#how to use DOSBox

[filehulk]

DOSBox for Windows

Remember the good old days when x86 chips powered computers and MS-DOS ruled the operating system world? Back then, mastering a computer required a solid grasp of technical knowledge. For those who cherish nostalgia or wish to explore the roots of PC gaming and software, DOSBox provides an excellent opportunity to revisit that era. DOSBox is a versatile and powerful emulator that enables users to…

[memories-of-iacon]

me when i encounter the problem that soundwave isn't just saying "soundwave: superior" he is actively insulting other bots.. how do you write this.. would he actually use the word "stupid"?

well he does now..

[lexyeevee]

crossposting from cohost because i'm too bummed about this for only one website to contain it

there's a new OG doom release or whatever

tbh i think it massively sucks that a massive corporation — which is now owned by fucking microsoft — bought a GPL game and started working on it again and made new releases no longer under the GPL and on fewer platforms (windows only! how do you fuck this up), when the game is only belovéd in the first place because of the staggering amount of work the community put in for free over the last thirty years

doom was like the one grand success story of an open source commercial game. without the GPL release it would've ended at doom 95. there would never have been boom or mbf, never have been any such thing as a limit-removing port. even sigil would not exist. a handful of people would still play it in dosbox and that'd be about it.

they even reimplemented boom from scratch. feels weird. most of the original boom authors aren't even alive any more. maybe i'm a hypocrite for feeling uneasy about that since i reimplemented chip's challenge, but i did that to make it more free, not to make it proprietary. i'm not using community work as a marketing bullet point for my paid product. (chip's challenge 2 did that though)

they hired some doom community people for this, and, good for those specific few people, i guess. that doesn't feel worthy of applause though. like you'd be stupid not to hire the only people around who've worked on this game recently

and no one on doomworld really cares? they care about the thing they get in their hands right now. jingling keys. people are excited that more unreleased doom beta stuff is included and all i can think about is how bethesda got mad at romero and told him to stop posting that kinda thing publicly. now we know why! they can't sell john romero's doomworld posts, but they can sell adrian carmack's unused sprites

just feels sad. thirty years of stuff built on the back of an open source release and no real appreciation for how powerful that was

thanks for all the free labor, everyone, but now it belongs to microsoft. look how magnanimous they are, with all their embracing and extending

[commodorez]

Hi! I'm so sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm completely clueless on computers, but I want to learn about them. Any places you'd recommend starting for bare bones beginners? I'm also interested in early-mid 90's tech particularly too. I'm guessing I have to figure out the basics before I can move onto specific tech though, right?

You're really knowledgeable and nice so I figured I'd just ask. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you! :]

That's an excellent question, I don't think I've been asked it before in such a general sense. I was raised with the benefit of being immersed in computers regularly, so providing a solid answer may be a bit difficult since for the basics, I never had to think about it.

I had computer classes of various types throughout my school years. We learned how to use a mouse, typing, word processing, programming -- and that was all before middle school. We got proper typing, html, and general purpose computer science courses in middle and high school, and you can bet I took those too. I also have the benefit of a bachelors of science in computer science, so you'll forgive me if my answer sounds incredibly skewed with 30+ years of bias.

The biggest suggestion I can give you is simply to find a device and play with it. Whatever you can get your hands on, even if its not that old, as long as it's considered past its prime, and nobody will get upset of you accidentally break something (physically or in software). Learning about things with computers in general tends to have some degree of trial and error, be it programming, administrating, or whatever -- try, learn, and start over if things don't work out as expected the first time. Professionals do it all the time (I know I do, and nobody's fired me for it yet).

Some cast-off 90s or early 00's surplus office desktop computer running Windows would be a good start, just explore it and its settings. Start digging into folders, see what's installed, see what works and more importantly what doesn't work right. Try to find comparable software, and install it. Even the basics like old copies of Microsoft Office, or whatever.

I recommend looking through the available software on winworld as it's an excellent treasure trove of operating systems, applications, games, and other useful software of the time period. I'd link it directly, but tumblr hates links to external sites and will bury this post if I do. If you're a mac fan, and you can find an old G3 or Performa, there is the Macintosh Garden's repository of software, but I'm not the right person to ask about that.

Some of you might be like "oh, oh! Raspberry Pi! say Raspberry Pi!" but I can't really recommend those as a starting point, even if they are cheap for an older model. Those require a bit of setup, and even the most common linux can be obtuse as hell for newcomers if you don't have someone to guide you.

If you don't have real hardware to muck about with, emulation is also your friend. DOSBox was my weapon of choice for a long time, but I think other things like 86Box have supplanted it. I have the luxury of the real hardware in most cases, so I haven't emulated much in the past decade. Tech Tangents on youtube has a new video explaining the subject well, I highly recommend it. There are plenty of other methods too, but most are far more sophisticated to get started with, if you ask me.

For getting a glimpse into the world of the 90s tech, if you haven't already discovered LGR on youtube, I've been watching his content for well over a decade now. He covers both the common and esoteric, both hardware and software, and is pretty honest about the whole thing, rather than caricaturish in his presentation style. It might be a good jumping off point to find proverbial rabbits to chase.

I guess the trick is to a find a specific thing you're really interested in, and then start following that thread, researching on wikipedia and finding old enthusiast websites to read through. I'm sure there are a few good books on more general history of 90s computing and the coming internet, but I'm not an avid reader of the genre. Flipping through tech magazines of the era (PC Magazine comes to mind, check archive dot org for that) can provide a good historical perspective. Watching old episodes of the Computer Chronicles (youtube or archive dot org) can provide this too, but it also had demonstrations and explanations of the emerging technologies as they happened.

There are so many approaches here, I'm sure I've missed some good suggestions though. I also realized I waffle a bit between the modern and vintage, but I find many computing troubleshooting skillsets transcend eras. What works now can apply to 10, 20, 30, or sometimes even 40+ years ago, because it's all about mindset of "this computer/program is dumb, and only follows the instructions its given" . Sometimes those instructions are poorly thought out on the part of the folks who designed them. And those failures are not necessarily your fault, so you gotta push through until you figure out how to do the thing you're trying to do. Reading the documentation you can find will only take you so far, sometimes things are just dumb, and experimentation (and failures) will teach you so much more about the hard and fast rules of computers than anything else. I'm rambling at this point...

So, let's throw the question to the crowd, and ask a few other folks in the Retrotech Crew.

@ms-dos5 @virescent-phosphor @teckheck @jhavard @techav @regretsretrotech @airconditionedcomputingnightmare @aperture-in-the-multiverse -- anything big I missed?

[shadowglitch90]

Retro computer emulation/virtualization resources

Not too long ago, it was one of my hobbies to recreate and emulate old machines and try to use them in a somewhat 'legit' way in order to experience how using them in an accurate time-period might have felt like. While it's always better to use a real machine, it's also important to note that time-accurate machines are essentially a 'ticking bomb'. Some of the electronics inside can go bad at any given time, like capacitors, and other critical components might also go bad due to humidity, moisture in the air, changes in temperature, etc. Plus, they are not always cheap and they take space that you might not have.

This is why I prefer using emulators and virtualization software in order to virtualize a time-period accurate machine that I can use. This is the software I found that I like the most, and what systems I use them for.

DOSbox-X

This is a modified version of DOSBox that includes support for multiple video devices including 3dfx emulation (Voodoo), networking, and even printer support (emulated, but AFAIK it only prints in black and white). It's perfect for MS-DOS and Windows (1-3.11) emulation. Technically you could even install Windows 95 in it.

86-box

This is the way to go if you want to emulate old retro systems. No questions. The best part of it is how flexible it is. You can select the motherboard, the processor you want to emulate, the video card, you can also enable 3dfx support up to the Voodoo 2 (but it also emulates a Voodoo3 and the Banshee), sound card, literally every detail. It's like building a PC, but virtually. And it has hardware from the old 8086 IBM PCs to more modern Pentium 2 machines. It also has network and printer support.

The downside is that since it's low-level emulation, you need a 'beefy' CPU with very good single thread performance in order for more modern systems like Windows 9x and ME to run more smoothly. Another flaw is that for some reason the FP emulation for older processors doesn't work properly for some reason, so you might prefer to use DOSBox-X if you want DOS emulation. The 3dfx emulation is also 'so-so' and not very great, but it works.

It also requires valid ROMs, but you can search for a valid ROMset online (check Github) if you want to use it. For legal reasons, I can't provide links to them, but they are not hard to find.

VMWare Workstation Player

I choose VMWare over other virtualization solutions because of it's graphic drivers capable of running relatively new games from the mid 2000s, and because unlike VirtualBox (since version 6) it still supports old Windows versions, including XP, 9x, ME and old NT systems.

Broadcom wants you to buy a license for the Pro version so they hide the links to the free Workstation Player version. But they are still available and they even release updates once in a while (yes, it's free of charge).

In the link I'm providing, go to the 'player' folder and select the latest version (higher number, now it's 17.6.1) and your system to download VMWare Workstation Player. Then go to the 'ws' folder and select the same version and system, but then select 'packages' to download a matching copy of vmware tools.

Finding software

If you need software, there are three places you need to look for. One is archive.org, the other is WinWorld PC, and the other is Vetusware (requires an account). I can't provide links so search for them on your own. I also browse sites like oldversion.com, but I don't trust these too much, so go at your own risk (or better yet, don't). Naturally you should always buy the software you use, whenever it's possible, and use backups of your legally owned software.

Did you like this post?

I will make more posts in the future about how to set up these emulated machines and how I work with them.

[mamaito]

What are your favorite videogames?

Thanks for the great question, I have so much to say! I will avoid mentioning any VN as I don't consider them games really..

I am a fan of surreal and weird games in general, if it's out there then I will be interested and play it; I also constantly search for raising sims where you raise a character (Typically a daughter or son.) till they turn into an adult.

Menagerie Series -> I love this series, I am very thankful that it exists as I love the game's art style and atmosphere it gives:

Presentable Liberty, I consider this game as one of the best, it is a first person story driven game where you play as a prisoner that has no choice but to wait for someone to send you a letter and play through the games given to you just to pass time. It is part of a Menagerie series created by the creator.

Years ago, this game changed my god damn life. I was so invested in it, it is rare to find something that understands what it feels like to actually be helpless and depressed. The need to tell those few people left that you're still alive and can't is a frustrating hurdle.

Exoptable Money, Another part of the Menagerie Series, this time it is a point and click format. You play as a business man trying to find ways in how you earned your fame and piece together what happened to the world in itself. I also recommend recommend as I do like the creator's style.

It is also quite depressing but if you like strange visuals then I'm sure you'd enjoy it.

Menagerie Archive, The last part of the Menagerie Series, another point and click format. You play as an archivist in a dystopian world where you are forced to share your earnings between three citizen from each status. If you don't have enough funds, they will go hungry for a week while at the same time, keeping yourself also fed.

There are multiple endings, and it is also part of the worldbuilding from the two games, Presentable Liberty and Exoptable Money.

Mogeko Castle -> RPG, just pure unfiltered dark humor.

Hylics -> RPG, just straight up surreal and aesthetic fun.

The witch's House -> RPG, a good horror game, I consider it a classic so you should play it, I don't wanna spoil the fun.

Zelle ->  Occult Adventure, 2nd person dungeon crawler/point and click game where you are a young boy trying to escape the grim reaper's castle in order to get back to your mother.

TMGS Series -> Otome, a stat raising dating game where you have 3 years in high school to get close to the guy you like; (I also want to play the original ones where you date the girls eventually.)

LovePLus -> DS, another stat raising dating game where you have a virtual girlfriend. My sister and I used to fight over the DS because we wanted to collect dreams and go on dates with the girl we chose lol.

Princess Maker Series -> Raising sim, stat raising game where you raise a girl till she turns into an independent adult, either from a princess or any job you want her to get.

Teaching Feeling -> Raising sim, you take care of an abused girl and have a relationship with her. (I am still upset to this very day the creator blocked me all because he had a tantrum over his english speaking fans and that I was speaking in english.)

My Child Lebensborn -> Raising sim, story driven where you're raising a child of a german soldier in norway after the war and try your best to give him/her the best childhood as much as you can.

Harvester -> Point and click adventure, classic surreal and just weird game where you play as a man who has amnesia and has to figure out the world he's in.

LION -> Life sim, dosbox game. You just play as a lion lol

WOLF -> Life sim, dosbox game. You play as a wolf, that's it lol.

PETZ -> Life sim, old game where you just take care of pets till old age in your desktop. That's it. I cherish this game to the bottom of my heart.

Creatures Series -> Life sim, my favorite of all time as possibly the best out all life simulations. You take care of these alien creatures, teach them how to talk and watch them interact with their surroundings. The person who made this is an actual roboticist btw, and it has a complex system where the activities in their brain are monitored to even their genetic make up. I remember one of my norns kept calling me mama and then taught it to the others to also refer to me as that.

Yames Games -> Best horror games out there, there's a lot to say but I suggest you check it out yourself if you're into the eldritch variety.

Rimworld -> Colony sim, a sci-fi management game where you try to survive the planet and get out of there with the rest of your colony. It is also a classic, especially with mods.

Crusader Kings Series -> Strategy game where you try to keep your dynasty from dying as much as you can. I play it to see how far I can turn my family into a family circle, basically incest. But the fun is making your own story and messing around. Be warned, to this fucking day the devs cannot be bothered to fix their shitty loading screens. A spreadsheet of a game shouldn't be asking for large fucking specs just to play.

Tale of Immortal -> Open world sandbox game, Wuxia shit and cultivation.

ELONA -> Rougelike game. You can do so many things in this game that I can hardly list it, just go play it.

Amazing Cultivation Simulator -> You know what it's already about based on the title, wuxia and cultivation shit except it is a colony sim this time. Inanimate objects can come to life, your furry will turn into a literal demonic animal and grief you if you take too long to cultivate him/her, your character will turn into a loli/shota when turning near immortal. It is fun but fuck that chat mechanic. You need mods.

I don't think I've listed all of my favorites but these were the ones I thought from the top of my head. If you're ever interested in any of them just try it out.

Virtual Villagers Series -> Real time simulation management game, you take care of a bunch of people in a lone village and do your best to improve their life. You act as a god, at least in some of the other sequels, and try your best to find ways to find better food resource and unlock the mysteries of the island.

Be warned as this isn't the kind where everything you'll be able to unlock everything in one go as it where you'll need to wait real time for it to unlock on it's own.

[pigspeetsandhooflikefeets]

(the return of prev anon) JAYDEN THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT ACTUALLY. because apparently i don't know how to think?? i've never used DOSBox in particular, but i have no clue in the world why i hadn't tried to run it through any of my other emulators, old computer shit is literally part of my special interest so i have um. a Silly amount of emulators on my external hard drive. hopefully it works, i've had a hard time with emulators refusing to acknowledge my external cd drive before. ohh when i manage to find that hard drive so help me guy towers i am going to Get You. (and others, probably. because despite having compatibility modes for 95, this thing can't seem to launch anything pre-98. but mostly guy.)

I'm glad I was able to help! (I was barely more than rubberducking so I won't take too much credit)

I'm able to get Vol. 1, XL (yeah they're seperate files in DOSBox despite being almost the same game), Sports, Vol. 2, Movies, TV, and Vol. 3 to work through DOSBox; Headrush, The Ride, Offline, and L!F!F! work on their own; I'm still messing with 5th Dementia but CAN get unmucky audio through the current emulator I'm using, and I still do not have Fools Gold or UK. One day.

[nhaneh]

also ye gods I wish information on how to properly reverse-engineer old 16-bit DOS executables. The tools I've seen people recommending have all so far made a bit of a mess of it.

Feel like the DOSBOX debug build should let you halt execution whenever, browse the in-use memory and step through instructions one at a time - heck maybe that's something it already can do and I just don't know how

[wratts]

I, a game designer and fiction writer and retro game enthusiast, once sat down and taught a handful of scientists how to use DOSBox.

For those not in the savvy: DOSBox is a little piece of software that emulates MS-DOS on modern machines. It is frequently used to play old computer games from the 1980s and 1990s, because there’s no other way to get them to run correctly on current Windows machines.

Anyway, these scientists needed to learn how to use DOSBox because they were still working with software that could only run on MS-DOS. The software in question was used to run probability simulations for risk assessment and risk management in energy and infrastructure safety. Nobody had ever bothered to make a better or newer version of this software because it was so niche and the developer had already passed away, but the scientists in question worked for governments and this program was used in risk assessment calculations.

This was back in 2015. I’m pretty sure they’re still working with this.

Let that sink in for a moment.

I wonder if there’s room for a startup whose business model is purely centered around porting old software and abandonware to modern machines. I don’t know if they could make a killing on this, but they would definitely have some interesting work cut out for them.

abandonware should be public domain. force companies to actively support and provide products if they don't wanna lose the rights to them

[jeramewrites2]

Complaining again

I really do hate all versions of word processors that are available. UGH I don’t even like arial anymore. But this is the closest I can get to what I want…. Fuck me What I want is to be typing on my parent’s old 386. But that would be the only thing I would use it for. And then after I was done what would I do? Use a dot matrix printer to print it all out to digitize it??? I mean it sounds awesome… if I was single and had the money and time to do that.

Then again I wonder if this is another way of just putting off the hard work of editing. I mean shoveling shit onto a page is the easy part. Anyone can sit down and bang out a few unconnected words and call it a story but to actually sit down and think and plan and create a world and narrative that is inventive and enjoyable. That takes talent. Possibly something I have or maybe not. I just spent an hour or two trying to get WordStar working on dosbox. If you don’t know what that is. Don’t worry about it. Its not worth trying to figure it out. I was just sitting there thinking to myself. I am going to get this working and then never fucking use it. Cause that is how it works. You focus on the tools instead of the thing you say you want to do. It has to be perfect for the words to come. It doesn’t you just have to sit down and do the work. That is the real hard part. The program or app is not the issue. The issue is having something to say and an audience in mind. 

As far as that question goes. I think I have figured out the audience part. I am no longer thinking about writing for other people. I am writing to explain it to myself. I have always been stymied in writing because I was thinking about what am I going to say to someone else? I don’t have advice to give to anyone. But If I am just trying to explain it to me then maybe someone else might get something out of it too. This will take the pressure off. This way I can just sit and write and be happy. 

[gaykarstaagforever]

How the fuck do I get this stupid game to run via DOSBox?

"Use a flatpak to run the container."

...You know what? Changed my mind.

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 83

Well, here we are again ladies and gentlemen back at the blog stuff regarding my ongoing Linux experience.

Well since we last spoke I am afraid I had to retire my Dell Inspiron M6800 (Mangelwurzel) as the sound card finally decided to give up. So that meant the touchpad, the sound card and the top pair of memory sockets had stopped working so it had to go.

I have recovered the two 480GB SSDs that it had so I can reuse them in another project should the time come for it. However when one machine exits stage right to the farm. Luck would have it I managed to get a new laptop.

The machine admittedly is another Dell laptop but this one is new. The machine in question is a Dell Inspiron 3525. It's a 15.6” laptop with a Ryzen 7 5200U with 16GB RAM, an Integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics card, and a 1TB NVME drive.

Sure enough for the first 2 hours of its new existence, it did have a copy of Windows 11 Home (stop spitting at the back there). However, after a bit of learning how to get around the BIOS, I managed to install Endeavour OS Galileo (the latest version).

As I had an AMD graphics card (even if it’s integrated) I decided to run KDE Plasma (in the past I have ran MATE but I thought I would change it up).

Now for the first few days, I was running just the basic setup but when I installed Steam only a few games would start. Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Starbound worked fine as they, I believe use Open GL. However, when I tried to run a game using Proton there was no dice as Vulkan was not listed.

I had to install the version of MESA with Vulkan from the extras and then I could get Untitled Goose Game to run including picking up my XBOX 360-style gamepad. However Path of Exile and Pacman Championship Edition 2 both threw errors running Linux native versions.

However, I then turned on Proton usage, and using the Windows versions both games worked without error. Strange but I am not going to argue they work and I am not going to question beyond that.

For some reason they work if it’s through DXVK but not through the actual Linux Vulkan driver go figure that. Considering I can now play them both fine I am not going to fight it.

Parkitect 1.9a works fine through Wine as it’s a GOG game version I am using.

I admit while I am not a huge game player it’s nice to see them in action.

I have also installed and tested various emulators the list includes Fuse (ZX Spectrum), VICE (c64), Caprice32 (Amstrad CPC), Atari800 (Atari 8 bit), and DOSBox-X (MSDOS). I will probably test a few more in time but all successful so far.

I even did my usual build of GDASH and it works fine. So I can play various incarnations of Boulder Dash should I ever feel so.

Set up OBS Studio, KDEnlive, VLC, Audacity, and more so it can be used to create videos or podcasts should the decision take me.

Also, Cairo-Dock is my choice of on-screen dock as it has been for many years. It’s pretty reliable and I can set it up pretty quickly now.

I have also installed some productivity apps in the form of LibreOffice, RedNotebook, Obsidian, and Focuswriter. I also installed InMyDiary via Wine as the Windows version is the most up-to-date one (I like Lotus Organiser and it looks/works the same).

So it has been running for over a week and I admit I am impressed with its capabilities.

However, it does seem the world of Linux is looking to dump X11 in favour of the Wayland compositor. Now on Mangelwurzel, I could not use Wayland as Nouveau could not run it.

But this new Dell (currently named Parsnip but could be subject to change) has a better graphics card and I have installed the version of KDE Plasma Wayland also.

So I can log out of X11 and switch to Wayland if necessary. It works and I admit speed-wise, it's slightly faster at program opening than X11, but Cairo Dock doesn’t support Wayland just yet.

However, I did manage to get a dock in the form of Latte Dock and it does work fine.

However Steam doesn’t like Wayland it works but man is slow and problematic so at this time I still have the system boot into X11 and change up to Wayland should I need it.

So where do I go with this new Dell laptop so far it has performed more than adequately. Also, EndeavourOS once again proves to be my preferred Linux flavour and I won’t be going back to a stable (Debian, Mint, Ubuntu) environment anytime soon unless forced.

Well, that’s a wrap for the moment… In turn, I will probably install MAME and maybe play with QEMU but that’s for the next episode should I get around to it.

Until next time… Take care.

[pigspeetsandhooflikefeets]

here to inform you of a tragedy in the Guy Towers Fandom (Population of 4). i got a new computer a while back, and i just today popped my copy of sports into my external disc reader and when i went to run the setup i got the "This app can't run on your pc" message and i straight up almost cried/hj. one guy enjoyer to another how do i cope. i'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms. i have tried compatibility layers i have tried everything. currently biting scratching clawing to get my old computer back. they banished him from me. a world without guy towers is a cruel one indeed

anon I am soooo sorry! 😭if it makes you feel less alone, we had a power outage in 2021 for over a week and I was genuinely feeling so low just from not playing YDKJ that I watched a youtube video of someone playing just to hear his voice again. this was before I was longterm compiling audio, so I didn't have any on me to listen at any time (as well as yknow. power outage) fun fact I shared this story in my Sports Literature class and my teacher said he gets it (thanks king) I also carried my Sports CD with me in my bag to every class just in case anyone asked and also. I'm in deep

the thing I use to work my ydkj games is DOSBox but I'm sure you've tried that I really hope something works... you deserve Guy. I will post some more Guy from my folder (I just organized all my audio to be divided by host and easier to look at) in solidarity

[zarla-s]

Might as well throw out some of mine in the spirit of things. I have SO MUCH music that it'd be impossible to narrow down any, so instead here's a list of songs that I have already been told to skip when in the car. I love all of these with 100% sincerity and listen to them regularly.

Everything You Know Is Wrong - The second Weird Al started singing my dad skipped it and gave me a look.

We're Off To See The World - My mom borrowed my car once and I left a CD in the player with this on it and when she brought it back she was like "you have a chipmunks song on your cd??? for real??? why would you do that?????"

DDR Mario Mix - Jump! Jump! Jump! - Had this described as "rabid mice are clawing at my eardrums"

Baker Street (alternative mix) - My mom didn't ask me to skip this but she did sit there quietly and lament why someone would do something like this to such a pretty song.

Yoshi's Island "2001 Elastic New Year" OC Remix - Got asked to skip this one because the high pitched synth was actually hurting someone in the car.

spelunker tears you up - Even my brother who played a LOT of Spelunker was like alright, that's enough of that after a bit.

Source Racing - This one is so short they didn't actually have a chance to ask, they just went "what the hell is this" and then "what the hell was that" when it ended

Rosella Plays the Organ - Another very short one, I mostly got asked why I had something like this on a CD. BECAUSE IT'S GREAT.

Old Joe Clark - "This is a joke right? You have to be joking." (I'M NOT, I LOVE THIS SONG)

Peach, Plum, Pear - Me and my brother were grooving to it, my mom in the back did not approve and asked to skip it ("why does she sound like that??")

Cosmic Gate - Somewhere Over The Rainbow - "Agh, her voice is crawling on my spine"

GOT MY PONY SPAM FOR YOU - "Absolutely not."

It's a Small World ~Ducking Hardcore Mix~ - "Do you have ANY normal music?"

Shining Coral - Personally I don't think this is that annoying, the person I was with just didn't really like smooth jazz and said it was making them sleepy.

Droids-B-Us - "What is this" "It's the Droids-B-Us theme from Space Quest 1 VGA, remember? I liked how it sounded with the Soundblaster more than the other version I have so I ripped this one myself with DOSbox." "Oh. Okay. Can we listen to something else?"

Together Forever (The Cyber Pet Song) - Got asked to skip this because the way she pronounced "tamagotchi" was driving them crazy (which, fair).

Lady, be BAD! - This is a bit of an outlier because it wasn't in the car, I was just singing along to it outloud and someone actually came in from another room to tell me to stop because it was annoying.

The “I’m not stuck in here with you, you’re stuck in here with me” challenge

Make a playlist of the worst and most annoying songs you have. Downloading new songs for this challenge doesn’t count, these have to be songs you already have and listen to regularly. Novelty songs that are meant to be annoying or terrible also don’t count (The Most Unwanted Song, Markie’s Diary, deliberately bad singing, etc.). Something like Dancemania Christmas Speed counts although it should be broken into individual tracks for maximum shuffle potential. Nothing longer than 5 minutes.

Get in a car with a bunch of people.

Get the aux cord.

Start your playlist on shuffle.

The first person to skip a song or ask to skip a song loses. If someone else is also playing, you then switch to their awful playlist.

Alternate endurance mode:

Each song successfully played through earns the listeners a point. 

The first person to skip a song or ask to skip a song loses a point.

The game lasts until you get to where you’re going. The person with the most points at the end wins. If it’s a tie then… idk, congratulate each other.

What would you put on your playlist? 👀  If you play this game with me you will almost certainly lose btw.

[autolenaphilia]

It's remarkable how easy Linux Mint is to use, compared to Linux's general forbidding reputation. It was really easy to set up for me who has no coding knowledge. I had to fiddle with the boot order in my BIOS a bit but no biggie. Follow the installation guide on the website, and you will be fine. You can boot from an USB too, and test out the OS before installing it and wiping your drive. Transfer data to an external drive before you do.

And you probably won't have much trouble once it is installed either. The default settings are reasonable, and can be changed. It's a very easy to use OS. I have had no problems doing most of the ordinary things I use an OS for. My most used programs on Windows was already things like Firefox, VLC media player and Libreoffice on windows, and they function just as fine on Linux Mint (and are indeed installed by default).

Gaming has given me some trouble, but honestly Lutris has solved most of them. Granted I run mostly so old games on this laptop that Scummvm and dosbox is a solution for many of them. And installing 32 bit libraries has solved others (running the command in this link in the terminal solved so many issues alone). I play very old games, if you can't tell.

Sure, part of how Mint is so user-friendly is that it imitates Windows graphical user interface. But to be honest, it does mean users coming from Windows are already used to the interface. And Mint imitates only the parts of it that work, like the taskbar. And Microsoft has had a bad habit of making the gui look like a phone or a tablet for years now, so Mint does a Windows-like gui better than Windows at this point.

Mint is better than Windows in being a user-friendly operating system in general. Windows being spyware and full of bloatware is well-known and LInux gets away from that bullshit. And just how polite MInt is about updates is a massive improvement. No forced reboots here while an update takes ages to install.

Mint is a long-term support distro, which means it focuses on stability over the latest updates to packages and programs, introducing updates not when they are first released, but after a while when any bugs have been ironed out. And that improves the OS's stability a lot, which I value over getting bleeding edge updates. If you want updates as soon as they happen, and are willing to tinker a bit to fix things, there are other distros which use a rolling-release model.

It is less demanding on the hardware without compromising functionality. Like the majority of Linux distros takes up way less space on the drive and less memory compared to Windows, you can get more life out of an old computer this way.

There are so many older computers that still function fine hardware-wise, but since the specs on that hardware are too weak to switch to a newer more-resource hungry version of Windows, the machines are abandoned because the OS ends up unsupported and unsafe to use. Windows 10 support is going to end in 2025, it might be extended, but the end of w10 support is going to be a blood bath for this very reason. So many computers can't meet the specs for Windows 11 that the switch will be painful. And I would urge you if you are affected by this to upgrade to a LInux distro instead of getting a new computer just for windows 11.