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New build of Serpent/UXP for XP! Test binary: Win32 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.8.win32-git-20260307-3219d2d-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z Win64 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.8.win64-git-20260307-3219d2d-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z source code that is comparable to my current working tree is available here: https://github.com/roytam1/UXP/commits/custom IA32 Win32 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.8.win32-git-20260307-3219d2d-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod-ia32.7z source code that is comparable to my current working tree is available here: https://github.com/roytam1/UXP/commits/ia32 NM28XP build: Win32 https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.7a1.win32-git-20260307-d849524bd-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z Win32 IA32 https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.7a1.win32-git-20260307-d849524bd-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod-ia32.7z Win32 SSE https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.7a1.win32-git-20260307-d849524bd-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod-sse.7z Win64 https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.7a1.win64-git-20260307-d849524bd-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z Win7+ x64 AVX2 https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.7a1.win64-git-20260307-d849524bd-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-w7plus-avx2.7z Official UXP changes picked since my last build: - Issue #2903 - Follow-up: Make types consistent with method used. (275947dbdb) - Issue #2551 - Implement ES2023 array.Prototype.toReversed() (0b605b4b7f) - Issue #2551 - toSorted followup to be 100% ECMA compliant (35a5dc9360) - No Issue - Fix clang builds on 32-bit ARM Linux. The clang integrated assembler can't handle these files. (825c1f4f81) - Issue #2957 - make WeakRefObject finalize on main thread (no background finalize) (2ea7b7945d) - Issue #2976 - Implement ES2018 Proxy `ownKeys` duplicate-key invariant and update affected conformance tests. (1abd7ebd10) No official Pale-Moon changes picked since my last build. No official Basilisk changes picked since my last build. Update Notice: - You may delete file named icudt*.dat and icu63.dll inside program folder when updating from old releases. * Notice: From now on, UXP rev will point to `custom` branch of my UXP repo instead of MCP UXP repo, while "official UXP changes" shows only `tracking` branch changes.

I may could help you just ask. I already passed by 100 firefox and its fine rust is greater problem: once I wanted to move to 57 but failed, sure I shall overcome later.

@Dietmar Please compile also 64-bit version driver for WinXP 64-bit Win7 and Win10 work OK if ME is Enabled but for WinXP ME need be Disabled Browsers do not work properly, but probably because I need to use modified hal.dll and intelppm.sys files. Same problem is in WinXP 64-bit: https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=477539#p477539 Yeaaa, after replace files from @Dietmar (ArrowLake.zip\FilesforArrowLakeXPSp3) browser works OK Now I wrote from AIMB over i219 card from WinXP SP2 32-bit

@reboot12 @Dietmar Wow! I'm so pleased to see this. I've been in some very long troubleshooting exercises on MSFN in the past myself, but never one as long as this one! I take my hat off to both of you for sticking with it and never giving up. Congratulations to you both. Cheers, Dave.

@Dietmar Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!! - WOOOOOORKS - Tested i219P0 but also work i219DRIVERXPSP3moreDevicesInf: Yes, you were right that it causes ME but ME Enable/Disable settings is hidden in BIOS. I need Disable like this: format USB in FAT32 then unpack archive ME_disable.zip to stick go to BIOS and set UEFI and Legacy option in Advanced > CSM Configuration > Boot option filter then press F4 to Save and Exit Setup while PC reboot, press Del, go to Save & Exit and boot select USB stick - UEFI: name your stick enter to USB stick - mine is fs2: then run sceefi64.efi /o /s settings.txt to save all available BIOS options to file settings.txt display the beginning of the file type settings.txt -b and check offset number for Setup Item Hidden - mine is 1330 // Script File Name : settings.txt // Created on 04/16/24 at 07:16:1 // Copyright (c)2018 American Megatrends, Inc. // AMISCE Utility. Ver 5.03.1115 HIICrc32= 76071511 Setup Question = System Language Token =07 // Do NOT change this line Offset =00 Width =02 Options =*[00]en-US Setup Question = Setup Item Hidden Token =08 // Do NOT change this line Offset =1330 Width =01 BIOS Default =[01]Enabled Options =*[01]Enabled // Move "*" to the desired Option [00]Disabled do it asw.efi 0x1330 0x0 to Disable Setup Item Hidden option then reboot PC e.g. using reset command after reboot go to BIOS using Del and now you have all available options in BIOS go to menu Advanced > PCH-FW Configuration > ME State and Disable it then press F4 to Save & Exit - PC maybe not reboot so force power off presssing and hold for some seconds Power button on case @Dietmar It turns out that sometimes the AMISCE application may not find the HII database in NVRAM - then you can obtain data this way: using UEFITool open bios.bin, search System Language string in Text tab select Unicode double click searched data: Unicode text "System Language" found in PE32 image section at offset ... right click on PE image section then select Extract body... and save to file setup.bin now using IFRExtractor-RS 1.5.1 extract settings from setup.bin to txt file: ifrextractor setup.bin tool extract data to file setup.bin.0.0.en-US.ifr.txt open file in WordPad then search string Setup Item Hidden and read VarOffset: 0x data - mine is 1330 OneOf Prompt: "Setup Item Hidden", Help: "Hidden Setup Item.", QuestionFlags: 0x10, QuestionId: 0x8, VarStoreId: 0x1, VarOffset: 0x1330, Flags: 0x10, Size: 8, Min: 0x0, Max: 0x1, Step: 0x0

New build of BOC/UXP for XP! Test binary: MailNews Win32 https://o.rthost.win/boc-uxp/mailnews.win32-20260307-40a79c75-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z BNavigator Win32 https://o.rthost.win/boc-uxp/bnavigator.win32-20260307-40a79c75-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z source repo (excluding UXP): https://github.com/roytam1/boc-uxp/tree/custom * Notice: the profile prefix (i.e. parent folder names) are also changed since 2020-08-15 build, you may rename their names before using new binaries when updating from builds before 2020-08-15. -- New build of HBL-UXP for XP! Test binary: IceDove-UXP(mail) https://o.rthost.win/hbl-uxp/icedove.win32-20260307-id-656ea98-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z IceApe-UXP(suite) https://o.rthost.win/hbl-uxp/iceape.win32-20260307-id-656ea98-ia-c642e3c-uxp-2a33ab0e2c-xpmod.7z source repo (excluding UXP): https://github.com/roytam1/icedove-uxp/tree/winbuild https://github.com/roytam1/iceape-uxp/tree/winbuild

https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1043/id/3269704

I mean like I want a guide with exact commands that I can blindly follow that has been recently tested so the chance of me doing anything wrong is practically 0. That's what I made the r3dfox build guide to be.

I think not, it has a very poor condvar stuff, even more than mizilla, it was about condvar from the beginning, I think best condvar for xp is chromes, I moved most on it on mypal cpp, except rust which is still on mozilla version. condvar is major core stuff at all Okey I shall make detailed instruction about this

Okey I had been blocked of some kind shitcha thus msfn.org was not let me in at all Now I see its gone Good So the new version 78.0.2 will be today, it will fix bugs and crashes of 78 0 and 1

So I have kept up with the messages in this thread via email, however I haven't taken the time to go here and reply until now. Since that was a while ago, I have a lot to reply to. Mostly on account of me either being busy at the time, not feeling like it, or forgetting that this thread exists here and that I needed to write a reply like this here. To be completely honest here, I had said there was going to be no r3dfox 133 in the past, and well there was no "r3dfox" 133. It also coincided with moving to a new codebase for the UI, so it also made sense to do it for that reason as well. I also wanted like a third branded browser separate from r3dfox and ESR, and I actually still use the Plasmafox build to this day as that third browser. I'm not sure why I didn't say this. Normally I check the commit history, and use that to make the release notes. Maybe I just didn't remember making any major changes and just skipped that process idk. I know the Firefox password system is weird, but that's not something I'd have touched here. I assume it was a browser bug, and being so long ago and no other report, I assume it was either a one-off thing or got resolved in upstream. I will say though in all my browsers that I use, I've never had this happen, Except in Chromium where it nukes your profile if you look at it wrong, but that's an entirely different engine. Same here. My PC is pretty good and modern because of pretty much just compiling. I got a 5950X when AM5 was out, and it was on discount for being last gen and old socket. GPU is nice to have for gaming, but like the realistic cap for me for a while will be a 3080 Ti/3090, and even then I had to downgrade to a 1080 from my 2080 Ti and that does fine for the games I want to play in the here and now. Outside of that it's just faster CPU for faster compile times and more RAM for more stuff open. My main phone is going to be 9 years old this year, and my main laptop is going to be 13 years old this year. Around 8 or so months ago I was using my laptop as my main machine and remoting into build machine to make r3dfox, and albeit a little slow, it served me completely fine for that time. I only went back to main so I could play BG3 at a smooth framerate with decent graphics. Maybe with the exception of maybe soon upgrading to a phone that is a few years newer (6 years old this year), I don't see myself replacing either with something new before I upgrade my PC again. Likely won't be until AM6 comes out and I upgrade to whatever the last AM5 16 core part is that year, and probably 96GB or 192GB RAM, and repeat for next socket. (Assuming I'm alive then and I have the money, both of which I'm not sure of how likely they are.) This is how the Eclipse website is designed, it looks nice in modern browsers, and it displays fine in even ancient browsers. Like the only major issues are old browsers don't grab the custom font, and there's not really a good fallback for the textbox background, so it's just overall lighter shaded. The only other downgrade I can name off the top of my head is the logo image requires a pretty recent browser to change on hover, not even Firefox 115 can do it. It uses the :has selector, and I don't know of any other way to implement it without using JS. I do want to port the website to an even older layout that will display the same from IE3 up to latest browsers, and I have the base framework done for it, but I just haven't ported all of the text into it. I might even make it smart and serve the legacy one for http and the modern one for https. The forum is similar, but the user interface might actually be better for older browsers, however it requires the user to manually switch to the legacy UI, I don't think automatic switching is possible. I really hate this method of checking the browser. Like all they give is a non-descript website is not going to work on this browser f*** you, and there's no obvious way to force it to load. I had to block the discourse script and do other workarounds for other sites when I was using Mypal68 as my main. For me, I'm not the most gentle, but I try not to be careless. I've had multiple parts break over multiple phones, and unless it was such an old phone where getting another used was more economical than getting the required parts, I've repaired my phones every time. I assume the problem here is phones have gotten harder to repair and parts are more expensive. I also have no idea where I would even go if I wanted someone other than me to repair a phone. Back to parts, I've never been able to take an OLED screen off of a phone without obliterating the screen, while my main LCD phone I went at with 0 heat and a razor blade and it was completely fine. On top of that, OLED screens are much more expensive, like 5x or more the price of older LCD phones, and it gets to the point where it's almost more worth it to get another or a newer phone even if used it's like $200+ because the screen costs that much. I would say the same for laptops, but that's a bit different and I've had like a bunch of sidegrades for xyz reasons. I had a MSI GS60-2QE with a 4820HQ and 970m, but I got tired of dealing with Optimus and two RAM slots, so I got HP 8770W with a 3630QM and upgraded it with 32GB and 980m, until the 980m died and that was a $250 part and I was tired of lugging the 8770W around and on top of that MSI decided f*** you you only get 4GB of available RAM, so I got a T430 and put the 3630QM in it, but then I got tired of Intel integrated graphics being barely able to run games, so I got a M4800 with a 4810MQ, and upgraded the GPU to a M2200 and display to a 1080p 120hz panel, and here I am now. I almost want to get a 8570W and transfer over the M2200 due to weird (I assume) BIOS related issues with the M4800, but the 8770W also had weird issues that I assume the 8570W would also have, and screen upgrade is rare to get the required parts or expensive, so eh. I'll just use this until the higher end P5x/P15 Gx Thinkpads become cheap and grab one of them. (P15G2 with A5000 is still $2k wtf) Meanwhile here, if I had the money, I literally don't know of any "new" phone or laptop that I would want to get. I'd just get what I've researched as myself wanting either because it's a better experience or just faster. The newest phone I'd want is 3 years old this year, and even then idk if I'd want to use it as main, and the P15G2 is 5 years old this year. As an American, this sounds so absurd. A lot of places here don't take $100 bills, but like that is it. A lot of places, even if they don't take $100 bills, give you a discount for paying with cash, or charge extra for using a card. It literally costs you more to use a credit card, and it costs them more to take a card payment rather than cash. What had happened was I had gotten the feeling that the website and repo may have had the possibility of being attacked and/or spammed, and I was very tired and wanted to sleep, so I just locked everything down so I could sleep. I think I either forgot or was too busy to think about reopening them though until I was already awake for a while though, which is why they were locked for like ~20 hours if I remember correctly. ... and I'll add Vista SP2 to the OS mix above ; yes, close to "stock" Firefox but with the ability to launch on older WinOSes! This is what most site admins expect, this is what most extension authors expect and target... I was never part of the "extreme web privacy" crowd to demand a change of route towards Librewolf (or similar forks); I understand a small portion of the LW code was needed to address a specific r3dfox technical issue, but that is different to incorporating large chunks of LW code "while we're at it" ... As if it wasn't enough to deal with Mozilla "breaking" things (and locking down the browser) with each major version update, an "average" r3dfox user has to deal with "r3dfox-specific" changes, too (ones that not always meet with said user's "approval") ... And my own words on DRM/EME: I found r3dfox maintainer's "obsession" about DRM simply "blown out of proportion"; he goes to extreme lengths to disable EME at buildtime, but the browser itself provides an easy way to disable EME at runtime, if one objects to it for whatever ideological reason... Let's face it; with Google practically owning the Web, they have leveraged the use of their own CDM (Widevine) in most media services, even the most obscure, but still free, ones... Yes, I totally understand the argument about "black-boxed code" etc., but DRM has become a necessary evil in the web era of 2025 and beyond... A lot of focus has been put on the VMP (Verified Media Path) requirement associated with the majority of the prominent/commercial DRM'ed Video+Audio services (e.g. Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, etc.) as a reason NOT to implement DRM on r3dfox (because VMP entails a very large sum of money, paid to Google, for certifying the browser for VMP purposes), but what about the rest of the lesser known services that don't impose VMP with DRM? Jody's example of https://www.cp24.com/now/ is such a case, there are many others... r3dfox originally started as mostly just Firefox but for 7/8, but then I wanted to make it so I had to change less to set the browser up for myself later, and then https://github.com/e3kskoy7wqk/Firefox-for-windows-7/ came to exist, and that fulfilled the idea better than I could have. So I started making the browser more in my image. I believe all the changes I make are beneficial for the normal user, and where realistic, I try to add options to change or revert new behavior or styling that I can see as being potentially unwanted in the settings. I would rather you use r3dfox since well it is my fork and I feel like I need a reason to exist ;-;, but like you don't have to. I've been kinda in the "extreme web privacy" crowd, but I run r3dfox announcing to every website that it is r3dfox which is a rare fork, so I definitely have a unique fingerprint, but I do all of this and run privacy extensions and tweaks idk why I'm like this. DRM being removed is part of the same reasoning, I don't use anything that uses DRM, and although they do exist, not many services work with non-VMP or give you a good experience with non-VMP Widevine. Since I'm not using it, I don't need the DRM and I feel easier about it if my browser comes with no closed source DRM at all, so I disable it. On the Eclipse forum, they've devised methods to re-enable DRM even after my changes, and that's probably the way to go if you want DRM in r3dfox rather than me having to ship it to everyone. So, they use different profile directories, and profiles are weird. I think just renaming the r3dfox profile directory to r3dfox ESR would be the best way to do it, but I'm not sure if that works, or if that still requires manual intervention in about:profiles to set the old profile as default. I just use portable and that accepts only one profile, and won't try to make a new profile. Also the browser should have the code to import settings from even IE6, but due to well not having an IE6 profile or the will to make one, I have no idea if it even works. It was basically only ever in the browser because it technically broke importing from more modern IE and it is technically related to 7 support. It's still in the browser because (I assume, I don't handle the base 7 support anymore) it has practically no maintenance cost, so it's like a why not. I don't know what to do here, I like the idea of including uBO by default, and if possible, I would like to make uninstalling it actually uninstall it and not have it come back. However as far as I know that's not possible. So when it comes to do I make both my experience in testing better (not dealing with ads in a fresh profile or take the time to manually install uBO), and make the experience of the layman who may not even know what uBO is better, vs not including uBO. I'm going to take the choice of including uBO. I don't know what to do here. I feel like a decent ad blocker is the bare minimum for a usable web experience. I don't know of any good way to add uBO on first run, but let the user uninstall it without editing policies.json. Unless there is some other way I just don't know what to do here. I feel like that would be just as time consuming as manually grabbing it, because I would have to manually replace the policies.json every time, and I'd have to keep a separate version of it up to date which I know I will forget to do. Also I would go about testing r3dfox, not grab uBO, see ads, get annoyed, then get uBO. I'd need to preemptively apply the uBO installing policies.json, which I also know I will forget to do. In that case, I'm not going to ship something I won't use. If uBO gets enshittified, I'll replace it with something else. The only way that scenario could play out is if "Poogle" or someone gave me millions to sell them my browser, something which nobody will ever pay millions for. If that somehow happened I'd see that as a no-brainer easy money, and I would still need a decent browser for myself, so I would just make a new fork, or even sit back and pay someone to develop it for me and continue there. (Or I guess it could happen if I die, r3dfox gets discontinued, and then enshittifed uBO, but in that case r3dfox will be outdated and something better will exist and you would probably just want to use that instead anyways.) I want the AI to replace me. When it gets to the point where AI can handle the process of making the browser and do a better job, maybe this could happen. I have no idea how it could work though, or if I will see hardware capable of hosting a local AI able to do all these steps within my lifetime. How I make r3dfox, is I import e3k's patches as commits into the next version branch, then I cherry-pick over the r3dfox changes. If a conflict is encountered, I check the commit to see what it's changing and what commit to the browser resulted in the conflict. If it's simple, I just adapt the old commit to the new code, or if it's complex I have to revert the bad commit. Which since I'm cherry-picking code over is a pain. I can't just cancel the cherry-pick there, cancelling it will revert all the applied commits, which may also include previously resolved conflicts. So I have to upload the changes, cancel the cherry-pick, which will go back to the previous branch I went to cherry pick from. (Also multiple times I've had the cherry-pick just silently fail mid-way through undoing everything I've done.) So I have to switch to the new branch, and then pull all those changes from the uploaded branch, then revert given commit because if I start by reverting the commit that will f*** up the tree and require merge, then go back to the previous branch, select the rest of the commits to cherry-pick over and continue. Then I have to go and test everything, and if I have an error, I have to dive into that and that's it's whole own thing depending on the component. Mozilla has been f****** with Brotli lately, and I was able to fix it before, but why the seemingly simple changes in 147 broke it to the point where I was unable to compile with it hurt my head so much that I just dropped the Brotli compressed omni.ja idea. Doing nightly means doing this process more often, and I just don't have that in me. Also even for like updating to point releases or updating the ESR which normally is easy just rebase current branch or pick the changes to new branch and build, except Mozilla has made breaking changes in 140 ESR twice in a row now, I just don't feel like doing it or running that on my PC at the time, so the builds get delayed. The long gaps between versions at times are because I just don't feel like I want to make a new build and I don't feel like it's worth it to force myself to update it yet. When was this? I did the Vista compatibility mostly on my own because I finally felt decent and I wanted to get closer to XP. Vista is an obvious target to get on the way, and it was pretty close, so I went for it. Also I don't think you can just write your way around the compiler. You would also need to replace the current compilers, something Mypal68 did. I never figured out how to set things up for Mypal68 to compile, so I have no idea how to make a similar setup for r3dfox. I feel like compiler would be the main starting point, and/or get one step closer to XP by attaining Vista RTM compatibility by either bringing back layers and/or removing the WebRender dependency on DWrite, and then getting GDI and/or Cairo mode to work and not be super unstable (may also be WebRender related). Now these are outside my current skillset and are open issues. Maybe I could figure something out finally out of sheer will sorta like how I got Vista support in the first place, but currently I feel like s*** and at this rate there's a higher chance of me blowing my own head off than things getting better enough for me to feel not like s***. So that's all the replies I have for you all. I'll try to reply to the thread more often rather than making one big post after a number of months in the future, but I have no idea how that will go.

New version 144 now testing.

New build of post-deprecated Serpent/moebius for XP! * Notice: This repo will not be built on regular schedule, and changes are experimental as usual. ** Current moebius patch level should be on par with 52.9, but some security patches can not be applied/ported due to source milestone differences between versions. Test binary: Win32 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk55-win32-git-20260307-f45a54760-xpmod.7z Win64 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk55-win64-git-20260307-f45a54760-xpmod.7z repo: https://github.com/roytam1/basilisk55 Repo changes: - import from UXP: Issue #2903 - Follow-up: Make types consistent with method used. (275947db) (956ca03a2) - import from UXP: Issue #2551 - Implement ES2023 array.Prototype.toReversed() (0b605b4b) (aa2afa845) - import from UXP: Issue #2551 - toSorted followup to be 100% ECMA compliant (35a5dc93) (1504eac13) - import from UXP: No Issue - Fix clang builds on 32-bit ARM Linux. The clang integrated assembler can't handle these files. (825c1f4f) (26bbb0139) - import from UXP: Issue #2957 - make WeakRefObject finalize on main thread (no background finalize) (2ea7b794) (fecb9d1f6) - ported from UXP: Issue #2976 - Implement ES2018 Proxy `ownKeys` duplicate-key invariant and update affected conformance tests. (1abd7ebd) (f45a54760)

MakeISO, this converts a wim into a bootable ISO. https://www.upload.ee/files/16521876/MakeISO.7z.html

Also, not as advanced, there was the "Processor Serial Number" from 1999-2000. It was removed, due to backlash; but later replaced with Protected Processor Identification Numbers. It is less specific (not your current user name and age), but CPU, mother board, BIOS, etc. finger printing has been around for awhile. Those, themselves, don't track you; and aren't useful, without remote access to your OS. The old conspiracy joke, from late Windows (win3x) adopters, was that Windows looked well suited as a way to break in "Like the windows in you house". This was more of a business type mindset; it didn't really apply to general public consumers, until Win9x. In the Win9x era, the issue "mostly" came from really insecurely designed retail machine/OS packages. Due to poor default configurations people would come home to a running "and Internet connected (dial-up)" PC, that they had left turned off. From my recollection, this didn't seem a common occurrence. As you could guess, since the machines were activated remotely, there were theories about government involvement. Alternatively, devious teenage hackers and hacker groups where also fingered, as likely culprits. In the broader community, these kind of issues arose from the consumer's use of the machine (still relevant today). This was related to hygiene in both Internet habbits and software choice (also still relevant today). Despite all of that, I still completely agree with EliraFriesnan. Hardware wise, 2005 is a good cut of date. I'm not concerned with Government entities finding out, what is one my machines.

Maybe a little more than "current" Windows. Linux is still track-able, and can be forensically (cyber) investigated. Really, your IP address, DNS activity, and used software, provides a lot of actionable information. Firefox and Chrome sell you out, where ever they are ran. Ubuntu even has telemetry. But it isn't direct evidence of "who" you are. But, work is starting to change that. I'm sure Microsoft also has a plan, to address the law, but I've not heard anything about it. If I remember correctly, there was a community grumble about WIFI device access. So, the "hackable" part there was losing ground. The idea was that the Linux kernel drivers would need to reference binary blobs (black box/closed source), for device access (enforced by law?). As for the rest of the routers functionality, I don't really know; aside for allowing you to install your own firewall and routing software. Likely wired devices are often open sourced drivers. But that doesn't mean the router is less track-able or useful for forensics. Unless we assume that all "closed source" router vendors are adding hidden functionallity, that Linux wouldn't come with. Linux may not even be free of "hidden" functionality, sitting right there in the open for all to see. It has "allegedly" happened to OpenBSD, at one time. And that is opensource code. The with the complexity of large code bases, its hard to say this isn't happening more often. Its not the same thing, but there is a developer "Lennart Poettering" who during his time working on Linux's systemd, also worked at Microsoft. There are some core components of Linux, to much the dismay of some, that have become more "Windows like" as a result of Poettering. RedHat (IBM) is very influential in how Linux is carried into the future. Much of their influence has moved Linux towards a more "corporate" friendly OS (systemd, udev, pulseaudo, pipewire, and wayland). Microsoft is actually a Platinum member of the Linux Foundation (along with many other large names). Most of the Linux people grumbling about this, are hobbyist that know Linux is becoming less useful (for their interests). Many are seeing the reasons they left Windows, showing up in Linux. Linux has been accepting binary blobs, in the the kernel, for quite sometime now. I honestly see Win98 as way more akin to a Ghost gun, than Linux.

My understanding "about ghost guns" are that they refer to 3D printed guns, that can't be tracked and also won't set of a metal detector. Preventative measures and crime investigation become weaker. Strengthening those things sounds good. Moving the goal post, of what it means to own a device "or software" you purchase, is a bad thing. I guess, there is always the old saying, "if you have nothing to hide, you should be okay with it". But it works like this: I may not "currently" be hiding anything you have an issue with. But when you've implemented all the controls that would rationally "prevent" and "protect", afterwards I will be subject to whatever you decide is rational; and I will have less "to no" recourse to do anything about it. Often the above logic is decried as supporting "not protecting" and "not preventing" what is important. But, considering the current state of the would, I don't think those two objects are the goal. All things considered, it seems like the real goal is enforcement of predictability; this for the sake of protecting power. If I was running a industrial production line, this is the exact control I would want. Like controlling the predictability of investment/returns, when growing industrialized chicken meat. The condition of the chickens life isn't relevant, nor hardly the quality of meat that comes from that chicken. What matters is what is important to me, at my level. I kinda think, at this point in the human management game, we are the chickens. But, that is a lot of personal conjecture. I just don't want Win9x to one day be considered a "ghost gun". For now, Win9x carries the advantage of not mattering "in the bigger picture". Who knows what will become of these laws, and how far they'll reach. May not really be an issue, in the end. But, it does match patterned modern trends.

Ghost Guns. I do understand the importance of keeping people safe, on both fronts. To me, it seems like neither front is the actual goal. They both seem like indirect aims, of a larger long term goal; and these two ideologies will be harder to reject (on the face of them, anyway). I've questioned this before, I wonder how long it will be before you can no longer connect to the Internet, using obsolete machines/software; at least without some in-between authorized secured device. I'm fine, without being able to access discord. But it would be nice if an old Win98 machine could talk to another Win98 machine, and not be considered nearing a line of terrorism (imagined future scenario).

I think the same state is passing "or has passed" a law that, a 3D printer must ask permission "from a remote authority" before it can print something for you. Altering the device comes with a legal repercussion, if caught. The "remote authority" needs to approve what it is you intend to print.

There is an issue there. The bigger issue is that, you have to verify your age "in some way" no matter how old you are. As a user, you'd be able to bypass things like this. But the services looking for the age "signal" would fail to support you; again, this all depends on how reliable the undefined verification works. A simple "if or else" can be bypassed. But when you think about bypassing a modern certificate, that's different. In this instance, its not just a case of backporting a certificate data base. It would be more like forging an identity, with less legal liability (for now anyway). This will "probably" eventually work like those anti-cheat systems, where the remote service needs to have administrative access to your machine.

yes. There are a few stragglers, running in "inside" their smart device; but that host network will probably sell them out.

On the first day of 2027, all Operating System vendors are required to implement age verification, when creating a user account. There will be fines up to $2500 per affected child for negligent violations (you just did get it implemented, for some reason), and $7500 per affected child for intentional violations (you intentionally didn't implement it). The information is cloudy, on how the verification will actually be required to work. They made everything clear enough, except for how the "verification" will work "outside" of the operating system. If you are interacting with the Internet, the O.S. will "signal" the outside world about age. The cloudy part, is how the age will be verified during account creation. It apparently includes Operating Systems like ReactOS, Haiku, Linux, Windows, Macos, and FreeDOS. I think FreeDOS/SvarDOS could skate by, if they discontinued their online package managers. Ubuntu and Debian Linux are already in talks about how to accomplish it. I guess MidnightBSD says they will just prompt California user's with a statement that they aren't allowed to user the O.S. in that state. Microsoft has all but already done this, anyway. It's basically like the Discord thing, but only at the Operating System level. Win9x is no-longer supported, so the post is a joke about how Win9x user are immune to the whole thing.

Now you got version 78.01, in case you were not following the repo. https://codeberg.org/Theodor2/Mypal68/releases

Thanks a lot for replying! Therefore the winner is @xpandvistafan ! Ok, just a joke. I assume it is caused definitely by VM (Microsoft!). I have seen these connections in @mina7601's screenshots some posts above too. She lets XP running in a VM either.