘subset’ after all :)
userbinator
Someone needs to get around to doing this for Microsoft Teams.
fishgoesblub
You'd need to somehow get it to work on Windows 10/11 first.
rfw300
That's a morally questionable action—it might encourage some businesses to stay on Windows 98 even longer. And if that weren't bad enough already, the employees would also have to use Teams!
amlib
Joke's on you, I think nowadays it's more enjoyable to use windows 98/95 compared to 10/11.
You may have to forego an always connected workflow but i guess that's good for your mental health too :)
SecretDreams
I'm not sure one person has that much self loathing.
Tiberium
* from the recent commit "V1.07 works on Win95. But you have to install a different LibCrypto, LibSSL, and also install the WinSock2 update."
Download for the Win95 version: https://github.com/DiscordMessenger/dm/releases/tag/v1.07a
wiradikusuma
Maybe it's just my laptops (MacBook Air and Pro). But every time I open it, it's always "updating" (plugins?) before I can use it. Opening it in the browser is much faster.
extraduder_ire
One of the advantages of running programs like this in the browser is that you download a fresh (with caching) version every time you reload the page.
gigel82
Just beautiful. 64Mb of RAM and snappy due to native UI framework use. Compare it to the sluggish 1.2Gb of RAM that Teams uses (when not in a video call).
zxvkhkxvdvbdxz
Cool project, but it is missing central features of Discord such as voice and screen sharing.
RestartKernel
It'd be interesting to see this project develop further, if only to get WebRTC running on Win95 (iirc).
johnisgood
I mean, it is for Win95 and Win98.
mmmlinux
What do you mean my 250mhz processor cant handle voice chat and screen sharing?
johnisgood
What I mean is, they are the potential limitations:
1. Modern VoIP applications are incompatible with Windows 95/98
2. Hardware availability
3. Networking issues
4. Driver support
5. Obsolete Protocols
6. Performance limitations (indeed, modern audio codecs may be an issue, incl. Opus and AAC)
A 250 MHz processor can handle basic voice chat but with significant limitations, and there is much more to it when it comes to practice... so while technically a 250 MHz processor might (for historical experimentation or nostalgia), in reality it is not practical for functional use today.
thebeardisred
How long until they get slapped with a trademark claim?
thatguy0900
Ripcord is a third party discord client that's been around for quite a while, as far as I'm aware they haven't run into any trouble. And they actually might get used as opposed to someone seriously trying to run discord on windows 95
DoctorOW
I think the root of the problem in this one is that it's named "Discord Messenger", Ripcord is reminiscent but not confusing.
thatguy0900
That's fair
_--__--__
Speaking as a ripcord user, it helps your unofficial client avoid being blocked when you don't update for years and fall behind on feature parity (though I personally don't miss most any of said features)
bathwaterpizza
Same for Vencord/Vesktop
jeffwask
I don't think Discord cares as long as their backend still gets to harvest all the data.
account42
Why would Discord need a trademark claim - they control the backend so they can shut down third-party clients and/or ban users using them whenever they want.
umajho
[dead]
According to the author's bluesky posts, there's a few features missing from Win32s compared to regular Win32 that prevent this from being ported even further back to windows 3.1 easily.