Why VMs can be a nightmare

[CupheadtheCritic]

Virtual Machines. They're good to use (IF YOU KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE DOING), but if you have no clue then you're kinda fucked.

It's not really the OS installation that's painful, but rather the fucking WiFi connection (If you're using an OS that's really REALLY old, which is my case specifically [Windows XP]).

Now, should I explain how awful it can get to set up WiFi? Probably.

Let's say you're using a Windows XP VM for the first time. You set it up, only to realize that you need to connect it to the Internet, so you go through hoops and fail again and again and then search up answers only to get the most COMPLICATED ANSWERS SINCE THE BAKING PROCESS OF WENDSLEYDALE CHEESE.

And then you follow the instructions only to realize that you need a DRIVER and speed through MORE hoops.

And then it works.

After all that pain from trying to simply feel old, you did it. But then you tell yourself "this was a waste of my time, but at least it's all over."

 

[Hayato213]

Well you get the point, in XP you have to manually source the driver, unlike windows 10/11

 

[CupheadtheCritic]

Well you get the point, in XP you have to manually source the driver, unlike windows 10/11

It had been more than eight years since I last used XP so of course I was gonna forget some things.

 

[Dud]

I can't tell if this thread belongs to the EOF, so I'm going to give a surface-level response to your troubles.

There is a reason for a VM's complexity, even more so depending on the OS and its editions. Generally, for most workstations, they're used for software, resource, and domain testing/configuring. Therefore, they need to be able to utilize the host's operating system in order to process their own assets to run at all.

With it being outdated, Windows XP (and other older versions of Windows) will need specific requirements that Windows 10/11 threw out eons ago, thanks to advancements in technology. It's great how many methods, drivers, servers, etc. are still available to access and use after so long...

It just goes to show that, to those that care enough, it will never be a waste of time to preserve, inform, and give advice on the past.

 

[godreborn]

I once used a vm of an older Linux distro just to get access to the ps2dev on it, when I was having trouble compiling sm64 for ps2. Copying it to windows was a pita. It's not the normal /mnt/c/etc method, but you had to link the shared folder iirc.

 

[CupheadtheCritic]

I can't tell if this thread belongs to the EOF, so I'm going to give a surface-level response to your troubles.

There is a reason for a VM's complexity, even more so depending on the OS and its editions. Generally, for most workstations, they're used for software, resource, and domain testing/configuring. Therefore, they need to be able to utilize the host's operating system in order to process their own assets to run at all.

With it being outdated, Windows XP (and other older versions of Windows) will need specific requirements that Windows 10/11 threw out eons ago, thanks to advancements in technology. It's great how many methods, drivers, servers, etc. are still available to access and use after so long...

It just goes to show that, to those that care enough, it will never be a waste of time to preserve, inform, and give advice on the past.

Even as a historian, I can still forget things.

 

[SylverReZ]

VMs are fairly easy to setup from somebody who has had many years of experience with them. VMware by far is what I've been using a lot for most of my software testing.