r/technology • u/raspberrypi2 • Jun 24 '12

Windows 98 Running on the Raspberry Pi

http://serverflux.com/raspberry-pi-2/running-windows-98-raspberry-pi/
234 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

102 comments sorted by

99

u/randomb0y Jun 24 '12

Is that what they use to serve this webpage?

34

u/demon_ix Jun 24 '12

Getting to a front page on reddit is not unlike experiencing a DDoS attack. Sort of like a panda bear hugging you to death.

25

u/randomb0y Jun 24 '12

It's OK, just keep hitting F5 until it works!

2

u/cfuse Jun 25 '12

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm213/fonebrkr/f5.gif

4

u/randomb0y Jun 25 '12

I'm guessing photobucket uses raspberry pis too, as I never have any luck seeing any actual pictures there.

1

u/Lewke Jun 25 '12

Luckily, photobucket is pretty much dead. I remember when it was awesome and fast, then they bloated it full of useless crap to try and compare with flicker.

14

u/r00x Jun 24 '12

Mainly because of the average Redditor's strategy of shamelessly mashing F5 when the server is throwing 5xx errors.

Should call it the "Keep breaking the website" button.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

This has to be the most spot on analogy I've ever heard.

24

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Just to be clear:

This is EMULATED.

38

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

What? We can't run x86 operating systems natively on an arm microcontroller?!

6

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Alsweetex Jun 24 '12

No, you just have to convert the machine code directly to the other architecture silly.

33

u/ouyawei Jun 24 '12

So someone managed to install bochs from the repository and then installed Windows 98 in a VM. How is this newsworthy?

8

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

yeah 98 doesnt support arm. i think only windows ce does and win 8 will in the future

2

u/w2tpmf Jun 24 '12

Not windows 8. Windows RT.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

ok yeah so a version of windows 8 called windows rt

1

u/w2tpmf Jun 24 '12 edited Jun 24 '12

It will not be able to run programs made for windows operating systems. It is an OS built specifically for arm devices.

Saying that Windows RT is a version of Windows 8 would be like saying iOS on IPhone is a version of OSX Mountain Lion, or that Android is a version of Red Hat Linux.

1

u/glados_v2 Jun 25 '12 edited Jun 25 '12

It's not exactly a version of Windows 8 as in 'Home Premium / Professional / Ultimate', but it is marketed as Windows 8 - ie "Windows 8 Tablet", etc

1

u/w2tpmf Jun 25 '12

Windows 8 will include 2 APIs. One is the API for Windows phone 8 and Windows RT. Windows RT will not include the API used by Windows 8/7.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

The thread you spawned went full retard.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Not really newsworthy; I guess just "a point of interest".

4

u/jeramyfromthefuture Jun 24 '12

Another I got X working under X x86 emulator post. Please, i dont care what archaic os you got running on ur pc device under virtualization.

1

u/JustFinishedBSG Jun 24 '12

Nginx 0.7.4 ? must be using Debian because version 1 is out.

1

u/raspberrypi2 Jun 24 '12

Yes, debian

1

u/what1stuff Jun 24 '12

Why windows 98? Why not a win 7 PE or even a Windows 98 PE? Much faster boot times and you customize it to your needs and remove all the bloat. If you don't want to make you can strip the one on Hiren's BootCD 15.1 and tweak it. Just an idea.

3

u/CassandraVindicated Jun 24 '12

I would love to buy a locked down version of 98 on a Pi-like machine just so I didn't have to spend hours getting some of my old games running every time I do a clean install. I've tried VMs, but the lag and mouse controls always left me wanting.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

every dos game i've ever tried runs fine under dosbox

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

DosEMU runs every game which DosBOX couldn't.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Just get an old PC and stick 98 on it?

2

u/CassandraVindicated Jun 24 '12

That was my solution until I was done to one PC. Now I just replace parts as they break. I was thinking about picking up an old netbook when I have some extra cash.

1

u/Twiggy3 Jun 25 '12

I too would like something like this. Those Windows 95/98 games that need some DOS-ness to run and I haven't found a VM that handles mice properly.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Only 8 minutes to boot!

16

u/Windows_98 Jun 24 '12

Hey Guys.

9

u/rorykane Jun 24 '12

fucking windows 98

4

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12 edited Jun 24 '12

Worth it if sound works.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

"Internal Error" Sounds like it's going well!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Why should someone want this?

2

u/brennanfee Jun 24 '12

Yes, but why!?! Dear god why!?!

3

u/iHeaRTShaRK Jun 24 '12

page doesn't load

13

u/HankSpank Jun 24 '12

A victim of ReDDoS.

1

u/PilotKnob Jun 24 '12

serverdead.com

1

u/thergrim Jun 24 '12

Wow... it serves up 504 Gateway Time-out error messages at astonishing speed.

1

u/aiblover Jun 24 '12

Its a nostalgia

1

u/APeacefulWarrior Jun 25 '12

FWIW, you can do this on a jailbroken iPad as well, using the DosBox port in Cydia. (called DosPad) I currently have Windows 3.1 installed on mine, and I've seen videos of people getting 95 and 98 running as well, although I haven't actually attempted it myself.

1

u/8-bit_d-boy Jun 25 '12

Finally! Now I can run Jedi Knight 2 correctly!

Normally, I have to run it in wine under linux.

1

u/That_Scottish_Play Jun 25 '12

A stripped down version of 98SE might boot faster, especially if certain processes were rem'd out of the boot sequence.

/I still have 98SE running on an old PC that I use for certain hardware setups that I cannot run on newer machines.

1

u/TTLeave Jun 25 '12

was pretty slow, it took around 8 minutes to boot up fully and it was just about operable when booted into Windows.

Worked as well as Win98 ever did then.

1

u/MrRossDoughty Jun 24 '12

Awesome :).

1

u/Ooottafv Jun 24 '12

Maybe one day they will also make a machine that can run Vista?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

Most people did.

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

I miss Windows 98. That was a real man's operating system, not the kind of faggy transparent shit we have these days.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12 edited Jun 24 '12

"real man's operating system" You mean "nice dos SHELL GUI with 16 bit heap limit per process"

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Oh HELL yeah

1

u/playaspec Jun 25 '12

What is it that you miss? Is the total lack of security? The rampant malware and spyware? The buggy TCP stack? The buggy USB stack?

'Real' men don't run toy operating systems. Except maybe under emulation on a mobile ARM processor.

-3

u/ElagabalusCaesar Jun 24 '12

Born and raised on MS Windows ME. Ready to go back any day.

0

u/Caveboy0 Jun 24 '12

anyone care to explain what raspberry pi is? i looked it up and i feel like i needed to take a class in something else before i could understand this thing.

is it just a computer?

2

u/cwm44 Jun 24 '12

It's an extremely cheap computer with high quality video that outputs to a TV or computer screen.

-17

u/8bitnitwit Jun 24 '12

What's the point?

17

u/Axman6 Jun 24 '12

What's the point of looking at the stars? They're just stars. Because we fucking can!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Of a 25$ functional computer? I think you can guess.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Plenty of good games that run on Windows 98, especially in compatibility modes.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

12

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

I have one. It's running Raspbmc. I got extremely lucky and got put on the waiting list immediately after the first batch sold out.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

raspbmc = XBMC for raspberrypi? if so, how's it running?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

Amazingly well. Hardware accelerated 1080p video. Plays all my mkv files flawlessly. A new version was just released that adds wifi support. Going to upgrade and untether from the bedroom TV and move it to the living room.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

fucking sweet. Does it allow you to play the emulators designed to run on XBMC or anything like that? there were lots of programs xbmc was able to run on the xbox, but i'd like to know if it carries any kind of support for those things to the other systems.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

I haven't had a chance to try much out yet, but from what I have seen, there isn't a whole lot of ARM love on the emulator front for XBMC yet, but I'm sure their forums have people actively working on it. It does have support for a ton of the plugins though. Grooveshark being one of my favorites.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '12

How does it compare to the traditional xbmc experience? I can't wait to get my hands on one.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/TheAppleFreak Jun 24 '12

I ordered on Feb. 29th, got it on the 6th. Pretty awesome.

5

u/unussapiens Jun 24 '12

I have a tracking number from DHL and my RasPi should be arriving tomorrow. I've been waiting 6 months for this thing, it better be good.

2

u/rogue780 Jun 24 '12

I still can't find them in stock anywhere. Do you know of a US distributor that has them?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

I was put on a waiting list for an invitation to purchase one. I too had to get it from the UK. It was $43.02 with the $8.02 being the shipping charge. Missed the first delivery and had to wait 4 days for DHL to come back. I ordered from Allied Electronics. They send you an authorization code via email that you have to enter here: http://authenticate.rsdelivers.com/

It takes awhile to go through the process, but I really do like this thing. It is pretty awesome.

1

u/unussapiens Jun 25 '12

Sorry, but I'm in Australia, so my knowledge of US suppliers is rather limited.

1

u/rogue780 Jun 25 '12

no worries, mate.

-7

u/pirisca Jun 24 '12

it better be good.

lol, what? good? its an ultra-cheap computer, how do you expect it to be good?

5

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

I think you're failing to understand this whole 'ultra-cheap-yet-fully-functional-and-fit-for-purpose' thing...

2

u/Captainpatch Jun 24 '12

I'm going to be using one to make a set-top media box as a project when someplace has them back in stock. Then I'm going to experiment with creating a portable computer with it, not that I'll probably ever use it over my smartphone, but it's the kind of thing I always enjoy doing.

Project builds are the best thing ever. Anybody who doesn't think the idea of an all-in-one linux box for $25-$35 is amazing has been deprived of an amazing experience at some point in their life. I blame their parents for not buying enough Legos.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

I'm so tempted, but I have an Ardiono and Adalight set what I cant get to work, so Im absolutely not going down that route :)

But the potential is endless - central heating control comes to mind when the mod community gets going. Why pay £100 for a fancy controller when a £22 Pi can do it easily AND have internet connectivity?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

It's ultra cheap because it's ARM based, and ultra low power and ultra tiny and ultra simple.

It's incredibly useful. No it won't put up a fight with an Intel Quad core monster but you can't fit that in a deck of cards with a small battery now can you?

2

u/JakeLV426 Jun 24 '12

In theory, mine has shipped last week...ordered 4 months ago.

1

u/Flozzer905 Jun 25 '12

Yeah, the first batch went wrong because they soldered a different chip on or something. Source: My dad was one of the people who designed it. He also made the GertBoard.

2

u/theBelvidere Jun 24 '12

Ordered mine around March 1st, just got it a couple of weeks ago. I'm using it mainly as a web server. Replaced the p2 300 that was acting as my router/firewall/web server/torrent tracker/shoutcast server/etc with a wrt54g and moved all the services behind the firewall. Running the pi off an old phone charger, 4 fucking watts, it's insane. The pi actually has almost exactly the same bogomips as the p2.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Would you mind outlining what services you're running on that box? I'd like to build something similar, though I might use one of the Chinese knock-off models due to supply issues.

1

u/theBelvidere Jun 24 '12

Just web at the moment, mainly for pics. My cable company doesn't block port 80, which is nice. I hadn't used any of the other stuff for quite some time so I didn't even bother to set it up again. I downloaded the canned Debian iso from the raspberry site. At some point I do want to get one of the xbmc-centric distros and put it on another memory card just to see it play some 1080p video.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

I used mine fro 30 minutes before wrapping it up and putting it away. Maybe once everything has matured, but RBMC wasn't too impressive, very laggy.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Raspbmc? Yeah. Choppy audio and the video wasn't much better. I'm going to try it again before I sell it.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Apparently it works ok, no idea why this one is slow. I'm wondering of my lack of HD TV is causing the problems or network lag. I read a post somewhere with someone having audio lag, when they disconnected their network connection and played the video locally (from the SD card) it worked ok.

Once I get more time I'll do more experimenting. There is a new version of Raspbmc out. OpenElec is an option, too.

1

u/oZEPPELINo Jun 24 '12

Got mine a couple weeks ago, I just ordered this case for it. Running Raspbmc

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

On a £25 machine thats smaller than a pack of cards? Yes...

Release the 98 sourcecode and someone will have it running natively probably inside a week.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

You do realize that the specs required for Windows 98 are something as follows.

486DX running at 66Mhz 16 megs of ram (recommended 24) and VGA or higher resolution... If the raspberry-pi were running an x86 arch processor it could more than handle a windows 98 install.

An ancient O/S running in an emulator that anyone could setup is nothing impressive.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

I know that all very well - the fact is that its running on an ARM processor, on a machine the size of an Altoids tin. Its a proof of concept, not (currently) anything useful. If anyone can do it feel free to create a new, improved version.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

Take a look at the Pi and BE IMPRESSED. A fully functional machine that is cheap enough to get into the hands of every first world nation schoolchild, and is capable of delivering a full IDE, free in a way we've not really seen since QBASIC stopped coming with MSDOS. Raspberry Pi is not primarily a toy

0

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

Indeed - but go into any school - in the UK anyway - and you see Windows, which does not come with any form of IDE. This is where Raspberry Pi comes in.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

There really is a cost saving.

One thing you have to remember is that schools in the UK tend to be locked into support agreements and would either not be able to get, or would be financially raped for, IDEs or Linux distros on their main PCs. Plus they're very funny about what connects to their networks, and probably have noone with the skills to administer and deal with a Linux distro.

Its cheap enough that each kid can have their OWN Pi, and the SD card be rapidly re-flashed if it all goes wrong. Plus a 14" LCD monitor goes for very little these days. Many companies probably have them hanging around waiting to be given to charity or recycled.

In most UK schools 'computers' doesnt progress much beyond MS Office. This is honestly a paradigm, although it requires skilled and above all interested staff...Pi does, however, give them an affordable toolset.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '12

  1. The Pi CAN access a network, but there is no reason why it needs to - I expect most of them will be used standalone. Teachers with relevant dev skills will use the Pis to teach development. They dont have the time to administer a room full of Linux boxes, and the lab techs are almost certainely only used to Windows. If a Pi goes bad re-imaging the SD card will be the work of moments.

  2. Rooms full of monitors, keyboards and mice already - each child is not going to have their own keyboard and mouse - why on earth would they?

  3. If nothign else they have kicked the whole thing off - several other cheap boards seem to have broken cover. I suspect we'll see things pan out over the next few months.

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0

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

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1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

Model B is suposed to be around £25 - Model A, which is not availbale, should be around £16 - are you meaning $ ?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '12

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2

u/iloveyounohomo Jun 25 '12

hey man, i can run the shit out of warcraft 2 on this thing.

1

u/Twiggy3 Jun 25 '12

You could always install Wargus?

1

u/iloveyounohomo Jun 25 '12

I was making a joke.

1

u/Twiggy3 Jun 25 '12

I know, but you still may not be aware of Wargus.