v86

Dev tools

x86 emulator

SHOW HN2016

356points
165comments
#42of 2,264 in 2016
Top 2%of 2016 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

23 positive, 43 neutral or asking, 7 mixed, 10 critical, out of 83 comments about the project. Thread score +0.21.

Idea: 8 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 6 againstPerformance: 2 for, 3 againstDesign: 5 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Impressive nostalgic demo of the Windows 98 UI and emulation speed

    From 3 comments
    • That is brilliant. Little things like being able to change the screen resolution and waste time on Solitaire - what more could one want!!! Works amazingly. Also it is quite a…
      Theodores on HN
    • How bad is it that Windows 98, running in a ^%%^@#!ing emulator, in my browser no less, runs better than the latest versions of Android OR iOS?
      tomc1985 on HN
    • This is awe-inspiring. I don't know what to say -- except that, if it was faster, I'd try to run Windows 98 in the browser of Windows 98 in the browser.
      clock_tower on HN

Objections

  • Mouse cursor does not track correctly or clicks fail

    From 3 comments
    • The mouse cursor doesnt work.... my system's real cursor is still onscreen and the emulator is doing a very poor job of tracking my movements, and its not intercepting clicks or…
      tomc1985 on HN
    • Minesweeper! Ah, the nostalgia. A note: the mouse position and acceleration seems to not be mapped correctly. It is often separated away from my local desktop mouse position.…
      hanief on HN
    • Doesn't seem to work too well on Windows 10. It might be missing some DLLs. /s Super cool! (I really can't get it to click on anything though)
      livatlantis on HN
  • Command prompt and Run dialog break or fail

    From 2 comments
    • It breaks horribly if you click start->run, type "command" and press enter
      dmitrygr on HN
    • start->command->fail (command as in command.com)
      icoder on HN
  • Does not work on some browsers or mobile devices

    From 2 comments
    • Very nice. Although opening IE and trying to go to http://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows98 gave an error. Go figure...
      te_platt on HN
    • Doesn't work on my Android phone, in Chrome. But I didn't expect it to :) Edit: for what it's worth, FreeDOS boots there. No way to put in keyboard input though.
      runn1ng on HN

Requests

  • Run other operating systems such as Windows 3.11, XP, or Plan 9 in the browser

    From 3 comments
    • What a coincidence, I was just thinking about how nice it would be if I could start a minimal javascript linux with toybox and start spacemacs with it (< 64M) and a small mounted…
      fsiefken on HN
    • So pulled this up from my Chromebook - rather interesting to have Chrome running Windows rather than the other way around. Of course the big leap will come when it gets Win XP up…
      EwanG on HN
    • Anyone tried to make a plan9 in browser?
      andrewchambers on HN
  • Networking or modem support

    From 1 comment
    • The network interface doesn't seem to be configured – when I try to open the browser it wants me to install a modem. Is the VM just not configured for that, or do I need to do…
      apetresc on HN

Questions

  • How does performance compare to jslinux and Em-DOSBox

    From 2 comments
    • How would v86 compare to jslinux speedwise? http://bellard.org/jslinux/ ELKS in javascript would be nice as well, you would get the ultimate speedy portable unix ecosystem in the…
      fsiefken on HN
    • How does this compare to Em-DOSBox (e.g. https://win95.ajf.me/) in terms of speed?
      TazeTSchnitzel on HN
  • Is this legal given Microsoft licensing

    From 2 comments
    • Are there license issues around this project? I doubt Microsoft would care to put the resources into enforcement of windows 98 licenses but I am just curious about the legality.
      vanattab on HN
    • Is this legal? I'm surprised MS hasn't open-sourced NT 3.x already.
      nickysielicki on HN

Alternatives named

  • jslinux by Fabrice Bellard

    From 2 comments
    • How would v86 compare to jslinux speedwise? http://bellard.org/jslinux/ ELKS in javascript would be nice as well, you would get the ultimate speedy portable unix ecosystem in the…
      fsiefken on HN
    • Respect! This and Fabrice Bellard's emulator have me in awe. http://www.bellard.org/jslinux/ It's even more painful when I know that technically I should be able to do the same,…
      kelvin0 on HN
  • Em-DOSBox Windows 95 demo

    From 1 comment
    • How does this compare to Em-DOSBox (e.g. https://win95.ajf.me/) in terms of speed?
      TazeTSchnitzel on HN
  • Windows RG

    From 1 comment
    • How does it compare to Windows RG? http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/
      laretluval on HN
  • windows93.net

    From 1 comment

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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