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Announcing Cooperative Linux
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."
Hardly. This is a very interesting and useful project, with rather deeper implications for virtual server operation. Rather than requiring a pile of specialized code to emulate a machine, you just give the other OS a little private corner of its own, allowing the host OS to give it resources whenever they're avaliable (and how nice it is about giving those resources is easy to manage). Presto, huge performance increase.
It'd be a slow day if we saw, say, another article about SCO, an article about Microsoft 'blocking spam', some nostalgic whining about lack of innovation in games, a few drab articles about nothing in particular...
Kind of like yesterday.
This flies in the face of science.
for linux noobs like me, this is greeat news ! this will allow me to run a distro at work where xp boot is obliged. i hope they come up with an installation tutorial & extensive documentation soon (no docs for now on th website)
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
...just got a whole lot less useful. ;)
"Give away the stone, let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and faded anchor." - Maynard James Keenan
Ideally, people would be running Windows on top of Linux. Otherwise, eventually we will have Linux... requires Windows Longhorn or higher on newer computers.
I saw this on LKML about an hour ago, and it interested me then.
What I am wondering about is quite how stable it is possible to get something like this.
We all know how Windows assumes it is the only OS installed, when dealing with things like disk partitions, MBR's etc. How does the Windows NT kernel like sharing Ring 0 with Linux?
Overall this is an excellent innovation for Linux to move forward. I suppose you could chart the increase of Linux "market share" as follows.
1.) Linus and his friends
2.) Early Distributions
3.) Redhat makes inroads
4.) Live CD's (Knoppix et al)
5.) CoLinux
You have gone from experimental boxes only, to dual booting to Live CD's to try Linux out (very slow...)
If this can come close to Linux alone in speed, then this is a major step forward.
No more lengthy installs with dual booting etc.
If a linux fan wants to show a Windows user what its all about then they can hopefully download one EXE and go.
Pity I haven't got a windows partition so I can test it.
Great All the bugs of windows, and the Linux User Interface. jebus sometimes we should not ask 'can I' but rather 'should I'.
Why this does seem quite cool I want to offer a warning before you go and install this on your non-backed up mission critical server.
Many projects have attempted to achieve this goal. It's taken quite a bit of time so far. This project has taken a short cut though by simply letting the Windows kernel and Linux kernel run side-by-side in kernel mode. Traditional approaches don't allow this.
That's because if anything goes wrong in the Windows kernel, you risk trashing your Linux kernel the same applies for the Linux kernel trashing the Windows kernel.
Before you go and so Linux never crashes or Windows never crashes, what you're relying on is that this particular project has enough of an understanding of both kernels that they can cover every circumstance where there would be a negative interaction.
I'm not saying this can't work, I'm just saying I'd be very careful about running it on anything I cared about.
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
Well it is early days, and the success of projects such as these depends on community participation. For example it probably needs some volunteers for the documentation.
The Windows user interface may not be perfect, but I frankly think that it is in many ways better than most if not all open source GUIs. This is not saying that there never will be a better open source GUI. This is also not saying that there are many flaws in the Windows GUI. I'm just saying that Microsoft has, in fact, invested considerible time, effort, and money (more or less) in making a decent, adequately consistent user interface. I have been amazed by developments over the last few years as far as with KDE and Gnome interfaces, but they still leave much to be desired. Most of what is missing is not just in how a window border looks or how many buttons are present, but actual functionality. Perhaps the one thing Windows does much better than Linux is graphical file management. Windows/Internet Explorer provides a reasonable interface to manage files, get previews, sort, find, etc. KDE and Gnome both try to provide these same services, but they are for the most part half baked. I know that a lot of people are working hard on this stuff, and it gets better everyday, but let's not just call open source GUI better than Microsoft GUI without actually thinking about it. It's fine to be loyal to something, but don't make claims unless they can be backed.
I am feeling fat and sassy
What?
The power of this is that it will allow people to try and experience linux without complicated duel-booting or format/installing.
More and more people started using linux when bootable stand-alone versions were developed. This will support this boost many times over.
Think about it. Hack kiddies hear that linux is the way to go. They install it over/within windows... and god forbid, actually realize that linux is a great tool. When I was growing up, I had to limp along with my OS-of-the-day box while my dad was protective of his little system. With this system, future linux kiddies and parents can live in harmony.
If people believe that they can do their daily activities with their linux programs, then a proportion of these will dump the windows portion to get the performance boost.
This allows users to ease into linux.
Brillant.
AC
This is great for Linux people who are stuck at companies where everybody is required to run Windows on their PC... they can just boot Windows, double click the "Cooperative Linux" icon, maximize the Linux window, and forget about Microsoft for the rest of the day :^)
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
What is it that you need have Linux for that you can't already compile yourself?
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
It's closer to VMware then it is to cygwin.
Browse at -1, because trolls are often the most creative part of
I think the promise of this approach may strech beyond people trying out Linux to helping people install Linux alongside Windows. I can imagine a new Linux install process that doesn't require booting from a disk or CD. Instead you download a giant executable which starts a coLinux system. Once it is running it can cooperate with part of the installer still running as a Windows process to resize the main Windows partition, create a Linux partition, and install Linux there. (I think it's possible in Windows to resize an NTFS partition online, correct me if I'm wrong though...) It could also take network and other hardware settings directly from the running Windows installation. After it's done, it could simply install its own bootloader, and then reinitialize all the devices and take over the system. That would be really cool.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}