Did they recently update the design? I don't remember it looking this good. The dark mode is of the type I like (it's not too black! Unlike Github's) and the light mode is quite close to Github's design and thus familiar, but cleaner, less clutter, I think friendlier. And with nice touches like how the codeberg logo integrates into the header bar. There is a prominent rss feed button! Github doesn't event link one in the head (I think, the head is stuffed, at least my browser does not pick it up). The design not perfect (in dark mode the header should change to a darker color, like their docs page does, and the contrast between the two backgrounds colors is jarringly small, that needs a divider) but still, now I want to switch. It also loads so much faster. Having such a cool project hosted there helps as well.
It happened with Oracle over and over. Bought MySQL, messed it up, mariaDB is king now. Bought openoffice, messed it up, now libreoffice is king. Created OEL, acted like complete asshats, messed it up, it just goes on and on.
And that doesn't even touch the Sun purchase, Solaris was impressive in its day, it could have had a stronger holding even today.
Microsoft's monopoly is a little like Oracle's was. Luck. Being ready at the right time. There was effective use of that luck, but that time has passed now.
The most important Monopoly that needs broken today is apple's stranglehold on innovation. The app store needs to be really open, not half baked, still in full apple control, EU bullshit that's happening right now.
I’m not a fan of Apple’s monopoly, but is there really much innovation left on mobile? I dont seem to find huge innovations on android. What in your opinion is the App Store preventing?
It sadly continues the same abuse of English in more modern Windows.
The word order makes it seems that it's a "Windows subsystem," rather than a "subsystem for Linux," that just happens to be in Windows.
If English used more word cases, Microsoft's unusual choice of word order probably would have been acceptable. But probably, some half-wit VP/PM decided that everything Windows must start with the word "Windows," and here me are.
Even "Windows Linux Subsystem" would be far more clear, and one word shorter, even if it is ugly.
I'd like to see indefinite support powered through emulation under a modern CI server hardware with rigorous automated test-suites, with maintenance potentially supported in part with AI.
Can't wait for the saga where people will start bikeshedding about whether a manually written bit of code was actually manually written.
I can already envision the contribution guidelines. You must install cameras all around you, like when taking a certification exam, and have them record you typing it all out, eye tracking included.
Only to then still get accused of "cheating" through I don't know, doing it all head of time with AI help, practicing the solution, and then just re-enacting it all.
Me too, but the question is how do we prove it's human made? Maybe we need a certification authority. Anybody can claim "human written code" and people like you will drool all over a clanker written code.
You're not wrong, but then again this isn't high stakes stuff. I'm ok with vibes and trust in someone's character as a measure, imperfect as those things are. The cost of being wrong is some minor annoyance that I wasted time looking at someone's AI slop, which isn't so dire that it merits a ton of effort on avoiding.
A safe assumption is shorter or more negative comments receive a lot of negative pressure on HN, even if they are commonly accepted views by the average user. If you're convinced it's not real users though, you can always ping hn@ycombinator.com and they can let you know if the downvotes came from likely bot accounts or not.
Hate to be that guy, but if that's your problem just hand them an iPad or a Chromebook. Unsatisfying, I know, but it's not like my mom is Mrs. Roberts.
No one should be running Win9x for anything connected to the internet. Ever, full stop.
The only reason to touch it is for a dedicated retro gaming setup or (completely airgapped) for some industrial tool with drivers/software provided by a company that has been defunct for 25+ years.
Maybe not viruses much any more, but definitely worms. (And also some automated malicious servers scattered about the Internet that pull lists of devices with certain ports open from Shodan et al, and then repeatedly attempt to attack/penetrate whatever's on those lists.)
There are several videos available on YouTube, of someone connecting a Win9x/2K/XP machine to the modern Internet, waiting just a few minutes, and then observing (through Process Explorer) the silent introduction of various payloads onto the system.
You didn't have a router with dialup, or early DSL, where the modem was a separate device. You'd often get publicly routable IPv4s in your university dorm, too. See also napster. :-)
Windows is closer to a "Just works" for my use cases. I think if you are more into running applications on a PC or writing software not related to the OS, it can be a good choice. Where I would choose linux for servers, multi-user IT style systems etc.
Windows as a product feels that way, but I think if you're a kernel hacker, that's not really true for you. Monolithic kernels for Unix-like operating systems like GNU/Linux aren't fundamentally that innovative either. (There's innovation within Linux, of course.)
I also don't really think computing advances in such a linear way. Lots of cool new tech is about digging up underappreciated insights from computing's distant past and applying it in a new context, or even just propagating it more widely.
I'm not saying Windows 9x in particular had anything super interesting going on. But all of the viable desktop and server operating systems are based on really old tech, and at the same time computing's distant past is full of hidden treasures.
> I'm not saying Windows 9x in particular had anything super interesting going on.
Win9X and the VxD layer was a neat virtualization system running in a very resource-constrained environment with a lot of backwards compatibility requirements.
Please don’t put Mustang and Corvette into the same sentence, they are entirely different classes. Mustang is more comparable to Camaro. While not my cup of tea, the latest mid engine Corvette is a true bargain vs other mid engine performance cars. Speaking of tech, I think the Corvette already 20 years ago had heads up display (projection onto the windshield of current speed).
It’s a craft like anything else. Some people enjoy building a table and feel a sense of accomplishment telling their friends “I built this.” Other people just want a table and buy one from Ikea
You're right. The table first magically clicked itself together in Fusion, and then the wood climbed into the CNC machine and fixed itself static, only for that CNC to then mill it on its own accord, all in a flamboyant whim just to make a table.
The finished table then climbed out of the CNC, applied finish on itself in the bathroom like the distinguished gentlemen it is, attached its legs, and then lived happily ever after.
Whoa, 128MB of RAM on the Pentium, somebody is living LARGE. Almost hard to imagine 128MB of RAM in a Windows 95/98 box.
For a second I thought github has updated to a clean and usable user interface. Then I realized that it's codeberg / forgejo ^^
Did they recently update the design? I don't remember it looking this good. The dark mode is of the type I like (it's not too black! Unlike Github's) and the light mode is quite close to Github's design and thus familiar, but cleaner, less clutter, I think friendlier. And with nice touches like how the codeberg logo integrates into the header bar. There is a prominent rss feed button! Github doesn't event link one in the head (I think, the head is stuffed, at least my browser does not pick it up). The design not perfect (in dark mode the header should change to a darker color, like their docs page does, and the contrast between the two backgrounds colors is jarringly small, that needs a divider) but still, now I want to switch. It also loads so much faster. Having such a cool project hosted there helps as well.
Perhaps codeberg replaces github one day. Microsoft really should take things more seriously than they do right now. AI slop made them very lazy.
It happened with Oracle over and over. Bought MySQL, messed it up, mariaDB is king now. Bought openoffice, messed it up, now libreoffice is king. Created OEL, acted like complete asshats, messed it up, it just goes on and on.
And that doesn't even touch the Sun purchase, Solaris was impressive in its day, it could have had a stronger holding even today.
Microsoft's monopoly is a little like Oracle's was. Luck. Being ready at the right time. There was effective use of that luck, but that time has passed now.
Ah well.
The most important Monopoly that needs broken today is apple's stranglehold on innovation. The app store needs to be really open, not half baked, still in full apple control, EU bullshit that's happening right now.
I’m not a fan of Apple’s monopoly, but is there really much innovation left on mobile? I dont seem to find huge innovations on android. What in your opinion is the App Store preventing?
Is it just me or do GitHub repos on on the main repo page on mobile not show stars???
Shouldn’t this be “Linux Subsystem for Windows 9x”?
It sadly continues the same abuse of English in more modern Windows.
The word order makes it seems that it's a "Windows subsystem," rather than a "subsystem for Linux," that just happens to be in Windows.
If English used more word cases, Microsoft's unusual choice of word order probably would have been acceptable. But probably, some half-wit VP/PM decided that everything Windows must start with the word "Windows," and here me are.
Even "Windows Linux Subsystem" would be far more clear, and one word shorter, even if it is ugly.
see Windows Subsystem for Linux and Windows Subsystem for Android.
No, we've been through this. The WSL logic is that it's the Windows Subsystem for [running] Linux.
I'm heartened that recent Linux kernels in 2026 can still target i386 systems!
Between i486, i586 and i686 there's been a steady drumbeat of Linux distros and kernel itself deprecating support
Didn't mainline Linux drop i386 in like 2012? Wild it still functions tbh
I’m curious, are you running i386 devices or more philosophically opposed to deprecation?
Philosophically opposed.
I'd like to see indefinite support powered through emulation under a modern CI server hardware with rigorous automated test-suites, with maintenance potentially supported in part with AI.
But someone else should do this, of course.
Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47861270
> Proudly written without AI.
Love it!
Purely human created software will be boutique soon vs unusable AI slop :(
On the contrary, this is performative.
I've been in the media space, so I've seen artists do this for years now.
It's fucking bullshit. It's like handmade goods (some of which turned out to be sweatshop produced anyway).
At the end of the day all code is ephemeral. It provides value in the here and now. It doesn't doesn't last forever.
Make the thing do the thing and stop worrying about how it was made. None of your code will be around in 200 years.
Can't wait for the saga where people will start bikeshedding about whether a manually written bit of code was actually manually written.
I can already envision the contribution guidelines. You must install cameras all around you, like when taking a certification exam, and have them record you typing it all out, eye tracking included.
Only to then still get accused of "cheating" through I don't know, doing it all head of time with AI help, practicing the solution, and then just re-enacting it all.
I hope that everyone performatively produces high quality software without resorting to some statistical model.
It's not bullshit to me. I'm interested in seeing what a human made, not what a clanker made.
Careful there, you're going to make all the AI "artists" real mad with this one.
You reminded me to the delicious grin my art teacher let out when I brought up digital painting to her. Learned a lot about people that day.
Also electronic music, now that I think about it. Or sorry, electronic "music", as it used to be written.
This thread was hilarious:
https://www.reddit.com/r/aiwars/comments/1tcsjsg/someone_on_...
Me too, but the question is how do we prove it's human made? Maybe we need a certification authority. Anybody can claim "human written code" and people like you will drool all over a clanker written code.
You're not wrong, but then again this isn't high stakes stuff. I'm ok with vibes and trust in someone's character as a measure, imperfect as those things are. The cost of being wrong is some minor annoyance that I wasted time looking at someone's AI slop, which isn't so dire that it merits a ton of effort on avoiding.
We need a humans.txt standard
Already a thing.
https://humanstxt.org/
And a HUMAN.md
I'm going to assume my down votes came from bots
A safe assumption is shorter or more negative comments receive a lot of negative pressure on HN, even if they are commonly accepted views by the average user. If you're convinced it's not real users though, you can always ping hn@ycombinator.com and they can let you know if the downvotes came from likely bot accounts or not.
I cannot imagine why someone would like Windows 9x enough to use it, let alone develop something so complicated for it.
Because it's a totally awesome and fun challenge? Read the details of the integration!
Hackers gonna hack for the hack of it.
The perfect OS doesn’t exi-
Could the be a good "mom and pop" OS to reduce (remote) IT maintenance workload for geeks from parent "clients"?
> Could the be a good "mom and pop" OS
Hate to be that guy, but if that's your problem just hand them an iPad or a Chromebook. Unsatisfying, I know, but it's not like my mom is Mrs. Roberts.
A WSL-like for Win9x is mostly just for the lulz.
And most "moms and pops" are around Bill Gates age, which means they grew with technology and are quite proficient.
My mom still uses her Zip drives
No.
No one should be running Win9x for anything connected to the internet. Ever, full stop.
The only reason to touch it is for a dedicated retro gaming setup or (completely airgapped) for some industrial tool with drivers/software provided by a company that has been defunct for 25+ years.
Are there even still sufficiently large populations of win9x-compatible viruses online to make it a security issue anymore?
Maybe not viruses much any more, but definitely worms. (And also some automated malicious servers scattered about the Internet that pull lists of devices with certain ports open from Shodan et al, and then repeatedly attempt to attack/penetrate whatever's on those lists.)
There are several videos available on YouTube, of someone connecting a Win9x/2K/XP machine to the modern Internet, waiting just a few minutes, and then observing (through Process Explorer) the silent introduction of various payloads onto the system.
Did those machines have public routable IPv4 addresses or something?
You didn't have a router with dialup, or early DSL, where the modem was a separate device. You'd often get publicly routable IPv4s in your university dorm, too. See also napster. :-)
Yes, they do.
> or (completely airgapped) for some industrial tool with drivers/software provided by a company that has been defunct for 25+ years.
this is a juicy enough target to justify such a virus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet
If this had existed in the mid/late 90s so many things would have turned out differently.
It seems similar to colinux.
Sadly, colinux's last change was 15 years ago.
Can it run a Linux subsystem?
The idea is quite cool. How practical is it though? Last time I used a Win9x system or Win2k was ... many, many years ago.
It’s about as practical as running doom on a microwave.
Windows fans, like being a Mustang or Corvette fan, represent arrested development in last centuries technology...
Windows is closer to a "Just works" for my use cases. I think if you are more into running applications on a PC or writing software not related to the OS, it can be a good choice. Where I would choose linux for servers, multi-user IT style systems etc.
Windows as a product feels that way, but I think if you're a kernel hacker, that's not really true for you. Monolithic kernels for Unix-like operating systems like GNU/Linux aren't fundamentally that innovative either. (There's innovation within Linux, of course.)
I also don't really think computing advances in such a linear way. Lots of cool new tech is about digging up underappreciated insights from computing's distant past and applying it in a new context, or even just propagating it more widely.
I'm not saying Windows 9x in particular had anything super interesting going on. But all of the viable desktop and server operating systems are based on really old tech, and at the same time computing's distant past is full of hidden treasures.
> I'm not saying Windows 9x in particular had anything super interesting going on.
Win9X and the VxD layer was a neat virtualization system running in a very resource-constrained environment with a lot of backwards compatibility requirements.
Please don’t put Mustang and Corvette into the same sentence, they are entirely different classes. Mustang is more comparable to Camaro. While not my cup of tea, the latest mid engine Corvette is a true bargain vs other mid engine performance cars. Speaking of tech, I think the Corvette already 20 years ago had heads up display (projection onto the windshield of current speed).
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=fa...
Stop spamming plzkthxbai ^-^
These are all different submitters. HN is supposed to detect duplicate links.
Allrightie then ./
And writing "Proudly written without AI." in README.md now is new black?
It’s a craft like anything else. Some people enjoy building a table and feel a sense of accomplishment telling their friends “I built this.” Other people just want a table and buy one from Ikea
And some people just click around in Fusion and have the table printed by a CNC and say "I made this", which is not true.
You're right. The table first magically clicked itself together in Fusion, and then the wood climbed into the CNC machine and fixed itself static, only for that CNC to then mill it on its own accord, all in a flamboyant whim just to make a table.
The finished table then climbed out of the CNC, applied finish on itself in the bathroom like the distinguished gentlemen it is, attached its legs, and then lived happily ever after.
My food cooks on its own too as I always say!
My question is, if they did decide to use AI someday, would they remember to update README.md in the same commit? I would probably forget.
The agent will happily fix that for them. They are through like that.
It's like those labels of protected origin they put on high-quality artisan foods from the EU.
It’s more like a low-background label: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
I had never heard of low background steel. That's a fascinating problem it solves (and I love the analogy).