I can't say enough good things about QEMU. I run it together with KVM and pass through a dedicated GPU card and USB controllers to a Windows 10 virtual machine for basically bare metal performance. This is barely different from magic to me.
It looks like the advent calendar from 2018 had a new QEMU release on one day, so hope to see that again this year :-)
kristopolous
I've had it corrupt disk images. I know there's a complex system of tradeoffs you can choose from.
But I only discovered that while trying to restore a system I had improperly exited and completely hosed.
I wish the possibility (mouse like probability) of total destruction with the simple defaults was more I dunno, loud and obnoxious somehow.
These great technical achievements seem to share the usability patterns of handing you a knife when you were expecting a qtip
CarelessExpert
I couldn't agree more! Mix in libvirt and virt-manager (which, admittedly, are very warty in a lot of ways) and a little Spice and you get a full virtual server stack for the cost of exactly zero dollars.
sircastor
This looks really cool, but I hesitate.
Maybe I’m beings little paranoid, and I probably don’t understand how good the sandboxing of QEMU is, but am I the only one who thinks it’s a little dangerous to download and run a surprise virtual machine every day? I mean, no one would do this if it were a shell script, right?
t0astbread
I don't know how this is organized internally but these images are selected by "the QEMU community". I would assume if you trust QEMU (the program) then you can also trust these images.
Twirrim
QEMU powers clouds, and can be run KVM accelerated. You're safe. If you don't trust QEMU, stay well away from any cloud service.
pm215
Note though that QEMU's security boundary only covers running with KVM (see https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/security.html). So if you're running without KVM, ie using TCG emulation, you should either only run guest code that you reasonably trust to not be malicious, or run the whole QEMU itself in some kind of sandboxing.
Hello71
better than modern web browsers for sure. qemu guest escapes are mostly in rarely-used peripheral devices, most recently the floppy driver. for less-trusted guests you can simply disable such devices though.
if you say "but what about the defaults", look at the number of new web interfaces though: web audio, webgpu, webusb, webgl, html5 audio/video, several media decoding interfaces... all of them with new and exciting vulnerabilities, most can be disabled but enabled by default.
kangalioo
Wow, this is super cool, and also heart warming that they do such a nice thing! :)
JoachimS
I like the fact that the calendar ends on Christmas Eve, as it should.
varispeed(dead)
Is mixing tech and religion appropriate? At least it would be worth dropping the word "advent" and just do a surprise month?
dang
"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."
Christmas is hardly a religious holiday (or at least, one that celebrates a particular religion.) It was originally a pagan European celebration of the winter equinox, it got various traditions added to it (such as the yule log and Christmas tree) until eventually it was associated with the birth of Christ.
As is tradition, the American form adds its own ideas consistent with the national culture: submarine advertisement for coca cola, consumption that has a large affect on retail, and partisan politics.
KAMSPioneer
Not to be "that guy," but the celebration is of the winter /solstice/, not equinox. Just wanted to clear that up for anyone unfamiliar reading your post.
Also, I wasn't clear if you meant it this way, but the Yule Log was already a pagan tradition, and was not added by Christians but rather adopted by them.
Merry Solstice! :)
sanqui
The word advent alone doesn't have any religious connotations to me. Christmas itself is celebrated and enjoyed by many irreligious people worldwide.
joeberon
> Is mixing tech and religion appropriate?
Why wouldn't it be?
varispeed
Tech and science used to be safe spaces free from abusive ideologies and religion is a dumpster fire of manipulation techniques designed to enslave one's mind for profit of organisations that "own" particular religion. Place of religion is in one's home or designated space that is clearly marked that "religion is happening there". Many people were not subjected to abuse from religious organisations, so they tend to dismiss such concerns and be defensive (as they are manipulated into being as such)
stronglikedan
From what I've perceived, the anti-religion SJW types in the workplace cause more "unsafe spaces" than any of the religious people I've ever worked with. The latter barely ever share their beliefs with others (unless asked), while the former constantly push their toxic beliefs on everyone within earshot.
waterhouse
I agree... but, unfortunately, I suspect this is because of who currently holds cultural and institutional power, not because of anything inherent in the religions or ideologies in question. (There probably exist enclaves even today where religion is dominant, wherein literal holier-than-thou shaming of the less-than-totally-devout acts similarly to today's shaming by SJWs.)
Maybe someone will design a religion or ideology that would be resistant to being used for that kind of thing even if it becomes dominant. The fact that "tolerance" is such a central idea in social justice stuff, and yet here we are today, is evidence against this being possible... but I dunno, maybe there's an approach that would work. (Flying Spaghetti Monster? Some have said that humor—beyond "mocking the enemy"—is a good antidote to fanaticism.)
jojobas
Tech and science also used to be free from gatekeepers/cancellers of any kind. You want to have a QEMU Ramadan - fine. QEMU Darwin festival - awesome. Gosh, you could even have whitelists and slave processes.
swiley
IMO "science" has become its own ideology that is in practice orthogonal or even opposed to science.
funcDropShadow
Do you mean abusive idealogies like intersectionality and safe-spaceism?
cuillevel3
> Tech and science used to be safe spaces free from abusive ideologies
I don't think this is historically accurate. Such a time never existed.
harel
We wouldn't have Temple Os if that was the case. As a Jewish (by default/birth) very non religious person, I actually celebrate many traditions including Christmas. Not from a religious aspect, but from a party get together one. And having a tree that drops presents in you house is pretty awesome.
kashyapc
Coming from a different culture myself, I wasn't aware of concept of "Advent Calendar" until 2014 when the first QEMU Advent came out.
Think of the term "advent" as "the arrival of a notable person or thing" — in this case, it's a thing :-)
That said, I don't see any issue in using that term here. Even if one is not religious (I'm not), they might appreciate the cultural aspects of it. Furthermore, the Call for Images[1] clearly says this in the postscript:
"QEMU Advent Calendar is a secular calendar (not religious). The idea is to create a fun experience for the QEMU community which can be shared with everyone. You don’t need to celebrate Christmas or another religious festival to participate!"
Well denying people even the slightest reference to their culture is a sure way to get rid of those pesky open source people. Just punch them in the face until they leave.
dang
Please don't respond to flamebait by taking HN threads further into flamewar. That helps nothing, and only makes this place even worse.
https://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2018/
https://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2016/
https://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2014/
PS: See stefanha's post in this thread, if you want to contribute a disk image.
Edit: previously on HN at https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=17656299
https://www.qemu.org/2020/11/26/qemu-advent-announce/
It looks like the advent calendar from 2018 had a new QEMU release on one day, so hope to see that again this year :-)
But I only discovered that while trying to restore a system I had improperly exited and completely hosed.
I wish the possibility (mouse like probability) of total destruction with the simple defaults was more I dunno, loud and obnoxious somehow.
These great technical achievements seem to share the usability patterns of handing you a knife when you were expecting a qtip
Maybe I’m beings little paranoid, and I probably don’t understand how good the sandboxing of QEMU is, but am I the only one who thinks it’s a little dangerous to download and run a surprise virtual machine every day? I mean, no one would do this if it were a shell script, right?
if you say "but what about the defaults", look at the number of new web interfaces though: web audio, webgpu, webusb, webgl, html5 audio/video, several media decoding interfaces... all of them with new and exciting vulnerabilities, most can be disabled but enabled by default.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
As is tradition, the American form adds its own ideas consistent with the national culture: submarine advertisement for coca cola, consumption that has a large affect on retail, and partisan politics.
Also, I wasn't clear if you meant it this way, but the Yule Log was already a pagan tradition, and was not added by Christians but rather adopted by them.
Merry Solstice! :)
Why wouldn't it be?
Maybe someone will design a religion or ideology that would be resistant to being used for that kind of thing even if it becomes dominant. The fact that "tolerance" is such a central idea in social justice stuff, and yet here we are today, is evidence against this being possible... but I dunno, maybe there's an approach that would work. (Flying Spaghetti Monster? Some have said that humor—beyond "mocking the enemy"—is a good antidote to fanaticism.)
I don't think this is historically accurate. Such a time never existed.
Think of the term "advent" as "the arrival of a notable person or thing" — in this case, it's a thing :-)
That said, I don't see any issue in using that term here. Even if one is not religious (I'm not), they might appreciate the cultural aspects of it. Furthermore, the Call for Images[1] clearly says this in the postscript:
"QEMU Advent Calendar is a secular calendar (not religious). The idea is to create a fun experience for the QEMU community which can be shared with everyone. You don’t need to celebrate Christmas or another religious festival to participate!"
[1] https://www.qemu.org/2020/11/26/qemu-advent-announce/
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html