Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux(codeberg.org) |
Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux(codeberg.org) |
Between i486, i586 and i686 there's been a steady drumbeat of Linux distros and kernel itself deprecating support
I'd like to see indefinite support powered through emulation under a modern CI server hardware with rigorous automated test-suites, with maintenance potentially supported in part with AI.
But someone else should do this, of course.
No, they cannot. 386 support was dropped in 2012 and 486 was dropped in 2026, including some third-party 586/686 vendors as well.
https://pcper.com/2026/05/first-i486-support-now-linux-aband...
Love it!
I've been in the media space, so I've seen artists do this for years now.
It's fucking bullshit. It's like handmade goods (some of which turned out to be sweatshop produced anyway).
At the end of the day all code is ephemeral. It provides value in the here and now. It doesn't doesn't last forever.
Make the thing do the thing and stop worrying about how it was made. None of your code will be around in 200 years.
I can already envision the contribution guidelines. You must install cameras all around you, like when taking a certification exam, and have them record you typing it all out, eye tracking included.
Only to then still get accused of "cheating" through I don't know, doing it all head of time with AI help, practicing the solution, and then just re-enacting it all.
this sentiment is also very funny considering the subject matter is reimplementing coLinux, which no one uses anymore, except as a toy, for an operating system no one uses anymore, except as a toy.
The word order makes it seems that it's a "Windows subsystem," rather than a "subsystem for Linux," that just happens to be in Windows.
If English used more word cases, Microsoft's unusual choice of word order probably would have been acceptable. But probably, some half-wit VP/PM decided that everything Windows must start with the word "Windows," and here me are.
Even "Windows Linux Subsystem" would be far more clear, and one word shorter, even if it is ugly.
Hate to be that guy, but if that's your problem just hand them an iPad or a Chromebook. Unsatisfying, I know, but it's not like my mom is Mrs. Roberts.
A WSL-like for Win9x is mostly just for the lulz.
No one should be running Win9x for anything connected to the internet. Ever, full stop.
The only reason to touch it is for a dedicated retro gaming setup or (completely airgapped) for some industrial tool with drivers/software provided by a company that has been defunct for 25+ years.
andLinux too?
And that doesn't even touch the Sun purchase, Solaris was impressive in its day, it could have had a stronger holding even today.
Microsoft's monopoly is a little like Oracle's was. Luck. Being ready at the right time. There was effective use of that luck, but that time has passed now.
Ah well.
I also don't really think computing advances in such a linear way. Lots of cool new tech is about digging up underappreciated insights from computing's distant past and applying it in a new context, or even just propagating it more widely.
I'm not saying Windows 9x in particular had anything super interesting going on. But all of the viable desktop and server operating systems are based on really old tech, and at the same time computing's distant past is full of hidden treasures.
Win9X and the VxD layer was a neat virtualization system running in a very resource-constrained environment with a lot of backwards compatibility requirements.
Oh it did though, it is a very interesting OS. Much more interesting than it usually gets credit for.
It's a proper 32 bit OS with pre-emptive multitasking and demand paging that is enough of a chimera with DOS that it still supports DOS programs, 16 bit Windows apps, and even your old DOS drivers - side-by-side with all the new 32 bit stuff.
Stop spamming plzkthxbai ^-^
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[0] Now, who thinks I wrote that “not as … but as …” part fully by hand and who thinks an LLM wrote it for me?!
The finished table then climbed out of the CNC, applied finish on itself in the bathroom like the distinguished gentlemen it is, attached its legs, and then lived happily ever after.
My food cooks on its own too as I always say!
I have a 486 PC sitting in my living room. For shits and giggles, I've cobbled together a FAT12 boot loader that runs a program directly off a floppy and played around from there.
And even by that little that I played around so far, I managed to run into more than one issue where something would work perfectly fine in Qemu, but not on the real hardware. Bochs appears to be more faithful, but also not 100% exact.
Btw. did you know that Windows 9x has an interesting TLB invalidation bug that apparently went unnoticed for decades and now triggers in KVM on AMD Zen 2 and newer CPUs? (see: https://github.com/JHRobotics/patcher9x)
AFAIK, part of the reason Linux no longer supports i486 is that it made CMPXCHG8B a hard requirement (and also RDTSC). You would need to maintain a completely separate implementation of a bunch of low-level locking primitives. I'm somewhat skeptical how well that will work when your testing relies entirely on emulation.
> ... someone else should do this, of course.
of course ;-)
The only thing performative around here is all you assholes evangelizing this worthless shit.
I'm getting really sick of this. I've had to deal with it in the AI art world for three years now (where actual practitioners are using the AI tools - big surprise, right?) Now it's finally seeping into software engineering.
This is a useless opinion. Most employers will only hire for AI coding now. Most code will be AI generated.
You need to start focusing on how you can create value in the new world. We aren't dealing with punch cards anymore.
If "junk code" pisses you off so much, you ought to look at your own DNA.
Meanwhile people are creating garbage with "ai" tools. I wish them the best of luck with their shit.
Also electronic music, now that I think about it. Or sorry, electronic "music", as it used to be written.
Can you elaborate? I’m honestly unsure what you’re suggesting she said, because I can imagine entirely contradictory scenarios.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aiwars/comments/1tcsjsg/someone_on_...
There are several videos available on YouTube, of someone connecting a Win9x/2K/XP machine to the modern Internet, waiting just a few minutes, and then observing (through Process Explorer) the silent introduction of various payloads onto the system.
this is a juicy enough target to justify such a virus.
You occasionally still see probes for Win95/98 era vulnerabilities though, presumably because there are a surprising amount of systems still running those versions and the cost of a probe in case one is accidentally open to the public network. Or as an attacker if you've already got into a private subnet, finding such hosts might be worth it as an extra place to put a reverse tunnel to aid getting back in later if your main route is closed off.
I'm very curious what you think the alternative might have been given all this extremely on the nose context.
She wasn't dismissive of digital-airbrushing; instead, the reasons for us not doing any digital-art in art class are the ones you'd reasonably expect:
1. The #1 reason is cost: in money, time, training, et cetera: physical hardware purchases, Photoshop or Painter licenses - and needing to keep those renewed - sending all the art teaching staff away for training on the software and digital-painting technique themselves - and more besides.
2. Art, as taught in middle-schools/lower-secondary-schools to children - not working professional adults - is concerned with breadth, not depth: digital-painting is a specific and narrow technique when compared to the applicability of teaching art-theory things like perspective, shading, etc.
3. The practical and technical aspects of producing visual-arts, including on a computer, are already taught in the elective graphic-design class in upper-secondary (while our lower-secondary art class was mandatory); she could probably tell that I was motivated more by my ego-driven need to demonstrate my own 1337 Photoshop skillz to others than any actual belief I had that everyone in the British economy needs exposure to Wacom and Photoshop and receives training so they can all have their own DeviantArt account.
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So now, in the event that some kids' art teachers or others are being broadly dismissive of digital-painting then they're likely pointing to the impracticality of it being a taught subject in mandatory education in public schools - and not that it's any "less" of an artform. Instead, I think it's worth comparing digital-painting to its own predecessor in (real-life) airbrush painting: just like digital-painting it requires its own hardware (think: expensive); while it can produce unique eye-catching results doing-so requires extensive practice; and is just as impractical to teach to large (25-30+) sized groups of kids en-masse; and won't help you appreciate a Monet or Renoir any more than a semester learning Photoshop would.
If memory serves me right, the context was me going on a tangent about my interests, which is when I mentioned digital painting and asked her if she has any experience with it.
It was overwhelmingly clear to me that she was absolutely thinking less of it as an artform, and not just skeptical about the practicality of its classroom adoption or similar. I really don't think such a thought even occurred to her.
There is of course a chance I misunderstood, but based on how I remember her, I don't really have a reason to doubt myself in this way. She generally had a holier-than-thou quality across the board, separately from her intentions.