# Any use for very old software? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-use-for-very-old-software/225334 "2004-01-20T16:02:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-use-for-very-old-software/225334/1 "2004-01-20T16:02:23Z")
Any anyone tell me or point to someone who can tell me whether there is any use for a bunch of very old software that’s taking up valuable basement storage space? I’m talking _very_ old here. How about a DOS 6.1 upgrade? Not to mention TurboCad V 1.51 on 5.25" floppies! (This one is old enough that it runs on DOS 2.0) There’s a bunch of miscellaneous stuff originally published for Windows 3.1 that probably won’t even run on today’s OSs. Even ebay doesn’t seem to have a market for this stuff, and it probably is too obsolete for even the most primitve of third world cultures, but I thought I’d ask before I toss it. I figure if it has any remaining useful life, some Doper somewhere would know. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-use-for-very-old-software/225334/2 "2004-01-20T16:35:25Z")
_Don’t toss it!_ Donate it to some outfit like the Computer Museum, or to your local collectors of antique computers. At least let someone from such a group look over it. [Antique Computer Page](http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/9107/2ndpageb.html) (Warning: annoying Geocities popups) [Google search on ‘Antique Computers’](http://www.google.ca/search?q=Antique+Computers&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) ---
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-use-for-very-old-software/225334/3 "2004-01-20T17:43:23Z")
Thanks, **Sunspace**. I searched on “old software” and “obsolete software” but it didn’t occur to me to use the word “antique”. BTW, the _Antique Computer Page_ is itself antique having been last updated in 1999. Recursive antiquity? ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-use-for-very-old-software/225334/4 "2004-01-21T01:20:07Z")
DOS 6.1 upgrade isn’t ever going to be a collectable (pre-nuclear holocaust anyway :)). The only versions of DOS which are semi-valuable are:[ul] [li]Anything below v3.3[/li][li]Especially v1.xx[/li][li]v4.0 (NOT v4.01)[/ul][/li]And only if they’re the original disks (extra if they’re in the original box). Same goes for Windows, v3.0 and above are (less than) a dime a dozen! However, v2.x or v1.x in a shrink-wrapped box can go for several hundred dollars on eBay! ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-use-for-very-old-software/225334/5 "2004-01-21T07:12:09Z")
I never should have thrown away my DOS 3.22 floppies. ☹ Or my copy of Novell Netware 2.0, for that matter. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-use-for-very-old-software/225334/6 "2004-01-22T15:41:13Z")
As for what people actually _do_ with old software, check out the [Retrocomputing Museum](http://www.catb.org/retro/). 🙂