Here's a summary of the themes discussed in the Hacker News thread about running Windows 98 in DOSBox-X, along with relevant quotes:
Nostalgia and the Allure of Retro Computing
A significant theme is the appeal of revisiting older operating systems and software for nostalgic or exploratory reasons. This is intertwined with a fascination for understanding how things "used to be."
- "Other than that, why not? Itâs interesting to see how things used to beâŚ" - (fredoralive)
- "playing with it gives you a sense of mastery (even if small), is satisfying, and may be the necessary 'training' to get used to using/installing/configuring the full windows 98." - (keepamovin)
Usability and Ease of Setup: Balancing Authenticity with Modern Expectations
A recurring discussion point revolves around the balance between replicating the authentic experience of setting up and using older operating systems, and making the process more user-friendly for modern users. While the authenticity is appreciated, streamlined usability is desired.
- "But I think could do with usability improvements, for example typing 'dosbox win98.iso' at a prompt should end up with me at the win98 desktop. All the config should be auto detected and auto set unless overridden." - (londons_explore)
- "While I completely agree with you -- that's what I would want too, I want Win98 without the pain, click or type and it's there, it's a very 2025 expectation -- I laughed because of the huge disparity between this and what installing DOS and Windows were really like. Part of the experience is selecting drivers and configuration :D (Even better in DOS with the IRQs and config.sys and whatnot.)" - (vintagedave)
The Practicality of Running Old Software
The discussion acknowledges the practical reasons for using such setups, such as running legacy software or games that don't function well on modern operating systems. * "I actually did this just a few weeks ago. I was hunting for a shareware card game from 25 years ago. The installer was buried in a shareware DVD image; I could tear out the installer but of course couldn't run it. W98+DosBox-X did the job." - (decipherer) * "Some old software doesnât play nicely on NT based Windows, notably old games tend to be finicky." - (fredoralive)
Comparisons to Other Emulation/Virtualization Solutions, namely PCem and 86Box
Participants frequently compare DOSBox-X to other emulators like PCem and 86Box, highlighting different strengths and weaknesses.
- "PCem does it relatively pain free; also emulates voodoo 2 so you can play GPU accelerated games on it. The network is pig-slow and i haven't figured out why, though. All in all PCem is the exact amount of jank and awesome to use for retro-emulation." - (genewitch)
- "There's also 86Box which builds on the foundations of PCem and provides way more machines and options." - (trinix912)
Networking and Browsing the Modern Web on Legacy Systems
A specific area of interest is enabling network connectivity and accessing the modern web from within these emulated environments. This involves overcoming challenges related to TLS/cipher mismatches and using solutions like Retrozilla and BrowserBox.
- "i got windows 98 networking working (on macos needs sudo dosbox-x) and browsed google from ie 5. most websites will not work (due to TLS/cipher mismatch)." - (keepamovin)
- "Retrozilla will work with the TLS settings at about:config." - (anthk)
- "Here's a very early version of browsing the modern web from IE6 in Win 98 SE" - (keepamovin)
Commentary on Windows 98's Merits and Flaws
The discussion includes some debate on the perceived strengths and weaknesses of Windows 98, particularly in comparison to Windows NT-based systems.
- "W98SE was the last windows that actually felt polished to me. Also I had the feeling that while using it (a fresh install) my computer was faster than with any other windows versions from around that time." - (cies)
- "UI-wise, perhaps, but the underlying foundation was far from solid. A single poorly written program would bring the entire system to its knees. Same for drivers. System startup files would occasionally randomly break, requiring booting with a startup floppy and manually restoring them. Plus a ~512MB RAM limit. Windows NT (even 4.0 at the time) was light years ahead of that." - (trinix912)
- "This. Active X was a bit of a turd; by disabling IE preloading W98SE was almost snapppy... until a heavy threaded working environment crawled it down; was very subpar compared to w2k/XP, even under a Pentium 4 and 512 MB of RAM." - (anthk)
Technical Aspects of Emulation and Differences in DOS/Windows Disk Access
A segment touches upon the technical underpinnings of DOSBox and how it differs from native Windows in terms of disk access and system calls.
- "DOS box basically provides its own BIOS and DOS, so int 21h and friends are implemented by the emulator, so it can do things like redirecting access to the real file system. Windows 9x doesnât (normally) use real mode DOS / BIOS calls for disk access, it has its own 32 bit disk drivers and file systems running in the virtual machine manager kernel (vfat.vxd and so on). So DOSbox has to do things in a far more traditional way, presenting a virtual hard disc device etc." - (fredoralive)
Existing Projects and Resources
Users shared links to existing projects (like doswasmx) and guides for running Windows 98 and other operating systems (like NT 4.0) within DOSBox-X. This highlights the collaborative and resource-sharing nature of the community involved in retro computing.
- "Just a note: this is not something new, this is well-explored, you can even run Windows 98 in the web version of DOSBox-X - see https://github.com/nbarkhina/doswasmx?tab=readme-ov-file#ins..." - (Lockal)
- "If you want to install NT 4.0 on DosBox-X I found this guide helpful:" - (keepamovin)
- "There's a TLS 1.3 fix for Rzilla too:" - (anthk)
Simplicity compared to other means
- "How is it even doing this? A full DOS/Windows 9x environmentârunning on an M1 Mac?? On so many architectures and OSes? With a ton of options, yet somehow everything just worksâgames, operating systems, all of it. Like a time machine you can configure. Seriously cool" - (keepamovin)
- "Also, my setup is fully portable and can run on any PC from a USB stick. Dosbox-X and Dosbox-staging is what powers my retro PC game collection!" - (gxd)