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Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

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Re: Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

#11

Post by scoopr »

So, is it like colinux[0], but for pre-NT windows? Neat!

Back when I was still using windows (probably XP era), I used to run colinux, it was kind of amazing, setting up something like LAMP stack on the linux side was a lot easier and then using windows editors for editing made for quite nice local dev env, I think! Could even try some of the X11 servers on windows and use a linux desktop on top of windows.

When I noticed I kept inching towards more and more unixy enviornment on the windows, I eventually switched to macOS.

Apart from the obvious hack-value, I can't quite imagine even pretend use-case, with some 486 era machine, you would be limited by memory quite quickly!

[0] http://colinux.org/

Re: Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

#12

Post by thijsvandien »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #2

If I can get this to work (haven't tried yet) it directly solves a problem I have right now this week right here in 2026, 30 years after Windows 95 was even a thing. Yes, I have weird problems. I get to look after some very weird shit.

Tell us more!

Re: Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

#14

Post by hagbard_c »

vrganj wrote: post #5

Okay what is it with WSL naming, this always confuses me. Shouldn't it be Linux subsystem for Windows?

Microsoft names of products turn around likes, e.g.

OpenOffice XML [1] -> Office Open XML [2]

[1] https://www.openoffice.org/xml/general.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML

Re: Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

#15

Post by ourmandave »

defrost wrote: post #8
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #2

If I can get this to work (haven't tried yet) it directly solves a problem I have right now this week right here in 2026, 30 years after Windows 95 was even a thing. Yes, I have weird problems. I get to look after some very weird shit.

Old still running 24/7 industrial processing circuit with oddball bespoke addons based on DOS / early windows ?? Still got those in this part of the world sharing space with state of the art autonomous 100+ tonne robo trucks.

When backward compatibility used to mean something man!

Re: Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

#18

Post by tjoff »

vrganj wrote: post #5

Okay what is it with WSL naming, this always confuses me. Shouldn't it be Linux subsystem for Windows?

If you google there are many reasonable reasons for it. But the most straight forward is:

> Because we cannot name something leading with a trademark owned by someone else.

https://xcancel.com/richturn_ms/status/1245481405947076610?s...

Re: Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

#20

Post by Fnoord »

rahen wrote: post #10

Before WSL, the best ways to run unmodified Linux binaries inside Windows were CoLinux and flinux. http://www.colinux.org/ https://github.com/wishstudio/flinux flinux essentially had the architecture of WSL1, while CoLinux was more like WSL2 with a Linux kernel side-loaded. Cygwin was technically the correct approach: native POSIX binaries on Windows rather than hacking in some foreign Linux plumbing. Since it was me…

Cygwin is way older than CoLinux. CoLinux is from 2004. Cygwin was first released in 1995.

The problem with Cygwin as I remember it was DLL hell. You'd have applications (such as a OpenSSH port for Windows) which would include their own cygwin1.dll and then you'd have issues with different versions of said DLL.

Cygwin had less overhead which mattered in a world of limited RAM and heavy, limited swapping (x86-32, limited I/O, PATA, ...).

Those constraints also meant native applications instead of Web 2.0 NodeJS and what not. Java specifically had a bad name, and back then not even a coherent UI toolkit.

As always: two steps forward, one step back.

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