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Bochs 2.0 Released
Jas Sandys-Lumsdaine writes "Bochs 2.0 has just been released - project lead Bryce Denney writes: "It's been a busy 6 months since our previous release! Bochs is now about twice as fast as version 1.4.1. Also, we can now emulate MMX instructions, SSE/SSE2, and even AMD x86-64 instructions if you turn on the appropriate configure options. The emulation improvements have paid off; several people have been able to install Windows XP recently." Excellent stuff."
I have a hard time installing XP on a real machine.
Yeah, the tradeoff is approximately 7.8. What the fuck are you talking about? It sounds like your asking "Is Bochs faster than Photoshop?"
...is some idiot to try to run Windows apps inside WINE running in Bochs under VMWare.
And don't tell me you didn't all think the same thing as soon as you found out what Bochs was.
Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
Just build layer after layer of virtualization like that (Bochs running Windows VMWare in WINE on VirtualPC in a Mac emulator on Linux on VMWare on Bochs etc...) and eventually you'll have enough virtualization that you can pull the original hardware out from under it all, and your "virtual PC" will just run on it's own without hardware. The trick is just getting enough layers of software in their so that they all support eachother's hardware needs.
I guess it's hosted IN SOVIET RUSSIA
Let me illuminate the joys of installing Redhat Linux 7.3 (the last distro I installed):
Boot of of CD-Rom
Read several F(number) pages of information and decide which boot option is right for me ~ 5 min
Curse at a system that does not let my set my keyboard mapping to dvorak before forcing me to enter textual data ~ frustration +1
Wait for anaconda et all to load ~ 2 min
Select my keyboard mapping and mouse type (*)
Get to the partition screen and find out that the installer doesn't dynamically resize windows partitions to make room for itself. ~ frustration +2
Reboot
Warez partition magic
Use partition magic ~ 30 min
Reboot
Repeat above steps until the partition screen comes up.
Set up mount points and a swap partition because the system won't configure available space in a sane way automatically ~ frustration +3
Fsck & mkfs ~ 2 min
Choose 'custom' from the workstation/server/custom menu, and select package groups that I think I'll need.
Select "choose individual packages".
Realize that package management systems under linux don't descriminate between packages that users may or may not want to include (konqueror) and packages that are mandatory and must always be installed without bothering the user and making him/her read up on them (glibc) and should only be exposed as options when the user selects "ultra-expert" install mode ~ frustration +4, 5 min (to find the things I need [luckily I know what they are] )
Realize that standard desktop OS functionality requires a default install greater than 1 GB ~ 2 seconds, frustration +5
Wait for packages to install ~ 55 min
Install grub
Reboot
Enter install program because I didn't remove the CD and the CD boot loader isn't smart enough to present me with a "Press any key to boot from CD...." timeout option which boots from the hard disk if the OS is already installed ~ frustration +5
Remove CD
Reboot
Realize that even though linux has reached version 2.4 and redhat's distro has been around for so many years, no one has ever considered that long, fast-scrolling startup text barfed out by the kernel scares away users who "can't read the error messages fast enough to keep up" and instead replaced them with a progress bar by default, while still making advanced startup an option ~ frustration +6
Realize something similar while watching the init scripts ~ frustration +7
Appreciate that X just works and that I can log in graphically and that I don't have to configure anything in order to get to that point ~ frustration +6
Remember that windows has been this way for a very long time ~ frustration +7
Log in
Click the little red exclamation point, and read an error message that says I have to be registered in order to get automatic security updates ~ frustration +8
Remember that not even windows is that persnickety about giving out security patches ~ frustration +9
Remember that windows requires you to accept an agreement giving MS total access to your computer in order to patch critical security flaws ~ frustration +8
Register for rhn ~ 10 min
Change home page from redhat to my usual home page.
Be thankful that multiple reboots aren't necessary while downloading software updates ~ frustration +7, 2 hours
Download openoffice because it's been neglected in favor of inferior, splintered, buggy, incompatible individual office programs which were installed even thought I didn't want them.
Be forced to open a console, untar, find the setup file, and run it in order to install an office program because there is still no single, unified package management system for linux which results in confused users and puts extra strain on developers who package their own software by forcing them to either neglect certain distros, learn and use all of the major packaging systems, or write their own setup programs ~ frustration +8
Make an educated guess that even if package management system developers could put aside their egos, develop a decent universal package system, and get every distro to use it that it would still force me to use the console ~ frustration +9
Try to launch openoffice and find out that it crashes ~frustration +10
Read man pages, docs, visit IRC help chat, etc... ~ 2 hours, frustration +11
Give up for now, get a snack ~ 10 min, frustration +10
Realize the reason why the interface feels so uncomfortable: my wheel mouse doesn't work ~ frustration +11
Read up on XF86Config, hit IRC again, man pages, man pages, man pages galore ~ 30 min, frustration +12
Figure out how to turn on mouse wheel suuport ~ frustration +11
Be forced to edit a text config file in order to get a very basic feature to work that would be easy to autodetect and autoconfigure in the install program ~ frustration +12
Go through an incredibly long series of steps that I won't list here with lots of downloading, compiling (!), manual reading, IRCing, etc... to get 3D acceleration to work ~ 7 hours, frustration +15
Reinstall windows 2000 professional (it's a dual boot system), (it needed to be done anyway) ~ a whole lot less time, very little trouble.
Click "I Agree" for the first time after turning 18 ~ 1 second, freedom -<rotate clockwise="90 degrees">8</rotate>
Realize that gnu/linux will never take off as a mainstream desktop OS as long as it is hard to install, presents scary "informative" messages, forces the user to learn the console, has a default install that's more bloated than windows (yeah, really), and so on..., and that as long as windows remains the desktop OS of choice everyone loses, including gnu/linux users ~ frustration +<rotate clockwise="90 degrees">8</rotate>
Post on slashdot about my experience ~ -3 karma (I post at +2, slashbots who don't like to hear jaded but honest criticism of OSS can get it down to -1)
Sigh in despair ~ no net change