Subj : Re: Future-proofing DOS BBSs
To   : j0HNNY a1PHA
From : poindexter FORTRAN
Date : Thu Feb 15 2024 08:06:00

-=> j0HNNY a1PHA wrote to All <=-

 ja> I've got a thing for DOS-based BBSs. And they are becoming more rare to
 ja> enounter in the wild as it's becoming more difficult to run them,
 ja> particuarly since Windows has stopped suppoerting 32-bit/x86 OSs -- not
 ja> to mention the risk of running outdated Windows OSs connected to the
 ja> internet - sure, you can firewall them off. But more difficult. Here's
 ja> what I've experimented with:


Virtualization is the best of both worlds. You can run a 16-bit OS in a
secure, patched, supported 64-bit OS.


 ja> WINDOWS - PURE x86
 ja> I recently spun up a Windows 7 x86 box on proxmox (Renegade, PCBoard)
 ja> and it was a pretty big PitA. Do-able, and probably the most reliable
 ja> way given built-in 16-bit support, but still ponderous just getting the
 ja> thing updated with the latest patches. Win 10 32-bit is also an option,
 ja> but high overhead. Net2BBS works well.


I've been running realitycheckBBS on 32-bit Windows 10, and it's not
that bad. I had it running on an old mobile dual core laptop with 3 GB
of RAM, and it ran well. I've been thinking of moving the BBS to a
64-bit OS since I got rid of my DOS dependencies, but it works fine
as-is.



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