3 ms·

I don't see the discussion on Twitter as I have no account and do not see.the answers on Twitter, but don't you just need virtualbox? CD-Roms are still there a

I don't see the discussion on Twitter as I have no account and do not see.the answers on Twitter, but don't you just need virtualbox? CD-Roms are still there and the the underlying tech is also still the same.

notpushkin 3y ago
Looks like it's an Access database. Perhaps convert it to SQLite and publish with something like https://datasette.io/ https://datasette.io/? I think the problem is, thread author doesn't know how to rip an ISO of the CD or move the database out; looks like they are getting help already though.
- dmurray 3y ago
  Yes, if the author was technical enough to rip an ISO and host (or seed) it somewhere, there would already be 3 Github projects linked in this thread extracting and visualising the data.
- bilekas 3y ago
  If they manage to get the ISO available can someone please share here ? I really don't want to sign up to Twitter just to follow along.
LeoPanthera 3y ago
VirtualBox dropped support for 9x versions of Windows some time ago, and although it's "possible" to get it working, it works very badly.
- noobermin 3y ago
  How is it possible to do this? Isn't all you need is to emulate is at least a 386 or 486? They removed emulation of that cpu target?????
  - LeoPanthera 3y ago
    Not just the CPU, but also the older chipsets that Windows 9x thinks is current. It only supports emulation of chipsets much newer than those versions of Windows.
    - deaddodo 3y ago
      Where did you get that idea? Windows 98 is still a default template in VirtualBox 7.0 and fully supported: https://youtu.be/yxJDK5xmTFQ?si=5yJScYparrURTAWH https://youtu.be/yxJDK5xmTFQ?si=5yJScYparrURTAWH And here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes You just don't get accelerated graphics or USB sharing.
      - Narishma 3y ago
        It happens to work but is not really supported. Mouse is super laggy, there are no guest additions and last time I checked it used a full CPU core at all times.
        deaddodo 3y ago
        Thus: > You just don't get accelerated graphics or USB sharing. Every OS that has to use VESA in a VM is slow. It doesn't mean they're "unsupported". Unsupported would imply that the OS doesn't boot/function properly or that you have to do abnormal things to get it to work. It's not like Oracle offers some sort of guarantee that your Windows 7 guest will function or offer support if you have issues.
        AshamedCaptain 3y ago
        > Every OS that has to use VESA in a VM is slow. Actually, that is not necessarily true. If properly done, VESA is just a large shared memory framebuffer which is practically as fast as you can get on a VM, barring 3D acceleration which the GUI of 9x doesn't really benefit from. Heck, for a fun experiment, Haiku on _real hardware_ using "VESA" (actually, the EFI GOP) beats the shit out of Windows 11 with accelerated GPU drivers. Even dragging windows around feels much faster in Haiku. Obviously 3D is going to be a problem, but...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- speps 3y ago
  Just use https://86box.net/ https://86box.net/ it's updated regularly and works wonders!
- AshamedCaptain 3y ago
  It actually works very well, and there was an HN top post a couple weeks ago about how someone had even written a 3D capable video driver for 98 and VirtualBox.
- Narishma 3y ago
  I agree but you don't need to run Windows 9x. NT 4 or 2000 should work fine and are well supported in VirtualBox.

notpushkin 3y ago

Looks like it's an Access database. Perhaps convert it to SQLite and publish with something like https://datasette.io/ https://datasette.io/? I think the problem is, thread author doesn't know how to rip an ISO of the CD or move the database out; looks like they are getting help already though.

dmurray 3y ago
Yes, if the author was technical enough to rip an ISO and host (or seed) it somewhere, there would already be 3 Github projects linked in this thread extracting and visualising the data.
bilekas 3y ago
If they manage to get the ISO available can someone please share here ? I really don't want to sign up to Twitter just to follow along.

LeoPanthera 3y ago

VirtualBox dropped support for 9x versions of Windows some time ago, and although it's "possible" to get it working, it works very badly.

noobermin 3y ago
How is it possible to do this? Isn't all you need is to emulate is at least a 386 or 486? They removed emulation of that cpu target?????
- LeoPanthera 3y ago
  Not just the CPU, but also the older chipsets that Windows 9x thinks is current. It only supports emulation of chipsets much newer than those versions of Windows.
  - deaddodo 3y ago
    Where did you get that idea? Windows 98 is still a default template in VirtualBox 7.0 and fully supported: https://youtu.be/yxJDK5xmTFQ?si=5yJScYparrURTAWH https://youtu.be/yxJDK5xmTFQ?si=5yJScYparrURTAWH And here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes You just don't get accelerated graphics or USB sharing.
    - Narishma 3y ago
      It happens to work but is not really supported. Mouse is super laggy, there are no guest additions and last time I checked it used a full CPU core at all times.
      - deaddodo 3y ago
        Thus: > You just don't get accelerated graphics or USB sharing. Every OS that has to use VESA in a VM is slow. It doesn't mean they're "unsupported". Unsupported would imply that the OS doesn't boot/function properly or that you have to do abnormal things to get it to work. It's not like Oracle offers some sort of guarantee that your Windows 7 guest will function or offer support if you have issues.
        AshamedCaptain 3y ago
        > Every OS that has to use VESA in a VM is slow. Actually, that is not necessarily true. If properly done, VESA is just a large shared memory framebuffer which is practically as fast as you can get on a VM, barring 3D acceleration which the GUI of 9x doesn't really benefit from. Heck, for a fun experiment, Haiku on _real hardware_ using "VESA" (actually, the EFI GOP) beats the shit out of Windows 11 with accelerated GPU drivers. Even dragging windows around feels much faster in Haiku. Obviously 3D is going to be a problem, but...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
speps 3y ago
Just use https://86box.net/ https://86box.net/ it's updated regularly and works wonders!
AshamedCaptain 3y ago
It actually works very well, and there was an HN top post a couple weeks ago about how someone had even written a 3D capable video driver for 98 and VirtualBox.
Narishma 3y ago
I agree but you don't need to run Windows 9x. NT 4 or 2000 should work fine and are well supported in VirtualBox.