17 ms·

Show HN: Windows 2000 on Docker

395 points by hectorm 5y ago

cottsak 5y ago
#becausejurassicparkreference - https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000#why https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000#why
zinekeller 5y ago
> Why? >> "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should." - Dr. Ian Malcolm I like this "Why?" "Why not?" attitude. Surprised though that a whole operating system, kernel and all, is dockerised though, especially that the impression of Docker to me is that it is normally everything but the kernel. Edit: I didn't read the QEMU in the name. I won't be surprised if this is a full software emulation though (instead of the now-common hardware-assisted virtualisation).
- user3939382 5y ago
  I thought that quote was so funny, I actually laughed out loud. I've definitely dug into technical challenges way deeper than necessary merely because it felt like a challenge and I wanted the feeling of beating/solving it.
  - flatiron 5y ago
    You could spend 15 minutes and modify the dockerfile to accept an autoboot executable and it would actually be useful!
- tatref 5y ago
  Seems like this runs qemu inside the container.
  - xaduha 5y ago
    Yeah, pretty run-of-the-mill as far as similar projects go. Maybe a tad over-complicated to put it mildly. I've done something like this except not with KVM, but with headless Xorg+PulseAudio+Wine to have Hearthstone with sound over RDP. Did it run? Yes. Did it run like crap? Absolutely!
- als0 5y ago
  KVM is being passed to the Docker container, so it is using hardware-assisted virtualisation. Of course, certain things like the BIOS and peripherals will be fully handled in software by QEMU.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
tiernano 5y ago
Someone posted that 2k was the last nt edition without bloat... I think that was wrong (plus comment seems to have been deleted). 2k3, 2k8, 2k8r2, 2k12, 2k12r2, 2016 and 2019 all have no bloat or random crap... 2022 is mostly the same.... And comes with (chrome) edge too... Since the xp days I have always skipped the home/pro/workstation editions of windows and used server... Gave more features I needed, like hyper v, and felt more stable... Plus less crap...
- pacifika 5y ago
  How is the compatibility with everyday applications?
  - tiernano 5y ago
    I haven't found any app that doesn't run on windows server that does on win desktop. I don't game, so never tired games... Wsl on 2019 was limited to v1, but think that got to v2 on 2022... Docker works, all dev tools work... Yea, all good!
    - R0b0t1 5y ago
      The issue is hardware. Most gaming hardware does not have server qualified drivers which may mean you can't use your hardware. Issues normally with WiFi cards and GPUs, most other things will work. No chance of running Windows Server on a laptop. The qualification is to prevent random crashes; it's not really needed, but it is hard to impossible to disable last I checked.
      - tiernano 5y ago
        Never had an issue with drivers... Was running nvidia cards and the standard nvidia drivers worked without issue... Also did manage to run win2003 on a laptop at one stage... Can't remember if drivers for wifi worked... The machine was hard wired in...
        5y ago
hn_throwaway_69 5y ago
This brings back great memories. Windows 2000 sparked my interest in computing. I was in elementary school and was obsessed with the 'Log on to' dropdown box on Windows login screens, and how you could use the same credentials on any PC. Somehow I managed to salvage an old computer and source myself a copy of the ISO and managed to setup an ADDS domain controller and join my mother's laptop to the domain. I went and asked the IT guy for advice on doing a multi forest configuration and I think it blew his mind. Why did I want multi forest? Guess I was preoccupied with whether or not I could, and didn't stop to think if I should. : )
- xattt 5y ago
  Some of the most interesting pursuits in my “youthful” computing experience was looking into how to make things work that were meant for large-scape deployment work for personal use. I had a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop (circa 2003, RIP 1 year after due to bad soldering on the mainboard) which came with a Smart Card reader. At one point in time, the holy grail would have been making it work for password-less login on Windows XP.
- tsumnia 5y ago
  > This brings back great memories. Windows 2000 sparked my interest in computing. Same, I remember being so resistant to porting to XP. AND funny enough, when I finally made the shift, it was the first time I ever wiped a hard drive, losing all my precious pirated MP3s.
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  > Why did I want multi forest? Guess I was preoccupied with whether or not I could, and didn't stop to think if I should. : ) Good news; you belong on Hacker News:)
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    Are we sure that's "good" news?
    - 5y ago
unglaublich 5y ago
In general: https://hub.docker.com/r/tianon/qemu https://hub.docker.com/r/tianon/qemu
gravypod 5y ago
I wish there was an easy way to mux display usage to containers sor hat things like these wouldn't need to run an RDP server for you to access the and we could have `--display window=640x480` or `--monitor /dev/....`.
- NexRebular 5y ago
  I've been using Apache Guacamole to have central access to KVM/bhyve-inside-a-container (or rather inside a zone) servers running on SmartOS. However, I'm not using RDP at the moment as there is also VNC-access available as default that Guacamole connects to.
chris_wot 5y ago
(comment is a little off-topic, feel free to downvote) I'm curious how ReactOS stacks up to Windows 2000.
- hectorm 5y ago
  I have a similar image with ReactOS if you want to compare :) https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-reactos https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-reactos
  - chris_wot 5y ago
    Oh nice!!!!
  - LogonType10 5y ago
    Thanks!
grepfru_it 5y ago
Questions about this implementation's legality? Liability? Security? https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000/blob/master/Dockerfile.m4#L50 https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000/blob/master/D... Makes me think this is done as a POC, but definitely fork a local copy as you can just swap that line out with your local copy of a Win2k ISO
- hectorm 5y ago
  Effectively this is done as a POC, don't expect any security on a machine running Windows 2000 nowadays. Regarding legality, I hope that Microsoft doesn't claim any rights, since the Windows 2000 image has been published in WinWorld for years without issues.
  - grepfru_it 5y ago
    Careful with your claims. What is the supply chain of that win2k iso? You could be compromised before you even begin. Just because it is past EOL doesn’t mean you chuck all security best practices out the window. “Oh well it’s end of life, might as well store passwords in plaintext” Microsoft still owns copyright on Win2k, so you could be met with a cease and desist or you could be liable for infringement.
    - xxpor 5y ago
      If you connect windows 2000 to the internet, you're probably owned within a few minutes regardless. Similarly for xp pre-sp2.
      - rustymatter 5y ago
        What? Can you elaborate? If I spin this up in a container, even though it has access to the internet, how am I owned within a few minutes, given that my firewall is in place and I don't expose any port of this container to the internet?
      - hulitu 5y ago
argsv 5y ago
I just ran this on a Fedora machine and connected to Windows using rdesktop. It works and it's amazing. I like it. The Internet will surely be confused today with a surge of traffic from Internet Explorer 5. Incidentally, google.com still loads and allows searching; bing.com does not load.
- voakbasda 5y ago
  The fact that bing.com does not load using their own browser speaks volumes about Microsoft.
  - schwartzworld 5y ago
    Using their own outdated, unsupported browser? Why should they develop websites against a 22 year old browser version?
    - heyoni 5y ago
      On the one hand, it’s a sign of technical prowess to be able to accommodate browsers going that far back. On the other, it’s kind of embarrassing not to have a barebones version of your website load in case an old browser is detected. IE5 had Ajax after all, what more does a search box really need? The answer? Endless tracking and cookies and phoning home. God forbid someone uses a browser we can’t use to collect infinite metrics. Makes me wonder, does bing work with lynx?
      - rbanffy 5y ago
        Lynx is not outdated. It’s actively maintained and updated. Last release is a couple months old.
        charcircuit 5y ago
        Lynx doesn't support JavaScript like every other modern browser. It is outdated.
mysterydip 5y ago
Windows 2000 was my favorite version of the OS. I kept it running far longer than I should reasonably have. Thanks for giving me another reason to fire it up!
- qsort 5y ago
  I completely agree. People fondly remember XP, but Windows 2000 was peak Windows. It almost looks like a real operating system :)
  - laumars 5y ago
    I agree. People often forget that early releases of XP was basically just a re-skinned 2000 but with a few tweaks for games and fonts. The problem was those skins ended up doubling the memory and CPU requirements. In fact XP was a pretty bloated OS on hardware from 2002. It wasn’t until much later into the life of XP when hardware caught up and newer service packs added enough to the OS to really differentiate it from 2000. But for the first few years of the life of XP, it was an embarrassment.
    - cesarb 5y ago
      People also often forget that Windows XP was the first Windows to have WGA, which was fairly controversial. Windows 2000 was the last Windows version you could truly own, instead of having to beg Microsoft for permission every time you reinstalled or replaced hardware.
      - johnebgd 5y ago
        Windows XP volume licensing still gave customers full ownership without online activation. I remember a friend used magic jelly bean to pull keys off every pc he came across to stockpile new volume keys he could use after the initial key that went public got banned for windows updates.
        lhoff 5y ago
NabiDev 5y ago
But, Why?
- crehn 5y ago
  Why not? It’s fun.
- jagger27 5y ago
  I like to boot up old operating systems for UI design inspiration. Software really felt different back then. This sort of “pointless” project saves me a lot of hassle!
  - IshKebab 5y ago
    Is it that hard to do directly using QEMU? https://wiki.qemu.org/Windows2000 https://wiki.qemu.org/Windows2000
    - spydum 5y ago
      I think thats basically all this is.. qemu inside a container?
      - mayli 5y ago
        Yes, and just this time for windows 2k, an OS can bring some nostalgia for certain folks.
    - jagger27 5y ago
      No it’s not that hard. But this lets me do it with a single command. No need to track down a disk image with a working key, configure the VM, and then run the slow installer. With this I can go do whatever silly thing I wanted to do that much faster.
- UI_at_80x24 5y ago
  Because a project like this is the exact ethos that HN thrives on and the niche that 'Hacker' community exists to fill. I would love to see 100 of these a day.
gfodor 5y ago
Best MS OS, they should have just maintained this for the last 20 years.
pengaru 5y ago
Is booting windows in a vm something noteworthy in 2021?
- ranger_danger 5y ago
  yea I don't get it... I have docker/qemu images for every windows version ever made, but I don't go parading them around to everyone. they're so simple to make anyways.
- throwawayay02 5y ago
  I was searching for your question. I agree I don't know why this is in the first page... Maybe some people [1] are right when they say most of HN's audience is interested in business and technology, but not technical themselves. [1] http://n-gate.com/ http://n-gate.com/
  - IshKebab 5y ago
    I think people don't realise that Docker isn't really doing anything here.
  - mardifoufs 5y ago
    What happened to ngate? Have they ever been on a long hiatus like this one before?
    - Lammy 5y ago
      https://twitter.com/webshitweekly/status/1450563491069247489 https://twitter.com/webshitweekly/status/1450563491069247489
nix23 5y ago
I miss W2K :(
arpa 5y ago
cool! I've never considered running qemu in a container. This project is a matroska on actual windows systems, as docker runs/used to run in VM (has WSL changed that?). So VM->Docker->VM. You could probably also run windows-something that supports Docker and run the same image. Oh this gives me baaaaad ideas. Thank you, OP
- xxpor 5y ago
  WSL2 itself also runs in a VM
- NexRebular 5y ago
  illumos has had qemu inside a container (or zone) since I believe 2011 when Joyent ported KVM to SmartOS. Nice to see docker catching up already...
  - arpa 5y ago
    Did you mean linux? because docker is just an interface foe cgroups, namespaces and chroot.
    - NexRebular 5y ago
      the docker system including all the bells and whistles. But indeed I could've just said linux is playing catch-up in this area too...
      - arpa 5y ago
        To be absolutely fair, the first adequate namespaces implementation came out in kernel version 3.8, so that puts us in 2013, when talking capabilities to run %process% in a "container". Admittedly, a few years later than illumos. But then again, illumos was just playing catch-up with *BSD back then, as jails were available since 2000 ;) By the way, what is your primary motivation for using illumos? genuinely curious.
        5y ago
comprev 5y ago
A handful of PCs running pirated Win2k licenses and Small Business Server 2003, hooked up via an eBay Cisco switch was the start of my career in Ops. I learned so much back then!
racecar789 5y ago
Did anyone frequently run into ntoskrnl errors that prevented Windows 2000 from booting? I ran into that error every six months but to be fair a number of the incidents happened after a power failure with no UPS.
- djbusby 5y ago
  Was it the IDE reg tweak to fix it? (Search mergeide.reg or something). That was a common issue when hardware swapped.
throwaway984393 5y ago
This is amazing! Does anyone know if KVM hardware virt works on EC2 / ECS / Lambda / other cloud or VPS vendors? Also, does anyone know which versions of Windows have restrictions on where you can run it? IIRC, recent versions stipulate you can't just run your own copy of it virtualized without an approved hardware vendor? Or maybe I'm crazy. I know with MacOS the EULA states you can't run it on anything but Apple hardware (thanks, Apple). If only their EULAs weren't so restrictive, it would be easy to spin up a build+test cluster for your apps for all platforms. Sucks that developing cross-platform is now legally/financially more troublesome than it is technically.
tm11zz 5y ago
Inside the image for those interested: https://contains.dev/hectormolinero/qemu-win2000 https://contains.dev/hectormolinero/qemu-win2000
IronWolve 5y ago
I really liked how stable W2k was as a workstation. I could run a bunch of terminals, programs and hardly ever had a crash. Nothing is worse working an outage or deployment and POOF there goes your desktop. This was also around the time you could even run bbwin and themes, and tweak it some for fun. Pretty sure cygwin was also around.
- flatiron 5y ago
  Cygwin was very much around. I went to college in 2001 and was forced to use w2k and lived in Cygwin as a result.
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    Cygwin was a wonderful thing. It wasn’t fast, but integrated the Linux side with the Windows side much better than WSL2 does (at the expense of binary compatibility). It allowed me to develop server apps for Linux on a corporate sanctioned Windows box and deploy them to the real servers (mostly Linux with some Solaris).
- manbart 5y ago
  Windows Server with the Desktop Experience enabled (plus a few other tweaks: https://www.windowsworkstation.com/win2016-2019/ https://www.windowsworkstation.com/win2016-2019/) is much better than Windows 10/11 IMO. Way less bullshit that way
FpUser 5y ago
Windows 2000 running in VM in Docker. Might as well skip the docker stage as it does not really add anything. Otherwise sweet memories. I used Win 2K as a workstation at the time. Loved it.
- rnd0 5y ago
  >Windows 2000 running in VM in Docker. Might as well skip the docker stage as it does not really add anything. Arguably, it adds the ability to have a network of them, set to different virtual networks in an easier manner than regular qemu bridging. At least that was my first thought. Then again a)I'm really bad at qemu so anything that makes things easier is welcome b)I'm even worse at working with Docker. (Hence "arguably" ;-))
rezonant 5y ago
Finally! We've been waiting for Windows containers to hit feature parity with Linux for a long time! /s
- stillblue 5y ago
  Lol. Gave me a good chuckle!
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
I'd like to use or build something like this for vintage gaming.
rado 5y ago
Truly great OS. The pinnacle. Rock solid. Just look at that perfectly consistent UI. Everything afterwards is bloat and UI BS.
moffkalast 5y ago
Docker can run Win 2000, but older versions of Win 10 can't run Docker. There must be some irony here.
z3t4 5y ago
so it runs Ubuntu which fires up a virtual machine that runs windows. Why not run the VM directly without Ubuntu !? (and without Docker)
- hectorm 5y ago
  You can of course set this up manually outside Docker, I provide this image so that you can easily have a preconfigured installation with VNC, RDP, bind shell and a Samba server.
throwaway69123 5y ago
I really wish docker (not specifically but containers frameworks) had support for graphical output. Be really cool to containerise visual apps.
- kortex 5y ago
  You can do it, I've done it, for the express purpose of GUI apps in containers. You have to mount in a Xwindows socket. There's info out there how to do it.
- w7 5y ago
  They can-- I know someone who runs xorg in a container with SPICE output support, but not sure on the specifics.
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  I suggest that you look up x11docker.
rbanffy 5y ago
2000 and XP/2003 were the last Windows versions I used and cared about. It was with 2000 that I realised working with 2 200MHz CPUs was a better experience than a single 400MHz one (at least on Windows).
nayuki 5y ago
A year or so before Windows XP brought the NT kernel to home users, I chose to switch from Windows Me to 2000 to reap the benefits in computer stability. I was using a business operating system before it was cool.
noja 5y ago
I love the speed and simplicity of Win2k. What would HNers change in Win2k to bring it up-to-date? What's must have features does Windows 11 have that Win2k does not?
- fwsgonzo 5y ago
  Modern desktops do multi-display and scaling better. Perhaps also GPU-work, however I greatly prioritize low latency over any fancy windowing. I wonder how the Windows 2000 desktop latency was? I remember it felt really snappy.
- linguae 5y ago
  If it had updated security patches, drivers for modern hardware, and a modern web browser, I'd seriously consider using Windows 2000 as my daily driver today. Windows 2000 was peak Windows for me. It was stable, and the desktop did not get in my way. It's Windows without the bloat, the nagging, and the surveillance. I loved it in the early 2000's, preferred it to XP (which introduced activation, the Fisher-Price theme, and some nagging), and still love it to this day. I periodically check the progress of ReactOS (https://reactos.org https://reactos.org), since this is the closest thing to this vision of an updated Windows 2000. While I'm at it, I'd be very productive with 2000-era productivity software, such as Microsoft Office 2000 and the Adobe software of that era. Of course, I'd need updated compilers and other developer tools since I'd like to work with modern languages.
_nickwhite 5y ago
What a cool project. Expose that port 3389 (RDP) to the internet & see how long before it gets cryptolocked.
ipunchghosts 5y ago
Is something like this considered pirating?
locusofself 5y ago
This reminds me of a job I had about 13 years ago. I worked for a startup called SafeDesk. The idea was that we created custom debian-based live images that we network (PXE) booted to diskless PCs. So naturally the system would be instantly "wiped" when rebooted. We sold this to a few libraries and schools and even prisons. Somehow we got into running vmware player with Windows 7 (?) on those diskless systems because of course some customers wanted windows. We PXE booted linux and then ran windows on it through vmware. It was insane and pretty stupid and terribly slow, but I learned a shitload about linux from that job.
don-code 5y ago
I actually cut my sysadmin teeth on Windows 2000, and found myself wondering how on earth they could `docker exec` a shell. These were, comparatively, the dark ages of Windows administration, and almost all tasks were done through a GUI. The implementation is nothing short of genius: they use a Windows version of `netcat` (the common UNIX tool, but compiled for Windows from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit), then use `srvany` (also from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit) to start `netcat` as a system service, but with `cmd.exe` piped to its standard in and out. Kudos on this solution!
- mateuszf 5y ago
  It's genius because it's simple and actually is not a workaround but use of the tools as intended.
arrrgr 5y ago
I got my first laptop in the year 2000, it was a hand me down and weighed like three bricks but I loved it so much. In the next year I found out the high school decommissioned computer parts and started picking them up and building working machines at home. The hardest thing in setting up a local area network at home for me was finding a router (we were poor and I couldn't just buy it). But I did get hold of a crossover cable and was able to set up a LAN running win 2k between two machines. That made me at least as happy as watching Angelina Jolie play Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.
lloydjones 5y ago
I was completely obsessed with Terminal Services and the powers therein
shanghaikid 5y ago
2k is the best windows OS.
dusted 5y ago
This is qemu on docker. just so happens to be that a windows 2000 is running on the qemu..
MauroIksem 5y ago
Amazing
accountofme 5y ago
As it seems everyone else here thinks win2k was peak windows. I agree. It was the best windows there ever was. I will miss it always. In 2000 I originally ran win98 and then 2k as a router so I could share my parents adsl connection with my bro. Ah! Memories! Crazy that I could hook up a windows box back then and not get hacked. The internet then was a different time..... Edit: spelling
desktopninja 5y ago
Ahh how I truly miss being super focused: win2k pro winamp 2.92 (and all its glorious plugins. still use it today!!!) jasc paint shop pro 7 jcreator ide ati TV wonder firewire ethernet that network activity icon amd k-6 processor 384MB ram a consistent UI powertoys gpedit tweaks ms-word (and yes I rather enjoyed clipit) Vs today where every piece of modern software fights with you to get work down. There are some exceptions but the list is rather small now.

395 points by hectorm 5y ago

#becausejurassicparkreference - https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000#why https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000#why

zinekeller 5y ago

> Why? >> "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should." - Dr. Ian Malcolm I like this "Why?" "Why not?" attitude. Surprised though that a whole operating system, kernel and all, is dockerised though, especially that the impression of Docker to me is that it is normally everything but the kernel. Edit: I didn't read the QEMU in the name. I won't be surprised if this is a full software emulation though (instead of the now-common hardware-assisted virtualisation).

user3939382 5y ago
I thought that quote was so funny, I actually laughed out loud. I've definitely dug into technical challenges way deeper than necessary merely because it felt like a challenge and I wanted the feeling of beating/solving it.
- flatiron 5y ago
  You could spend 15 minutes and modify the dockerfile to accept an autoboot executable and it would actually be useful!
tatref 5y ago
Seems like this runs qemu inside the container.
- xaduha 5y ago
  Yeah, pretty run-of-the-mill as far as similar projects go. Maybe a tad over-complicated to put it mildly. I've done something like this except not with KVM, but with headless Xorg+PulseAudio+Wine to have Hearthstone with sound over RDP. Did it run? Yes. Did it run like crap? Absolutely!
als0 5y ago
KVM is being passed to the Docker container, so it is using hardware-assisted virtualisation. Of course, certain things like the BIOS and peripherals will be fully handled in software by QEMU.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

tiernano 5y ago

Someone posted that 2k was the last nt edition without bloat... I think that was wrong (plus comment seems to have been deleted). 2k3, 2k8, 2k8r2, 2k12, 2k12r2, 2016 and 2019 all have no bloat or random crap... 2022 is mostly the same.... And comes with (chrome) edge too... Since the xp days I have always skipped the home/pro/workstation editions of windows and used server... Gave more features I needed, like hyper v, and felt more stable... Plus less crap...

pacifika 5y ago
How is the compatibility with everyday applications?
- tiernano 5y ago
  I haven't found any app that doesn't run on windows server that does on win desktop. I don't game, so never tired games... Wsl on 2019 was limited to v1, but think that got to v2 on 2022... Docker works, all dev tools work... Yea, all good!
  - R0b0t1 5y ago
    The issue is hardware. Most gaming hardware does not have server qualified drivers which may mean you can't use your hardware. Issues normally with WiFi cards and GPUs, most other things will work. No chance of running Windows Server on a laptop. The qualification is to prevent random crashes; it's not really needed, but it is hard to impossible to disable last I checked.
    - tiernano 5y ago
      Never had an issue with drivers... Was running nvidia cards and the standard nvidia drivers worked without issue... Also did manage to run win2003 on a laptop at one stage... Can't remember if drivers for wifi worked... The machine was hard wired in...
      - 5y ago

hn_throwaway_69 5y ago

This brings back great memories. Windows 2000 sparked my interest in computing. I was in elementary school and was obsessed with the 'Log on to' dropdown box on Windows login screens, and how you could use the same credentials on any PC. Somehow I managed to salvage an old computer and source myself a copy of the ISO and managed to setup an ADDS domain controller and join my mother's laptop to the domain. I went and asked the IT guy for advice on doing a multi forest configuration and I think it blew his mind. Why did I want multi forest? Guess I was preoccupied with whether or not I could, and didn't stop to think if I should. : )

xattt 5y ago
Some of the most interesting pursuits in my “youthful” computing experience was looking into how to make things work that were meant for large-scape deployment work for personal use. I had a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop (circa 2003, RIP 1 year after due to bad soldering on the mainboard) which came with a Smart Card reader. At one point in time, the holy grail would have been making it work for password-less login on Windows XP.
tsumnia 5y ago
> This brings back great memories. Windows 2000 sparked my interest in computing. Same, I remember being so resistant to porting to XP. AND funny enough, when I finally made the shift, it was the first time I ever wiped a hard drive, losing all my precious pirated MP3s.
yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
> Why did I want multi forest? Guess I was preoccupied with whether or not I could, and didn't stop to think if I should. : ) Good news; you belong on Hacker News:)
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Are we sure that's "good" news?
  - 5y ago

unglaublich 5y ago

In general: https://hub.docker.com/r/tianon/qemu https://hub.docker.com/r/tianon/qemu

gravypod 5y ago

I wish there was an easy way to mux display usage to containers sor hat things like these wouldn't need to run an RDP server for you to access the and we could have `--display window=640x480` or `--monitor /dev/....`.

NexRebular 5y ago
I've been using Apache Guacamole to have central access to KVM/bhyve-inside-a-container (or rather inside a zone) servers running on SmartOS. However, I'm not using RDP at the moment as there is also VNC-access available as default that Guacamole connects to.

chris_wot 5y ago

(comment is a little off-topic, feel free to downvote) I'm curious how ReactOS stacks up to Windows 2000.

hectorm 5y ago
I have a similar image with ReactOS if you want to compare :) https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-reactos https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-reactos
- chris_wot 5y ago
  Oh nice!!!!
- LogonType10 5y ago
  Thanks!

grepfru_it 5y ago

Questions about this implementation's legality? Liability? Security? https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000/blob/master/Dockerfile.m4#L50 https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-win2000/blob/master/D... Makes me think this is done as a POC, but definitely fork a local copy as you can just swap that line out with your local copy of a Win2k ISO

hectorm 5y ago
Effectively this is done as a POC, don't expect any security on a machine running Windows 2000 nowadays. Regarding legality, I hope that Microsoft doesn't claim any rights, since the Windows 2000 image has been published in WinWorld for years without issues.
- grepfru_it 5y ago
  Careful with your claims. What is the supply chain of that win2k iso? You could be compromised before you even begin. Just because it is past EOL doesn’t mean you chuck all security best practices out the window. “Oh well it’s end of life, might as well store passwords in plaintext” Microsoft still owns copyright on Win2k, so you could be met with a cease and desist or you could be liable for infringement.
  - xxpor 5y ago
    If you connect windows 2000 to the internet, you're probably owned within a few minutes regardless. Similarly for xp pre-sp2.
    - rustymatter 5y ago
      What? Can you elaborate? If I spin this up in a container, even though it has access to the internet, how am I owned within a few minutes, given that my firewall is in place and I don't expose any port of this container to the internet?
    - hulitu 5y ago

argsv 5y ago

I just ran this on a Fedora machine and connected to Windows using rdesktop. It works and it's amazing. I like it. The Internet will surely be confused today with a surge of traffic from Internet Explorer 5. Incidentally, google.com still loads and allows searching; bing.com does not load.

voakbasda 5y ago
The fact that bing.com does not load using their own browser speaks volumes about Microsoft.
- schwartzworld 5y ago
  Using their own outdated, unsupported browser? Why should they develop websites against a 22 year old browser version?
  - heyoni 5y ago
    On the one hand, it’s a sign of technical prowess to be able to accommodate browsers going that far back. On the other, it’s kind of embarrassing not to have a barebones version of your website load in case an old browser is detected. IE5 had Ajax after all, what more does a search box really need? The answer? Endless tracking and cookies and phoning home. God forbid someone uses a browser we can’t use to collect infinite metrics. Makes me wonder, does bing work with lynx?
    - rbanffy 5y ago
      Lynx is not outdated. It’s actively maintained and updated. Last release is a couple months old.
      - charcircuit 5y ago
        Lynx doesn't support JavaScript like every other modern browser. It is outdated.

mysterydip 5y ago

Windows 2000 was my favorite version of the OS. I kept it running far longer than I should reasonably have. Thanks for giving me another reason to fire it up!

qsort 5y ago
I completely agree. People fondly remember XP, but Windows 2000 was peak Windows. It almost looks like a real operating system :)
- laumars 5y ago
  I agree. People often forget that early releases of XP was basically just a re-skinned 2000 but with a few tweaks for games and fonts. The problem was those skins ended up doubling the memory and CPU requirements. In fact XP was a pretty bloated OS on hardware from 2002. It wasn’t until much later into the life of XP when hardware caught up and newer service packs added enough to the OS to really differentiate it from 2000. But for the first few years of the life of XP, it was an embarrassment.
  - cesarb 5y ago
    People also often forget that Windows XP was the first Windows to have WGA, which was fairly controversial. Windows 2000 was the last Windows version you could truly own, instead of having to beg Microsoft for permission every time you reinstalled or replaced hardware.
    - johnebgd 5y ago
      Windows XP volume licensing still gave customers full ownership without online activation. I remember a friend used magic jelly bean to pull keys off every pc he came across to stockpile new volume keys he could use after the initial key that went public got banned for windows updates.
      - lhoff 5y ago

NabiDev 5y ago

But, Why?

crehn 5y ago
Why not? It’s fun.
jagger27 5y ago
I like to boot up old operating systems for UI design inspiration. Software really felt different back then. This sort of “pointless” project saves me a lot of hassle!
- IshKebab 5y ago
  Is it that hard to do directly using QEMU? https://wiki.qemu.org/Windows2000 https://wiki.qemu.org/Windows2000
  - spydum 5y ago
    I think thats basically all this is.. qemu inside a container?
    - mayli 5y ago
      Yes, and just this time for windows 2k, an OS can bring some nostalgia for certain folks.
  - jagger27 5y ago
    No it’s not that hard. But this lets me do it with a single command. No need to track down a disk image with a working key, configure the VM, and then run the slow installer. With this I can go do whatever silly thing I wanted to do that much faster.
UI_at_80x24 5y ago
Because a project like this is the exact ethos that HN thrives on and the niche that 'Hacker' community exists to fill. I would love to see 100 of these a day.

gfodor 5y ago

Best MS OS, they should have just maintained this for the last 20 years.

pengaru 5y ago

Is booting windows in a vm something noteworthy in 2021?

ranger_danger 5y ago
yea I don't get it... I have docker/qemu images for every windows version ever made, but I don't go parading them around to everyone. they're so simple to make anyways.
throwawayay02 5y ago
I was searching for your question. I agree I don't know why this is in the first page... Maybe some people [1] are right when they say most of HN's audience is interested in business and technology, but not technical themselves. [1] http://n-gate.com/ http://n-gate.com/
- IshKebab 5y ago
  I think people don't realise that Docker isn't really doing anything here.
- mardifoufs 5y ago
  What happened to ngate? Have they ever been on a long hiatus like this one before?
  - Lammy 5y ago
    https://twitter.com/webshitweekly/status/1450563491069247489 https://twitter.com/webshitweekly/status/1450563491069247489

nix23 5y ago

I miss W2K :(

arpa 5y ago

cool! I've never considered running qemu in a container. This project is a matroska on actual windows systems, as docker runs/used to run in VM (has WSL changed that?). So VM->Docker->VM. You could probably also run windows-something that supports Docker and run the same image. Oh this gives me baaaaad ideas. Thank you, OP

xxpor 5y ago
WSL2 itself also runs in a VM
NexRebular 5y ago
illumos has had qemu inside a container (or zone) since I believe 2011 when Joyent ported KVM to SmartOS. Nice to see docker catching up already...
- arpa 5y ago
  Did you mean linux? because docker is just an interface foe cgroups, namespaces and chroot.
  - NexRebular 5y ago
    the docker system including all the bells and whistles. But indeed I could've just said linux is playing catch-up in this area too...
    - arpa 5y ago
      To be absolutely fair, the first adequate namespaces implementation came out in kernel version 3.8, so that puts us in 2013, when talking capabilities to run %process% in a "container". Admittedly, a few years later than illumos. But then again, illumos was just playing catch-up with *BSD back then, as jails were available since 2000 ;) By the way, what is your primary motivation for using illumos? genuinely curious.
      - 5y ago

comprev 5y ago

A handful of PCs running pirated Win2k licenses and Small Business Server 2003, hooked up via an eBay Cisco switch was the start of my career in Ops. I learned so much back then!

racecar789 5y ago

Did anyone frequently run into ntoskrnl errors that prevented Windows 2000 from booting? I ran into that error every six months but to be fair a number of the incidents happened after a power failure with no UPS.

djbusby 5y ago
Was it the IDE reg tweak to fix it? (Search mergeide.reg or something). That was a common issue when hardware swapped.

throwaway984393 5y ago

This is amazing! Does anyone know if KVM hardware virt works on EC2 / ECS / Lambda / other cloud or VPS vendors? Also, does anyone know which versions of Windows have restrictions on where you can run it? IIRC, recent versions stipulate you can't just run your own copy of it virtualized without an approved hardware vendor? Or maybe I'm crazy. I know with MacOS the EULA states you can't run it on anything but Apple hardware (thanks, Apple). If only their EULAs weren't so restrictive, it would be easy to spin up a build+test cluster for your apps for all platforms. Sucks that developing cross-platform is now legally/financially more troublesome than it is technically.

tm11zz 5y ago

Inside the image for those interested: https://contains.dev/hectormolinero/qemu-win2000 https://contains.dev/hectormolinero/qemu-win2000

IronWolve 5y ago

I really liked how stable W2k was as a workstation. I could run a bunch of terminals, programs and hardly ever had a crash. Nothing is worse working an outage or deployment and POOF there goes your desktop. This was also around the time you could even run bbwin and themes, and tweak it some for fun. Pretty sure cygwin was also around.

flatiron 5y ago
Cygwin was very much around. I went to college in 2001 and was forced to use w2k and lived in Cygwin as a result.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  Cygwin was a wonderful thing. It wasn’t fast, but integrated the Linux side with the Windows side much better than WSL2 does (at the expense of binary compatibility). It allowed me to develop server apps for Linux on a corporate sanctioned Windows box and deploy them to the real servers (mostly Linux with some Solaris).
manbart 5y ago
Windows Server with the Desktop Experience enabled (plus a few other tweaks: https://www.windowsworkstation.com/win2016-2019/ https://www.windowsworkstation.com/win2016-2019/) is much better than Windows 10/11 IMO. Way less bullshit that way

FpUser 5y ago

Windows 2000 running in VM in Docker. Might as well skip the docker stage as it does not really add anything. Otherwise sweet memories. I used Win 2K as a workstation at the time. Loved it.

rnd0 5y ago
>Windows 2000 running in VM in Docker. Might as well skip the docker stage as it does not really add anything. Arguably, it adds the ability to have a network of them, set to different virtual networks in an easier manner than regular qemu bridging. At least that was my first thought. Then again a)I'm really bad at qemu so anything that makes things easier is welcome b)I'm even worse at working with Docker. (Hence "arguably" ;-))

rezonant 5y ago

Finally! We've been waiting for Windows containers to hit feature parity with Linux for a long time! /s

stillblue 5y ago
Lol. Gave me a good chuckle!

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago

I'd like to use or build something like this for vintage gaming.

rado 5y ago

Truly great OS. The pinnacle. Rock solid. Just look at that perfectly consistent UI. Everything afterwards is bloat and UI BS.

moffkalast 5y ago

Docker can run Win 2000, but older versions of Win 10 can't run Docker. There must be some irony here.

z3t4 5y ago

so it runs Ubuntu which fires up a virtual machine that runs windows. Why not run the VM directly without Ubuntu !? (and without Docker)

hectorm 5y ago
You can of course set this up manually outside Docker, I provide this image so that you can easily have a preconfigured installation with VNC, RDP, bind shell and a Samba server.

throwaway69123 5y ago

I really wish docker (not specifically but containers frameworks) had support for graphical output. Be really cool to containerise visual apps.

kortex 5y ago
You can do it, I've done it, for the express purpose of GUI apps in containers. You have to mount in a Xwindows socket. There's info out there how to do it.
w7 5y ago
They can-- I know someone who runs xorg in a container with SPICE output support, but not sure on the specifics.
yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
I suggest that you look up x11docker.

rbanffy 5y ago

2000 and XP/2003 were the last Windows versions I used and cared about. It was with 2000 that I realised working with 2 200MHz CPUs was a better experience than a single 400MHz one (at least on Windows).

nayuki 5y ago

A year or so before Windows XP brought the NT kernel to home users, I chose to switch from Windows Me to 2000 to reap the benefits in computer stability. I was using a business operating system before it was cool.

noja 5y ago

I love the speed and simplicity of Win2k. What would HNers change in Win2k to bring it up-to-date? What's must have features does Windows 11 have that Win2k does not?

fwsgonzo 5y ago
Modern desktops do multi-display and scaling better. Perhaps also GPU-work, however I greatly prioritize low latency over any fancy windowing. I wonder how the Windows 2000 desktop latency was? I remember it felt really snappy.
linguae 5y ago
If it had updated security patches, drivers for modern hardware, and a modern web browser, I'd seriously consider using Windows 2000 as my daily driver today. Windows 2000 was peak Windows for me. It was stable, and the desktop did not get in my way. It's Windows without the bloat, the nagging, and the surveillance. I loved it in the early 2000's, preferred it to XP (which introduced activation, the Fisher-Price theme, and some nagging), and still love it to this day. I periodically check the progress of ReactOS (https://reactos.org https://reactos.org), since this is the closest thing to this vision of an updated Windows 2000. While I'm at it, I'd be very productive with 2000-era productivity software, such as Microsoft Office 2000 and the Adobe software of that era. Of course, I'd need updated compilers and other developer tools since I'd like to work with modern languages.

_nickwhite 5y ago

What a cool project. Expose that port 3389 (RDP) to the internet & see how long before it gets cryptolocked.

ipunchghosts 5y ago

Is something like this considered pirating?

locusofself 5y ago

This reminds me of a job I had about 13 years ago. I worked for a startup called SafeDesk. The idea was that we created custom debian-based live images that we network (PXE) booted to diskless PCs. So naturally the system would be instantly "wiped" when rebooted. We sold this to a few libraries and schools and even prisons. Somehow we got into running vmware player with Windows 7 (?) on those diskless systems because of course some customers wanted windows. We PXE booted linux and then ran windows on it through vmware. It was insane and pretty stupid and terribly slow, but I learned a shitload about linux from that job.

don-code 5y ago

I actually cut my sysadmin teeth on Windows 2000, and found myself wondering how on earth they could `docker exec` a shell. These were, comparatively, the dark ages of Windows administration, and almost all tasks were done through a GUI. The implementation is nothing short of genius: they use a Windows version of `netcat` (the common UNIX tool, but compiled for Windows from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit), then use `srvany` (also from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit) to start `netcat` as a system service, but with `cmd.exe` piped to its standard in and out. Kudos on this solution!

mateuszf 5y ago
It's genius because it's simple and actually is not a workaround but use of the tools as intended.

arrrgr 5y ago

I got my first laptop in the year 2000, it was a hand me down and weighed like three bricks but I loved it so much. In the next year I found out the high school decommissioned computer parts and started picking them up and building working machines at home. The hardest thing in setting up a local area network at home for me was finding a router (we were poor and I couldn't just buy it). But I did get hold of a crossover cable and was able to set up a LAN running win 2k between two machines. That made me at least as happy as watching Angelina Jolie play Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.

lloydjones 5y ago

I was completely obsessed with Terminal Services and the powers therein

shanghaikid 5y ago

2k is the best windows OS.

dusted 5y ago

This is qemu on docker. just so happens to be that a windows 2000 is running on the qemu..

MauroIksem 5y ago

Amazing

accountofme 5y ago

As it seems everyone else here thinks win2k was peak windows. I agree. It was the best windows there ever was. I will miss it always. In 2000 I originally ran win98 and then 2k as a router so I could share my parents adsl connection with my bro. Ah! Memories! Crazy that I could hook up a windows box back then and not get hacked. The internet then was a different time..... Edit: spelling

desktopninja 5y ago

Ahh how I truly miss being super focused: win2k pro winamp 2.92 (and all its glorious plugins. still use it today!!!) jasc paint shop pro 7 jcreator ide ati TV wonder firewire ethernet that network activity icon amd k-6 processor 384MB ram a consistent UI powertoys gpedit tweaks ms-word (and yes I rather enjoyed clipit) Vs today where every piece of modern software fights with you to get work down. There are some exceptions but the list is rather small now.