Booting itself was several minutes. And I had one machine where Word took multiple minutes to start, never knew why. Maybe if I defrag for the umpteenth time.
---
And significantly less reliable.
Remember how common crashes were? (Including BSoD!)
Like, you can solve 90% of memory crashes by using a memory managed language but that is course has costs.
The 386SX ran at 16 MHz, was seven years old at the release of Windows 95 and was slightly below the stated minimum system requirements. By contrast, I had a 166 MHz Pentium (released four months after Windows 95) and I remember it being slow enough that I would go do something else while it booted.
I see references that mention that installing fonts can significantly impact boot time. Maybe the installed software and devices had a significant impact.
---
And significantly less reliable.
Remember how common crashes were? (Including BSoD!)
Like, you can solve 90% of memory crashes by using a memory managed language but that is course has costs.