There was a time when I genuinely enjoyed trying out different operating systems just for the sake of playing around with them.
While this was a pretty good PC in the year 2006, the CPU lacked hardware AES and I was already using full disk encryption back then. Combine this with virtual machines and you can imagine it wasn't always the fastest experience.
On the other hand it was fun. Trying various Linux distributions, running multiple at once and setting up legacy Windows (3.1, 95, 98, 2000) was an awesome way to spend some time.
But this entry isn't about my old desktop PC.
Nowadays this isn't something special anymore. I recently bought a new PC just for trying out Qubes OS using Xen virtualization as a security feature by maximizing isolation of processes. The new PC runs several virtual machines in background without any noticeable slowdown just as if everything was running on bare metal… and it is just an office PC with Intel i5 processor. Things have changed.
We have this long going thread Should I use Linux instead of Windows? by @Xdqwerty who only has a weak computer at hand making a simple "just fire up VirtualBox" problematic. This sparked my interest, but the last of my experiments is off-topic in the thread. That is what blogs are for.
How problematic can it be running virtual machines on weak hardware? I wanted to find out and booted up an old laptop. They really ripped off the lady who bought this laptop in ≈2005/2006 and later gave it to me because it was essentially a useless piece of shit right from the beginning. It was a garbage grade computer even for it's time, didn't have a 64 bit CPU let alone any hardware virtualization features. Just for the sake of pushing the limits I have upgraded said laptop last year as much as possible running into some strange problems. Ironically it is now working better than it ever did with the stock Windows XP Home Edition on the rotating HDD.
Initially my goal was running a newer Windows on that laptop a while (okay, some years) ago, but the missing graphics drivers make anything newer than XP run at the wrong resolution. And yes, it was a nightmare to setup SiS graphics on Ubuntu 18.04 as well. They tossed this into the virtual trash bin – where it belongs – some versions before. I had to compile it from source, install a different X-server and manually make X use the freshly compiled driver. I've forgotten how I did it, lost quite a few hair by ripping them out in anger, but the installation is now working and backed up. →
Combining the tasks "running VirtualBox on abysmal hardware" (much worse than what Xdqwerty is using) and "running newer Windows on a laptop not supporting it" I decided to use Windows 7. Cheating a bit by taking a completed installation last used in 2019 I quickly got to see the desktop. How does it perform?
Well. I must have masochistic traits after all. With only 1.5GB RAM available even the 32 Bit version of Windows 7 runs out of memory quickly. Running Legacy Update and install the last publicly available updates for Windows 7 as well as the Edge browser took literally a day. Strange errors and waiting an hour each time trying to install. At last I succeeded and now have the VM working. Somewhat. Starting Edge and opening GBAtemp homepage took a few minutes.
Sadly I don't have access to the updates beyond official support end January 2020. Maybe I should try latest Windows 10?
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 6000+
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT
RAM: 4*2GB DDR2 (800MHz)
HDD: Hardware RAID-5 with 4*2TB enterprise storage (initially smaller HDDs, upgraded at some point)
While this was a pretty good PC in the year 2006, the CPU lacked hardware AES and I was already using full disk encryption back then. Combine this with virtual machines and you can imagine it wasn't always the fastest experience.
On the other hand it was fun. Trying various Linux distributions, running multiple at once and setting up legacy Windows (3.1, 95, 98, 2000) was an awesome way to spend some time.
But this entry isn't about my old desktop PC.
Nowadays this isn't something special anymore. I recently bought a new PC just for trying out Qubes OS using Xen virtualization as a security feature by maximizing isolation of processes. The new PC runs several virtual machines in background without any noticeable slowdown just as if everything was running on bare metal… and it is just an office PC with Intel i5 processor. Things have changed.
We have this long going thread Should I use Linux instead of Windows? by @Xdqwerty who only has a weak computer at hand making a simple "just fire up VirtualBox" problematic. This sparked my interest, but the last of my experiments is off-topic in the thread. That is what blogs are for.
How problematic can it be running virtual machines on weak hardware? I wanted to find out and booted up an old laptop. They really ripped off the lady who bought this laptop in ≈2005/2006 and later gave it to me because it was essentially a useless piece of shit right from the beginning. It was a garbage grade computer even for it's time, didn't have a 64 bit CPU let alone any hardware virtualization features. Just for the sake of pushing the limits I have upgraded said laptop last year as much as possible running into some strange problems. Ironically it is now working better than it ever did with the stock Windows XP Home Edition on the rotating HDD.
CPU: AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+
GPU: None really. Integrated SiS 760 
RAM: 2*1GB DDR1 (333MHz)
SSD: Chinese no-name mSATA in Chinese no-name mSATA→IDE converter
Initially my goal was running a newer Windows on that laptop a while (okay, some years) ago, but the missing graphics drivers make anything newer than XP run at the wrong resolution. And yes, it was a nightmare to setup SiS graphics on Ubuntu 18.04 as well. They tossed this into the virtual trash bin – where it belongs – some versions before. I had to compile it from source, install a different X-server and manually make X use the freshly compiled driver. I've forgotten how I did it, lost quite a few hair by ripping them out in anger, but the installation is now working and backed up. →
Combining the tasks "running VirtualBox on abysmal hardware" (much worse than what Xdqwerty is using) and "running newer Windows on a laptop not supporting it" I decided to use Windows 7. Cheating a bit by taking a completed installation last used in 2019 I quickly got to see the desktop. How does it perform?
Well. I must have masochistic traits after all. With only 1.5GB RAM available even the 32 Bit version of Windows 7 runs out of memory quickly. Running Legacy Update and install the last publicly available updates for Windows 7 as well as the Edge browser took literally a day. Strange errors and waiting an hour each time trying to install. At last I succeeded and now have the VM working. Somewhat. Starting Edge and opening GBAtemp homepage took a few minutes.
Sadly I don't have access to the updates beyond official support end January 2020. Maybe I should try latest Windows 10?
