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A Virtualized Linux System For Windows

Posted by kdawson on from the bill-in-the-middle dept.

getupstandup1 writes "Ulteo today unveiled their Virtual Desktop (screenshots, download) which is a free, full Linux desktop that runs seamlessly on Windows. It's interesting because it's not running under Xen or VMWare, but instead uses the coLinux patch, which they claim allows the system to achieve 'great performance, close to a native installation on the PC.' No need to reboot the system anymore to switch from Windows to Linux." We discussed Ulteo when the Ubuntu-derived distro was announced a year back.

30 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. As opposed to... andLinux? by Briareos · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is it just me, or did this already exist? Doesn't sound that new to me...

    np: Saul Williams - Grippo (Saul Williams)

    --

    "I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole

    1. Re:As opposed to... andLinux? by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yep - and for a very long time, too.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:As opposed to... andLinux? by PhotoGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'll vouch for the underpinnings of andLinux and Ulteo, which is coLinux. I've been using it for years (an Ubuntu distro) and it's extremely solid, reliable, and efficient. It's a great way to have your Linux dev world near at hand, while needing a Windows box for other reasons. (In fact, I run my home PBX smoothly in a coLinux service on an XP PVR box.)

      I hear so little about coLinux, I feel like it's one of Linux's best kept secrets. It's cool that we're starting to see meta-distributions based upon it.

      --
      Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
    3. Re:As opposed to... andLinux? by redxxx · · Score: 4, Informative

      I believe you may have that backwards. I run andLinux, cause it is useful for certain stuff and I can't just run linux, and it is KDE. There is another xcf or something version.

      KDE in windows is going to be the better bet down the road for a lot of stuff, because you have to leap through fewer hoops with the filesystem, at least as far as most applications are concerned.

      It's kinda amazing being able to get an awful lot of stuff just running apt-get from a terminal, while inside XP. A real VM is far secure of course. Security decent hardware firewalls and no small amount of obscurity doesn't bother me too horible.

    4. Re:As opposed to... andLinux? by hedwards · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's kinda amazing being able to get an awful lot of stuff just running apt-get from a terminal, while inside XP. A real VM is far secure of course. Security decent hardware firewalls and no small amount of obscurity doesn't bother me too horible. I was trying to figure out what the point of this really is.

      Running Win apps on Linux is because there isn't a replacement for it or one that interoperates. Running Linux in a VM on Windows is good for things like security, but running Linux apps on Win just because, seems like an odd choice to me. Especially since one can get OO.org for Win, Firefox for win, Thunderbird for win, Gimp for win etc. Ok, so the last one is kind of cludgy. (Or it was last time I checked a few years ago, I'm sure it's much less so now)

      There probably are a few which don't have Win versions, but VMs can be had for free, if you're a home or non-commercial user.
    5. Re:As opposed to... andLinux? by andrikos · · Score: 4, Funny

      OO.org for Win, Firefox for win, Thunderbird for win, Gimp for win etc Did you mean OO FTW, Firefox FTW, Thunderbird FTW, Gimp FTW, etc?
    6. Re:As opposed to... andLinux? by loftyhauser · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm an engineer/professor, and I teach computational fluid dynamics. I develop, test and run numerical simulations on UNIX systems, but I require a Windows system (for applications, mostly). I've found that andLinux is great for developing the applications on my Windows system. I tend to use command line tools, mostly, which are a pain in the MS world. Have you ever tried building a UNIX makefile code on Windows? And cygwin just doesn't cut it (OpenMPI doesn't work).

  2. No 3d acceleration by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, unfortunately the video output is as snappy as VNC or VMWare. Virtualize the 3d graphics driver already.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  3. Now, more masculine! by Champ · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm going to have to look into their "application balls" -- the applications I have now are all effete and neutered.

    1. Re:Now, more masculine! by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Funny

      Their application balls just don't appeal to me. Personally, their system tray vagina sounds like something I'd prefer, even if it's not all that pretty.

    2. Re:Now, more masculine! by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 4, Funny

      That sir, is the most disturbing thing I've heard today. My hat is off to you.

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
  4. Near native performance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's interesting because it's not running under Xen or VMWare, but instead uses the coLinux patch, which they claim allows the system to achieve 'great performance, close to a native installation on the PC.' Doesn't VMWare (and most modern virtualization programs for that matter) run near native already? All the new major processors have the virtualization extensions built in. (I didn't mention Xen because it doesn't run on Windows)

    In fact, wiki has a list. Look under the "Guest OS speed relative to Host OS" column: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_virtual_machines#More_Details

    Most are native or near native.
  5. Re:I Spend Three Weeks.. by mwolfe38 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm not sure which is worse, trying to get ubuntu installed through virtual pc or relying on slashdot for all of your technology advice.

  6. Re:Just wondering by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Funny

    Linuces. The 'x' is only the nominative singular form, for everything else you use c + ending.

  7. Can it use your 3d card? stuff on the usb ports? by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can it use your 3d card? stuff on the usb ports? firewire? other add in cards?

  8. Re:But... by HappySmileMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope so, Firefox now works great in Wine, so I can run Firefox in Wine, on Linux, on Windows, and if I have that copy of windows running in a virtual machine on my MacBook I'll be a god.

  9. Re:I Spend Three Weeks.. by secolactico · · Score: 5, Funny

    Indeed. Everybody knows that we come to slashdot for legal and romantic advice.

    --
    No sig
  10. Worst of both worlds by HangingChad · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why on earth would anyone want to run Linux on a Windows box? That's like building your house on a dung hill.

    Though I suppose it comes in handy for accessing those Linux only web sites. ;)

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:Worst of both worlds by Vectronic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But... isnt a house on a dung hill, better than just standing on a dung hill by itself?

      Especially since, you can make the air seem a little more fresh with freshners, take a shower, get out of the sun, etc.

  11. Re:Just wondering by _KiTA_ · · Score: 4, Funny

    index => indices
    linux => linuces
    I think I prefer the incorrect Linuxen, if only because I can then imagine giant penguins being used as cattle.

    I would include a sound effect (i.e., Mooooo~) here, but I have no idea what kinda sound effect Penguins do. Perhaps...

    SEGFAUUUUUUUUT~~~~
  12. Re:Just wondering by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 5, Funny

    In fact, indexes is listed prior to indices, which suggests that it is the preferred spelling.

    Either that, or that the dictionary is in alphabetic order, as is the norm for dictionaries...

  13. Konami unavailable for comment by Dwedit · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Ulteo Logo looks like a dead ringer for Konami's old logo.
    I guess this means you need to press Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A to get the thing to boot properly?

  14. Re:Just wondering by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 4, Funny

    So Tux becomes Tuces? :D

  15. Re:Can it use your 3d card? stuff on the usb ports by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    In order: no, no, no, no.

    I've run colinux, it provides you a console and a virtual network interface and that's about it. The console has some slow graphics.

    The only one of those I know how to actually get you is to run Cygwin's OpenGL-equipped X server, and then use XDMCP to connect to your colinux VM.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  16. Linux on Windows by typhoonius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally, the stability and security of Windows with the application availability of Linux.

  17. Re:I Spend Three Weeks.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    go to doctor and have your subpoena replaced by a normal sized poena.

  18. Re:Just wondering by AlexBirch · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're right, so your post is like fex, and when you post a second time you have feces.

  19. I don't know... by tehBoris · · Score: 5, Informative

    But isn't that project you linked more like Wubi?

    Instead of being a Windows port of the Linux kernel (yeah... weird) like and/coLinux is, it is a Windows based Linux installer, which stuffs the whole distro's file system into a single file in your Windows' partition.

  20. The Humorless Language Nazi Explains it All by fm6 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Whenever people hear a word that ends with "s" (or that sounds like it should), they assume that there's some silly grammatical rule that they need to know about. There is a rule, but it's so hard to follow, you shouldn't even try.

    Here's the rule: a lot of words that end with "-us" (not all of them! more on that in a moment) are borrowed from Latin. In that language, a noun ending with "-us" is a singluar form (dominus, lord; servus, slave) that takes a plural form ending in "-i" (domini, lords; servi, slaves). In theory, it's more "correct" to use foreign inflections with foreign words. So instead of "octopuses", "styluses", and "circuses", people say "octopi", "styli", and "circi".

    No, wait, nobody says "circi", do they? It's the "correct" usage, because it's a Latin word, but the established usage is "circuses".

    The other examples I gave are commonly used, but are in no sense "correct". "Octopus" does not come from Latin: it's a Greek word, and the Greek plural is "octopods". "Stylus" is Latin, but it's misspelled Latin: the Romans spelled it "stilus". It got changed to "stylus" because somebody thought it was somehow derived from the Greek word "stylos". But it's not, so the "correct" way to refer to that thing that comes with your PDA is "stilus" and "stili".

    But to heck with being "correct". It's the tar baby of the literate. Just use the rules you learned in grade school and be done with it.

  21. it was though... by samjam · · Score: 4, Funny

    it was though, a perfectly cromulent word.

    --
    blog.sam.liddicott.com