Got inspired by @microwerx installing MacOS 7.6.x in Basilisk II (emulator for 68k macs)... I decided to sit down tonight and setup my Microsoft Surface Go laptop as a dedicated 68k Mac emu machine.
Since I will be using the Surface go as a purely MacOS laptop... I decided to run a little experiment to see which "Host OS" provides a better experience: Linux (Debian) or Windows 10.
I'm not really a "Windows Guy", but I was curious which OS would handle running Basilisk II (the emulator) better. Speed, stability, features, and battery usage.
So I installed Windows 10 on the Surface Go (was previously a pretty dorked up Fedora installation) and tossed on a copy of Basilisk II.
Emulating a 68040 Mac with 64 MB of RAM. Two HFS drive images.
Running MacOS 8.1. Which is the last 68k MacOS.
You'll note a "This PC" icon on the desktop. That lets me have direct access to the entire "C: drive" of the Windows host. The same feature is available on the Linux version of Basilisk II... but they call it "UNIX Root" instead of "This PC". Same idea... full host file system access. Makes moving files back and forth easy.
So far the speed of the emulated 68040 Mac on the Surface Go is smooth as butter. Fast and responsive. I'm going to put on a few benchmarking tools and run some battery life tests.
Then, maybe later this weekend, I'll back up the Basilisk II drive images... install Debian on the Surface Go (or maybe Ubuntu or Fedora)... and run the exact same tests.
Which ever host works better... that's what I'll go with. Host will boot up, auto log in, and launch Basilisk. Making this, essentially, a Mac laptop. Sorta. At least that's how it'll hopefully feel.
If both Windows and Linux work roughly the same (which is what I am somewhat expecting) I'll just go with Linux. Just cuz.