• Never Knows
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      199 months ago

      That’s from the original EverQuest or one of it’s early expansions.

    • @9point6
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      59 months ago

      The thing about that screenshot that has me curious is the shortcut to 7zip which, although it has been around for longer than I realised, no one really used until the 2nd half of the 00’s

      • @sturlabragason
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        39 months ago

        Isn’t this just a screengrab from a win98 VM?

        • @9point6
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          39 months ago

          Given the presence of 7zip almost definitely

          Which makes it kinda more interesting tbh—did someone at Ars set this up to take a screenshot of ICQ? Getting a windows 98 VM set up with all that other stuff just for an article image seems like a lot of effort for a journalist who probably needs to get a few articles written a week.

          If it wasn’t Ars, who was it and why did they set up a somewhat period-accurate windows 98 VM and then take a screenshot of ICQ out of everything?

          Maybe I’m thinking too hard about this

          • @sturlabragason
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            29 months ago

            Honestly I thoughr about doing it after suggesting that it might have been a VM. Maybe it was someone like me.

            • @9point6
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              9 months ago

              Oh don’t get me wrong, I get that someone might set up the VM, I just don’t know why they’d do that plus then screenshot ICQ and put it somewhere online for this journalist to find

          • @jqubed
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            19 months ago

            Maybe someone in the art department keeps a Windows 98 VM setup specifically for these tech obituaries for programs and services people thought were long dead. I don’t think I’ve used AIM/ICQ/MSN Messenger since around 2007/2008, and it was because it had become pretty dead.