XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-10   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Fri, 10/31/2025 2:48 PM, s|b wrote:   
   > On 31 Oct 2025 13:58:27 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:   
   >   
   >> s|b wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> Can I ask how you run Windows? Is that some sort of VM or perhaps on   
   >>> other hardware?   
   >   
   >>   I just run Windows (now 11) on a (HP) laptop in normal native mode. So   
   >> no VM or anything like that.   
   >>   
   >>   Perhaps the fact that I'm using Cygwin - a Unix/GNU-like environment   
   >> on/for Windows - is what made you ask the question?   
   >   
   > I have the impression a lot of people run Windows on a VM on their Linux   
   > OS. I once experimented with VirtualBox on a Windows PC, but it was   
   > complicated (although I followed steps provided by a YT video) and I   
   > felt like I didn't have enough RAM.   
   >   
   >>   So for *me* I have the best of both worlds, a Unix-like environment   
   >> with all the commands and tools which come with that *and* a normal   
   >> Windows environment for my other programs.   
   >   
   > It's difficult to imagine for me. I probably need another YT vid. (-:   
   >   
   >>   N.B. This posting is brought to you, courtesy editor vim (Unix),   
   >> newsreader tin (Unix) and personal news-server Hamster (Windows   
   >> (32-bit))! :-)   
   >   
   > I know if tin and - a very long time ago - I experimented with Hamster.   
   >   
      
   Cygwin is a native environment on Windows. Ports of applications   
   are done, sometimes using foreign namespaces on Windows.   
      
   Notice in the following example, disktype ends in EXE and is a PE32   
   in this particular case.   
      
   For example, I downloaded "disktype" in the Cygwin tree, and   
   it is invoked this way in a Windows command prompt. Cygwin presumably   
   also has a terminal to use (like msys in MinGW32). I keep this   
   EXE and a set of DLLs in a folder, and it's a very tiny portable   
   runtime environment. If I didn't have this, there is no native   
   version of disktype (which runs on a ton of other OSes, just not Windows).   
   It was made available to us, via Cygwin.   
      
       disktype.exe  /dev/sda   # /dev/sda is not Windows terminology, but   
   equates to Disk 0   
      
   And that would tell you what all the partition types were. GPT containers,   
   some of them are generic, and Microsoft Basic Data partition can contain   
   NTFS, ExFAT, ReFS? and so you can't tell what is in one of those, without   
   sniffing the header (a precursor to a mount operation by the OS).   
      
   Various things have been ported in Cygwin, and their   
   library DLLs sort the differences between what the original   
   program wanted to do, and what Windows offers as a namespace.   
      
   *******   
      
   VirtualBox RAM requirements vary according to the OS you are   
   running as a Guest. A Win11 Guest would be 4GB. A Win98 Guest   
   would be 256MB, or one sixteenth as much RAM. In the old days,   
   on a relatively small machine, I was able to run three VMs   
   at the same time. One of them being that Win98 VM.   
      
   If all the OSes you run as Guests, are gulping down the RAM, then   
   yes, you need a large machine.   
      
   At the current time, the price of RAM is rising again. I think   
   DDR5 may have gone up by 50% in price. DDR4 has gone up in   
   price, because the companies stopped making it, and then maybe   
   one of them started making it again (as the computing market is   
   split in weird ways, and DDR4 is being marketed as a solution   
   for third world countries). AMD keeps rebranding old CPUs   
   and releasing them in other parts of the world ("exclusively")   
   so we cannot buy those CPUs here and we buy 9800X3D instead.   
      
   In any case, if you wanted RAM now, we had excuses in the past   
   why it was expensive, and we have a new set of excuses this week.   
   Oh, to be a middleman and make a fast buck.   
      
   DDR3 has been out of production for at least a year, and   
   the inventory state of the industry was poor. There are   
   some funny looking offerings which appear to be coming   
   from China. But if I went to my local computer store and   
   asked about DDR3, they would show me a bare shelf. In the   
   past, when I wanted DDR2 after it was discontinued three   
   or four years previous, I was able to buy some CAS5 enthusiast   
   RAM at the store here. Which I considered at the time to be unusual,   
   as in the previous couple years, all you could get was some   
   relatively shitty (runs too hot) CAS6. The CAS5 ran cool and was   
   great stuff (but the motherboard died :-/ ).   
      
   On the one hand, four hundred million PCs (with RAM sticks inside),   
   could be thrown away, while on the other hand, new RAM sticks   
   are getting expensive. That's the weather report this week.   
   Without looking, I would guess the refurbished computers would   
   be rising in price, to harvest profit while it can be made.   
   The refurb price will drop on Jan 15 2026, as part of the cycle.   
   No one Fears On Missing Out (FOMO) in January, so the price drops.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)