Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#51

Post by jcelerier » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

antirez wrote: post #41

The difference between Win32 and Linux is that the latter didn't realize an operating system is more than a kernel and a number of libraries and systems glued together, but is, indeed, a stable ABI (even for kernel modules -- so old drivers will be usable forever), a default, unique and stable API for user interface, audio, ..., and so forth. Linux failed completely not technologically, but to understand what an OS i…

Linux didn't aim to be an OS in the consumer sense (it is entirely an OS in an academic sense - in scientific literature OS == kernel, nothing else).The "consumer" OS is GNU/Linux or Android/Linux.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#52

Post by jcelerier » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 2:55 PM UTC

ezoe wrote: post #6

But would you want to run these Win32 software on Linux for daily use? I don't.

For making music as much as I love the free audio ecosystem there's some very unique audio plugins with specific sounds that will never be ported. Thankfully bridging with wine works fairly well nowadays.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#53

Post by jeremyjh » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 2:57 PM UTC

andy_ppp wrote: post #11

rickcarlino wrote: post #7

Building GUI utilities based on VB6 instead of status quo web technologies might actually be more stable and productive.

Honestly, it’s probably faster and less resource intensive through emulation than your average Electron app :-/

Wine Is Not an Emulator (WINE). It provides win32 APIs; your CPU will handle the instructions natively. There is no “probably” about it.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#54

Post by bobajeff » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 2:57 PM UTC

I like this idea and know at least a few who would love to use this if you can solve for the:

'unfortunate rough edges that people only tolerate because they use WINE as a last resort'

Whether those rough edges will ever be ironed out is a matter I'll leave to other people. But I love that someone is attempting this just because of the tenacity it shows. This reminds me of projects like asahi and cosmopolitan c.

Now if we're to do something to actually solve for Gnu/Linux Desktops not having a stable ABI I think one solution would be to make a compatibility layer like Wine's but using Ubuntu's ABIs. Then as long as the app runs on supported Ubuntu releases it will run on a system with this layer. I just hope it wouldn't be a buggy mess like flatpak is.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#55

Post by i80and » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 2:58 PM UTC

jcelerier wrote: post #51

antirez wrote: post #41

The difference between Win32 and Linux is that the latter didn't realize an operating system is more than a kernel and a number of libraries and systems glued together, but is, indeed, a stable ABI (even for kernel modules -- so old drivers will be usable forever), a default, unique and stable API for user interface, audio, ..., and so forth. Linux failed completely not technologically, but to understand what an OS i…

Linux didn't aim to be an OS in the consumer sense (it is entirely an OS in an academic sense - in scientific literature OS == kernel, nothing else).The "consumer" OS is GNU/Linux or Android/Linux.

There really isn't that much GNU on a modern Linux system, proportionately.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#56

Post by andsoitis » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 3:00 PM UTC

mikkupikku wrote: post #33

Crazy how, thanks to Wine/Proton, Linux is now more compatible with old Windows games than Windows itself. There are a lot of games from the 90s and even the 00s that require jumping through a lot of hoops to run on Windows, but through Steam they're click-to-play on Linux.

> There are a lot of games from the 90s and even the 00s that require jumping through a lot of hoops to run on Windows

What are some examples?

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#57

Post by mikewarot » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 3:02 PM UTC

I'm back to running Windows because of the shifting sands of Python and WxWindows that broke WikidPad, my personal wiki. The .exe from 2012 still works perfectly though, so I migrated back from Ubuntu to be able to use it without hassle.

It's my strong opinion that Windows 2000 Server, SP4 was the best desktop OS ever.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#58

Post by Lutzb » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 3:02 PM UTC

Ygg2 wrote: post #27

Damn, they didn't miss a spot to add a Loss comic reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_(Ctrl%2BAlt%2BDel)

Thank you. I was contemplating the logo but my brain could not make the connection.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#59

Post by tssva » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 3:05 PM UTC

andrewf wrote: post #13

Starting with FreeBSD might be easier than starting with Debian then removing all the GNUisms. But perhaps not as much Type II fun.

Using Linux gets you much more hardware compatibility especially for the consumer desktop and laptop systems this is targeted towards.

Re: Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux

#60

Post by bobajeff » Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 3:06 PM UTC

rickcarlino wrote: post #7

Building GUI utilities based on VB6 instead of status quo web technologies might actually be more stable and productive.

Only if I don't need to do anything beyond the built-in widgets and effects of Win32. If I need to do anything beyond that then I don't see me being more productive than if I were using a mature, well documented and actively maintained application runtime like the Web.