Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

(codeberg.org)

209 points | by ibobev 3 days ago

18 comments

  • micw 5 hours ago
    For a second I thought github has updated to a clean and usable user interface. Then I realized that it's codeberg / forgejo ^^
    • onli 3 hours ago
      Did they recently update the design? I don't remember it looking this good. The dark mode is of the type I like (it's not too black! Unlike Github's) and the light mode is quite close to Github's design and thus familiar, but cleaner, less clutter, I think friendlier. And with nice touches like how the codeberg logo integrates into the header bar. There is a prominent rss feed button! Github doesn't event link one in the head (I think, the head is stuffed, at least my browser does not pick it up). The design not perfect (in dark mode the header should change to a darker color, like their docs page does, and the contrast between the two backgrounds colors is jarringly small, that needs a divider) but still, now I want to switch. It also loads so much faster. Having such a cool project hosted there helps as well.
      • alberto467 44 minutes ago
        Somebody has to figure out some sort of css media queries for OLED and similar screens, you can’t really optimize for both and I approve that going too dark doesn’t look good on standard monitors.
        • bobthepanda 1 minute ago
          or just allow configurable theming.
    • shevy-java 4 hours ago
      Perhaps codeberg replaces github one day. Microsoft really should take things more seriously than they do right now. AI slop made them very lazy.
      • b112 4 hours ago
        It happened with Oracle over and over. Bought MySQL, messed it up, mariaDB is king now. Bought openoffice, messed it up, now libreoffice is king. Created OEL, acted like complete asshats, messed it up, it just goes on and on.

        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.

        • iamkrazy 3 hours ago
          The most important Monopoly that needs broken today is apple's stranglehold on innovation. The app store needs to be really open, not half baked, still in full apple control, EU bullshit that's happening right now.
          • MobiusHorizons 2 hours ago
            I’m not a fan of Apple’s monopoly, but is there really much innovation left on mobile? I dont seem to find huge innovations on android. What in your opinion is the App Store preventing?
    • user3939382 3 hours ago
      Is it just me or do GitHub repos on on the main repo page on mobile not show stars???
  • epistasis 2 hours ago
    Whoa, 128MB of RAM on the Pentium, somebody is living LARGE. Almost hard to imagine 128MB of RAM in a Windows 95/98 box.
    • TimeBearingDown 49 minutes ago
      I remember using 98SE on a 256MB PII laptop for a good while. ME was less stable and 2000 was a bit difficult for some games or at least h
  • someperson 6 hours ago
    I'm heartened that recent Linux kernels in 2026 can still target i386 systems!

    Between i486, i586 and i686 there's been a steady drumbeat of Linux distros and kernel itself deprecating support

    • drzaiusx11 5 hours ago
      Didn't mainline Linux drop i386 in like 2012? Wild it still functions tbh
    • ranger_danger 1 hour ago
      > Linux kernels in 2026 can still target i386 systems!

      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...

    • setopt 5 hours ago
      I’m curious, are you running i386 devices or more philosophically opposed to deprecation?
      • someperson 3 hours ago
        Philosophically opposed.

        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.

        • st_goliath 27 minutes ago
          > ...powered through emulation under a modern CI server...

          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 ;-)

        • cedilla 59 minutes ago
          What's the philosophy?
          • someperson 43 minutes ago
            Whilst i386 hardware continues to exist, modern Linux kernels should continue to support it.
            • loeg 3 minutes ago
              Does it continue to exist?
  • rahen 5 hours ago
  • inaprovaline 5 hours ago
    > Proudly written without AI.

    Love it!

    • mohamedkoubaa 4 hours ago
      We need a humans.txt standard
      • debugnik 2 hours ago
        Already a thing.

        https://humanstxt.org/

      • copperx 3 hours ago
        And a HUMAN.md
      • mohamedkoubaa 2 hours ago
        I'm going to assume my down votes came from bots
        • zamadatix 2 hours ago
          A safe assumption is shorter or more negative comments receive a lot of negative pressure on HN, even when they are commonly accepted views by the average user. If you're convinced it's not real users though, you can always ping hn@ycombinator.com and they can let you know if the downvotes came from likely bot accounts or not.
    • tannertech 2 hours ago
      Purely human created software will be boutique soon vs unusable AI slop :(
    • echelon 3 hours ago
      On the contrary, this is performative.

      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.

      • bigfishrunning 3 hours ago
        I hope that everyone performatively produces high quality software without resorting to some statistical model.
      • slabtickler 57 minutes ago
        putting aside the lack of quality of most LLM-written code (even the big scary tech demo-y stuff), there is more to life than this pragmatism of "value adds." you can just write code because you want to.

        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.

      • perching_aix 3 hours ago
        Can't wait for the saga where people will start bikeshedding about whether a manually written bit of code was actually manually written.

        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.

        • dspillett 37 minutes ago
          It is already happening. I know someone who was contracted for some art work, and they wanted to see work in progress as various stages as well as the final pieces, not as a check-in where they might ask for changes before completion but as⁰ part of the final submission as evidence of how the work was done. Of course if you are going to mostly GenAI-generate the final result you can GenID-generate wip samples too, so videos of work in progress will be the next step. Or maybe in some places it is already the current step…

          --------

          [0] Now, who thinks I wrote that “not as … but as …” part fully by hand and who thinks an LLM wrote it for me?!

      • swetland 43 minutes ago
        Actually it's quite useful information. As soon as I see another useless "ai coded" project I immediately stop reading/caring about it. Fuck your slop code. Nobody wants that shit.
        • jatora 23 minutes ago
          Youre already using it in countless applications, and enjoying the fruits of it. You and everyone else wants it and will have it and will be better off for it, despite your performative chafing.
          • swetland 10 minutes ago
            Fuck off. No, I'm not using it. No, I'm not enjoying it.

            The only thing performative around here is all you assholes evangelizing this worthless shit.

        • echelon 28 minutes ago
          This is exactly the attitude I'm talking about.

          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.

          • swetland 9 minutes ago
            I create value the same way I always have.

            Meanwhile people are creating garbage with "ai" tools. I wish them the best of luck with their shit.

      • bigstrat2003 3 hours ago
        It's not bullshit to me. I'm interested in seeing what a human made, not what a clanker made.
        • sevenzero 3 hours ago
          Careful there, you're going to make all the AI "artists" real mad with this one.
          • perching_aix 2 hours ago
            You reminded me to the delicious grin my art teacher let out when I brought up digital painting to her. Learned a lot about people that day.

            Also electronic music, now that I think about it. Or sorry, electronic "music", as it used to be written.

        • iamkrazy 3 hours ago
          Me too, but the question is how do we prove it's human made? Maybe we need a certification authority. Anybody can claim "human written code" and people like you will drool all over a clanker written code.
          • bigstrat2003 2 hours ago
            You're not wrong, but then again this isn't high stakes stuff. I'm ok with vibes and trust in someone's character as a measure, imperfect as those things are. The cost of being wrong is some minor annoyance that I wasted time looking at someone's AI slop, which isn't so dire that it merits a ton of effort on avoiding.
  • Ancapistani 1 hour ago
    Shouldn’t this be “Linux Subsystem for Windows 9x”?
    • epistasis 1 hour ago
      It sadly continues the same abuse of English that's present in more modern Windows.

      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.

    • skavi 1 hour ago
      see Windows Subsystem for Linux and Windows Subsystem for Android.
    • IshKebab 1 hour ago
      No, we've been through this. The WSL logic is that it's the Windows Subsystem for [running] Linux.
      • haileys 34 minutes ago
        Yes it's a riff on WSL. It wouldn't make sense to flip the naming around - people would then just be confused about the naming in the other direction.
  • jll29 6 hours ago
    Could the be a good "mom and pop" OS to reduce (remote) IT maintenance workload for geeks from parent "clients"?
    • qsort 5 hours ago
      > Could the be a good "mom and pop" OS

      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.

      • copperx 3 hours ago
        And most "moms and pops" are around Bill Gates age, which means they grew with technology and are quite proficient.
        • NetOpWibby 3 hours ago
          My mom still uses her Zip drives
          • dotancohen 12 minutes ago
            What should I give her for unzipping?
    • Arainach 6 hours ago
      No.

      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.

      • setopt 5 hours ago
        Are there even still sufficiently large populations of win9x-compatible viruses online to make it a security issue anymore?
        • derefr 4 hours ago
          Maybe not viruses much any more, but definitely worms. (And also some automated malicious servers scattered about the Internet that pull lists of devices with certain ports open from Shodan et al, and then repeatedly attempt to attack/penetrate whatever's on those lists.)

          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.

          • MikeRichardson 3 hours ago
            Did those machines have public routable IPv4 addresses or something?
            • uint8_t 3 hours ago
              You didn't have a router with dialup, or early DSL, where the modem was a separate device. You'd often get publicly routable IPv4s in your university dorm, too. See also napster. :-)
            • perching_aix 3 hours ago
              Yes, they do.
        • dspillett 44 minutes ago
          Probably not many instances of code infecting that way, as most boxes running an OS that old should be well firewalled by now so the virus type infections will have died out.

          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.

        • jjmarr 5 hours ago
          > or (completely airgapped) for some industrial tool with drivers/software provided by a company that has been defunct for 25+ years.

          this is a juicy enough target to justify such a virus.

  • olivierestsage 2 hours ago
    The perfect OS doesn’t exi-
  • dreamlayers 2 hours ago
    I cannot imagine why someone would like Windows 9x enough to use it, let alone develop something so complicated for it.
    • mato 2 hours ago
      Because it's a totally awesome and fun challenge? Read the details of the integration!
    • felooboolooomba 2 hours ago
      Hackers gonna hack for the hack of it.
  • DeathArrow 5 hours ago
    It seems similar to colinux.
    • brcmthrowaway 1 hour ago
      One of the best software I ever used as a student

      andLinux too?

  • cmrdporcupine 2 hours ago
    If this had existed in the mid/late 90s so many things would have turned out differently.
  • nilslindemann 6 hours ago
    Can it run a Linux subsystem?
  • shevy-java 4 hours ago
    The idea is quite cool. How practical is it though? Last time I used a Win9x system or Win2k was ... many, many years ago.
    • thfuran 1 hour ago
      It’s about as practical as running doom on a microwave.
  • ranger_danger 59 minutes ago
    Now run wine inside it to get support for newer programs :)
  • johnea 5 hours ago
    Windows fans, like being a Mustang or Corvette fan, represent arrested development in last centuries technology...
    • the__alchemist 4 hours ago
      Windows is closer to a "Just works" for my use cases. I think if you are more into running applications on a PC or writing software not related to the OS, it can be a good choice. Where I would choose linux for servers, multi-user IT style systems etc.
    • isityettime 5 hours ago
      Windows as a product feels that way, but I think if you're a kernel hacker, that's not really true for you. Monolithic kernels for Unix-like operating systems like GNU/Linux aren't fundamentally that innovative either. (There's innovation within Linux, of course.)

      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.

      • haileys 44 minutes ago
        > I'm not saying Windows 9x in particular had anything super interesting going on.

        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.

      • EvanAnderson 3 hours ago
        > I'm not saying Windows 9x in particular had anything super interesting going on.

        Win9X and the VxD layer was a neat virtualization system running in a very resource-constrained environment with a lot of backwards compatibility requirements.

    • cpursley 2 hours ago
      Please don’t put Mustang and Corvette into the same sentence, they are entirely different classes. Mustang is more comparable to Camaro. While not my cup of tea, the latest mid engine Corvette is a true bargain vs other mid engine performance cars. Speaking of tech, I think the Corvette already 20 years ago had heads up display (projection onto the windshield of current speed).
  • tosti 7 hours ago
    • mtlynch 6 hours ago
      These are all different submitters. HN is supposed to detect duplicate links.
      • tosti 6 hours ago
        Allrightie then ./
  • gitowiec 6 hours ago
    And writing "Proudly written without AI." in README.md now is new black?
    • jessetemp 6 hours ago
      It’s a craft like anything else. Some people enjoy building a table and feel a sense of accomplishment telling their friends “I built this.” Other people just want a table and buy one from Ikea
      • copperx 3 hours ago
        And some people just click around in Fusion and have the table printed by a CNC and say "I made this", which is not true.
        • perching_aix 2 hours ago
          You're right. The table first magically clicked itself together in Fusion, and then the wood climbed into the CNC machine and fixed itself static, only for that CNC to then mill it on its own accord, all in a flamboyant whim just to make a table.

          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!

    • swetland 41 minutes ago
      It's useful indicator in these days of useless slop coded shit. Few things are a bigger waste of my time than reading about someone's proudly "ai"-generated pile of garbage.
    • dataflow 6 hours ago
      My question is, if they did decide to use AI someday, would they remember to update README.md in the same commit? I would probably forget.
      • drxzcl 6 hours ago
        The agent will happily fix that for them. They are through like that.
    • sph 6 hours ago
      It's like those labels of protected origin they put on high-quality artisan foods from the EU.