WSL 2
It's time, for boinc projects, to abandon virtualbox??

Virtualbox doesn't just run on Windows, but also on Mac OS and Linux. And what about older Windows versions that don't have wsl?

---

Virtualbox doesn't just run on Windows, but also on Mac OS and Linux.

I cannot understand why use Vb linux on linux machine. But it's my limit.

And what about older Windows versions that don't have wsl?

Whit 1 billion of Win10 machines, seems not a big problem.

I think it's a big step for vm use in boinc environment. IMHO.

I cannot understand why use Vb linux on linux machine. But it's my limit.

Projects send out a VM with (preferably) Scientific Linux or another stripped of non-essential parts Linux, which they build the applications on that run in the VM. This so the user doesn't have to add all kinds of libraries to be compatible.

Whit 1 billion of Win10 machines, seems not a big problem.

A couple of things.
Sales show 1 billion copies of Windows 10 sold, doesn't mean they all run. For instance, I have 5 copies lying around here, only two of which I use.
Windows 7 still has about 200 million users in the USA alone. Windows 8/8.1 still around 50 million. Even if BOINC had just 1% of those numbers, we'd be cutting off a lot of potential users just by stating they need a Windows 10 requirement because of WSL2 support for just two or three projects. That's not worth it.

BOINC supports Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, as long as they're using 64bit versions.

CERN, in particular, have invested a lot of effort over more than 10 years in developing a VM image which can communicate direct with the CERN servers in one direction, and can also communicate with the BOINC client on your machine, and hence with BOINC Manager, to keep you up-to-date with what's going on. VMs don't usually communicate with software running on the host machine, so that was non-trivial.

You can suggest a change of platform to CERN, but I think you might find that they need some heavyweight persuading to change from a known open-source solution to a very recent arrival on the commercial scene.

Edit - much of my knowledge on this subject comes from hearing Ben Segal's talk at the 2010 BOINC Workshop in London, England and talking with him afterwards.

See also BOF on VM applications

Even if BOINC had just 1% of those numbers, we'd be cutting off a lot of potential users just by stating they need a Windows 10 requirement because of WSL2 support for just two or three projects. That's not worth it.

Ok, i understand. Maybe i'm too much tranchant to propose the complete drop of VirtualBox.
But starting to analyze this possibility, for me, it's important.

BOINC supports Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, as long as they're using 64bit versions.

Still Vista?? :-O

CERN, in particular, have invested a lot of effort over more than 10 years in developing a VM image which can communicate direct with the CERN servers in one direction, and can also communicate with the BOINC client on your machine, and hence with BOINC Manager, to keep you up-to-date with what's going on. VMs don't usually communicate with software running on the host machine, so that was non-trivial.

As i said, may be i'm too hasty.
But, i repeat, take a look on this could be interesting

But, i repeat, take a look on this could be interesting

Seems something related to gpgpu, not games

There is a single usecase for this: WSL2 developer who wants to run
machine learning on his GPU. The developer is working on his laptop,
which is running Windows and that laptop has a single GPU that Windows
is using.

Since the GPU is being used by Windows, we can't assign it directly to
the Linux guest, but instead we can use GPU Partitioning to give the
guest access to the GPU. This means that the guest needs to be able to
"speak" DX12, which is why we pulled DX12 into Linux.