From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mikhail Ramendik Subject: Re: win4lin-like porting of win98 to xen? Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 13:05:59 +0400 Sender: xen-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net Message-ID: <1097485559.3234.11.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1097425028.2679.5.camel@localhost.localdomain> <200410102341.03482.mark.williamson@cl.cam.ac.uk> <4169CE4E.6080905@blueyonder.co.uk> <200410110138.10997.mark.williamson@cl.cam.ac.uk> <20041011010303.GD11053@worldvisions.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20041011010303.GD11053@worldvisions.ca> Errors-To: xen-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: To: Avery Pennarun Cc: xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net List-Id: xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org Avery Pennarun wrote: > A free win4lin (ie. rewriting all those drivers) would be a *massive* amount > of work. Fun, but a lot of work. And it gets more and more obsolete each > day. Lots of stuff still runs under win98, but it's certainly not a target > platform for modern developers. Actually I thought that, perhaps, much of the work from the WinXP port could be adapted to a Win98 snap-in port? (As I understand, the WinXP structure is so different that a snap-in port for it without breaking some MS license would be impossible. Otherwise you'd have done it already ;). The main idea behind any win9x port is end-user value. ReactOS is an attempt to recreate the Win32 API, like Wine (but with a different method). Wine's main problem from the user side is the presence of various "quirks", minor differences between its implementation and the Microsoft one; they cause applications to misbehave strangely. ReactOS might have the same problem, and thus, its end-user value, under Xen or alone, might be significantly less than that of Win4Lin (or a Xen XP, if that were available to the users). Of course I understand that for end-user value alone, the presence of a proprietary solution is sufficient. And, Win98 support is indeed getting obsolete. So the only thing that Xen would get from this kind of support would be an expanded user base. Not a "first-of-a-kind" value, not technical advantage, only user adoption. The only people qualified to decide whether this is needed are those who know how hard it is - i.e. what actually is in the WinXP port and how easy would it be to move it to win98. Yours, Mikhail Ramendik ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: IT Product Guide on ITManagersJournal Use IT products in your business? Tell us what you think of them. Give us Your Opinions, Get Free ThinkGeek Gift Certificates! Click to find out more http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/guidepromo.tmpl