How do virtual machines work?

[since1876]

I'm sort of curious because my processor is pretty quick.. maybe not compared to some of your computers, but it's definitely beyond Windows 98's wildest wettest dreams! So I can copy 600mb in just a couple minutes or so, but it still takes basically the full time Windows 98 predicts (30-60 minutes) to install it in a virtual machine, where Mint probably took about 15 minutes (I didn't time it, but that seems close). Do VMs actually slow processors down to not freak out the guest OS? I'm sure I'm better off asking on the VirtualBox website, but you guys are more fun on here.

I guess what I'm asking is if Windows 98 is able to use my full processing power or if it gets reduced to emulate something that 98 would recognize.... if that makes sense. It's 12:30 at night, so I might not be super clear right now!

[JasonLG]

I'm sort of curious because my processor is pretty quick.. maybe not compared to some of your computers, but it's definitely beyond Windows 98's wildest wettest dreams! So I can copy 600mb in just a couple minutes or so, but it still takes basically the full time Windows 98 predicts (30-60 minutes) to install it in a virtual machine, where Mint probably took about 15 minutes (I didn't time it, but that seems close). Do VMs actually slow processors down to not freak out the guest OS? I'm sure I'm better off asking on the VirtualBox website, but you guys are more fun on here.

I guess what I'm asking is if Windows 98 is able to use my full processing power or if it gets reduced to emulate something that 98 would recognize.... if that makes sense. It's 12:30 at night, so I might not be super clear right now!

If you're still running 98 then my guess is that your computer is a dinosaur. I can copy 600Mb to a network samba share in well under 2 min on my computer. A virtual machine maybe beyond your hardware's capabilities. But really to answer your question, I'm not sure what 98 can do considering I haven't used it, well since pretty much 1998. It might be time for a hardware(and software) upgrade.

[nunol]

It's not your computer problem.

Virtualbox is not optimize to run Win 95 or Win 98 so it's much slower running Win95/98 than the heavily optimize WinXP/Vista/7 because it has to do everything the hard way!

When I need to run Win95 or 98 and can't run it in the bare metal and need something better than Virtualbox I jump to Windows XP and use MS Virtual PC. I don't use VMware that much.

[since1876]

I can copy 600Mb to a network samba share in well under 2 min on my computer

When I said a couple minutes I didn't really time it. 600mb copies in about 30 seconds at 19mb/s, for me. If you don't have something constructive to say, why bother answering? Obviously, if I'm trying to run Windows 98, it's because I want to, not because I need to. And if my computer really were super slow, I would actually not be using Mint for an operating system, I would use something a lot smaller and less graphically intense, like Puppy Linux or something.

And I don't have any dual boots going, nunol... I was just having some fun with the OS I started on! I just wanted to spend some time working on getting it to run, but what you said makes sense. Now that I think about it, I guess it would be like trying to get a 64bit program to run on a 32bit processor.. you'd have to emulate the old hardware to run it, so I can see why it might be slow. I did notice that when I go to the properties in W98 it says that I have the processor that I do have and it does say the memory that I allowed it to have.

[AlbertP]

Win 98 calculates the install time, it does not have a fixed time there. That's why you get accurate times in its installer.

And Windows always installs much slower than Linux. Windows Vista often needs a couple of hours, for example. And XP is also far from ready after 30mins. 98 is at least installing faster than newer Windows, but it does not have the speed of Linux. I don't know why Windows takes so much time, it is not just the bloat of newer versions as the install of 98 shows.

My CD of 98 does not work anymore - a scratch on the disc has corrupted 3 files, and Windows, though working, keeps complaining about them.