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Announcing Cooperative Linux

Posted by timothy on from the it's-real-friendly-like dept.

evilmf writes "Well... I was on my daily "relaxing" read of the LKML when I've found an interesting announce about "Cooperative Linux", in this message from Dan Aloni. It allows you to run Linux on an unmodified Win2000/XP system, just launching another app. Dan says that Cooperative Linux is 'is stable enough (on some common hardware configurations) for running a fully functional KNOPPIX/Debian system on Windows,' and provides some screenshots in the project homepage."

6 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. This is quite possibly the greatest thing 2 happen by pardasaniman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Way back when I wanted to try linux. (now 2-3 years ago) I searched far and away to find this ability, because my dad would have gone bonkers should I have installed/booted another OS.

    I get the question quite alot. "Can linux run in Windows"... To which I must roll my eyes and explain that it's another OS.

    This is going to be very helpful in convincing people to run linux.

    I can just picture myself booting knoppix to make my (Anti-PowerPoint) presentations at school.

    Gr8 Stuff!

  2. Unfourtuantely by Hal+The+Computer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well this is definitely Really Neat, after reading their homepage, I see that In its current condition, it allows us to run the KNOPPIX Japanese Edition on Windows. Unfourtunately as far as I can tell, that's all it can run without modification.
    Also, coLinux currently lacks documentation.
    If you don't speak Japenese, you might have some difficulties using this software to it's fullest.

    --

    int main(void){int x=01232;while(malloc(x));return x;}
  3. Re:Rootless? by Ianoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you notice, the X Server in use is actually Cygwin/XFree86 rather than something built in to this system. The actual system runs in console mode only, and thanks to the flexibility of X, allows apps run in the console to connect back to any X server running on the machine.

    The point is, if you can find a rootless X server for MS Windows, you can do so. The only one I'm aware of is eXceed (although I don't keep up with them because I have no need for them). It's commercial, but is usually cheaper or free through a university or college.

  4. Re:already been done before. by Ianoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Cygwin can't run a lot of Linux apps directly. Most of the time they need porting, because libraries are not the same. Both try to be POSIX complaint, but both aren't, so the work is usually fairly minimal, but it's still work to be done. CoLinux allows it to all happen transparently with no source code changes. As such, it's much more useful.

    Windows Services for UNIX also suffers from the same problem, it also tries to be POSIX complaint, but its POSIX defficiencies match neither Linux nor Cygwin.

  5. Re:Rootless? by dolmen.fr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Cygwin/XFree86 can be run rootless, and even using Windows as a WM for better integration.

    From the Cygwin bash prompt, launch:
    XWin -multiwindow &

    There is a startxwin.bat that does that and that is bundled with Cygwin/XFree86.

  6. Re:Different? by strags · · Score: 4, Informative

    My understanding (and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm mistaken!) is that cygwin provides a set of Win32 libraries that provide reimplementations of Linux functions that are necessary for a Linux app to run. Essentially, Cygwin is a platform that your app can be ported to (generally by simply recompiling), that happens to run under Windows.

    What we're talking about with coLinux is the ability to run native Linux binaries as is with no need for recompilation.