Top | Newest First | Oldest First
ArishMell · 70-79, M
How does a "virtual" operating-system work?
I am puzzled by what seems mis-use of the adjective. (Is it advertising hyperbole?)
Either the instrument is using WIN-anything from MS-DOS to WIN-10, or Linux, or it is not (assuming it can physically support the OS in question).
I can see you might need an emulator that extends the existing system to allow using legacy, perhaps third-party, programmes and data files written for or under the earlier OS, but "virtual" seems out of place to describe any OS.
"Virtual" means "synthetic", as images generated by the application rather than using photographs of physical scenes.
'
Presumably though, having extended the existing system to act as any of its predecessors, you can use it for anything suiting that predecessors.
Not just "fun", whether you define "fun" as simply games, or you engage in, say, programming as a hobby.
Or if wish to recover very old files - assuming physical access is possible - and possibly for serious use, not simply a past-time.
'
It might be feasible to have an emulator or extender to run Amstrad CPM or Sinclair ZX files, if you wished; perhaps for archive-retrieval.
It's still not "virtual" though. It is as real as any OS can be: "all" you have done is extended or replaced the existing system, even if the screen display copies the original.
(Amstrad and Sinclair not only made very early PCs. They provided them with compilers so you could write your own programmes, in either BASIC or in Assembler code. Sinclair also published enthusiasts' magazines containing the printed programmes, line by line.)
'
The real problems with archive-retrieval though, are two-fold and physical; and historians for a start, have already indicated them as genuine problems for their professional descendants.
First you need finding a serviceable, suitable machine to allow the physical transfers to a modern computer. Early PCs used 8", 5" and 3.25" floppy-discs - Amstrad used 3" discs, Sinclair used miniature tape drives called "micro-cassettes"; and such computers held no more than very slim embedded kernels, and no internal data stores. Also, until the invention of the Universal Serial Bus system, equipment was connected by parallel and later, serial, data-cables.
Secondly, these magnetic media degrade with time; CDs may do so more gradually (depending on storage conditions). Also, companies like MS wilfully make older data and applications harder or impossible to use. So even if you found a suitable machine in working order, and had the appropriate software, there is no guarantee the files would be sufficiently intact for legibility. Forensic software might partially recover some, perhaps.
I am puzzled by what seems mis-use of the adjective. (Is it advertising hyperbole?)
Either the instrument is using WIN-anything from MS-DOS to WIN-10, or Linux, or it is not (assuming it can physically support the OS in question).
I can see you might need an emulator that extends the existing system to allow using legacy, perhaps third-party, programmes and data files written for or under the earlier OS, but "virtual" seems out of place to describe any OS.
"Virtual" means "synthetic", as images generated by the application rather than using photographs of physical scenes.
'
Presumably though, having extended the existing system to act as any of its predecessors, you can use it for anything suiting that predecessors.
Not just "fun", whether you define "fun" as simply games, or you engage in, say, programming as a hobby.
Or if wish to recover very old files - assuming physical access is possible - and possibly for serious use, not simply a past-time.
'
It might be feasible to have an emulator or extender to run Amstrad CPM or Sinclair ZX files, if you wished; perhaps for archive-retrieval.
It's still not "virtual" though. It is as real as any OS can be: "all" you have done is extended or replaced the existing system, even if the screen display copies the original.
(Amstrad and Sinclair not only made very early PCs. They provided them with compilers so you could write your own programmes, in either BASIC or in Assembler code. Sinclair also published enthusiasts' magazines containing the printed programmes, line by line.)
'
The real problems with archive-retrieval though, are two-fold and physical; and historians for a start, have already indicated them as genuine problems for their professional descendants.
First you need finding a serviceable, suitable machine to allow the physical transfers to a modern computer. Early PCs used 8", 5" and 3.25" floppy-discs - Amstrad used 3" discs, Sinclair used miniature tape drives called "micro-cassettes"; and such computers held no more than very slim embedded kernels, and no internal data stores. Also, until the invention of the Universal Serial Bus system, equipment was connected by parallel and later, serial, data-cables.
Secondly, these magnetic media degrade with time; CDs may do so more gradually (depending on storage conditions). Also, companies like MS wilfully make older data and applications harder or impossible to use. So even if you found a suitable machine in working order, and had the appropriate software, there is no guarantee the files would be sufficiently intact for legibility. Forensic software might partially recover some, perhaps.
PiecingBabyFaceTogether · 26-30
@G00GLE Fun 🥰
assemblingaknob · 26-30, F
PiecingBabyFaceTogether · 26-30
@assemblingaknob I think there's a simulation for that.
assemblingaknob · 26-30, F
@PiecingBabyFaceTogether 😱 I have to google it. I was trying to tell my little sister about the internet connection we had to suffer through and the funny sounds it made while connecting. She thinks I'm just trolling 🙄