WinOS+QEMU+Knoppix 3.8 = WinKnoppix! 356
chronicon writes "As reported earlier Knoppix 3.8 was presented and CD's distributed at CeBIT recently. For those of us who were not able to attend, some kind folks have posted a torrent for all to enjoy.
Now, here's where it really gets interesting. Using QEMU (processor emulator) chris-uk has posted a modified version of Knoppix 3.8 that will run under Windows if auto-played, or if you wish, you can boot the CD for normal Knoppix. You can find the torrent here."
Woohoo a torrent! (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:Great, But... (Score:4, Insightful)
hope for good performance (Score:4, Insightful)
on top of qemu comes the fact, that the whole system runs from a cd, which by itself has bad seek times.
i hope that people won't get false implessions, because they will get that 'linux runs slower than windows' feeling.
Re:Great, But... (Score:5, Insightful)
It just removes one more hurdle. People aren't going to wipe out their system just because the local geek said "its ready for the desktop".
People need some proof that it really is better.
Login? Why?-is it illegal? (Score:1, Insightful)
oh mercy.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I have that, too (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Great, But... (Score:3, Insightful)
You're right about Knoppix not needing an installation process, but in the case of naive Windows users, even asking them to reboot can be a scary concept for them.
The other case where I can see this being useful is when you're trying to demonstrate Knoppix to someone and they already have work running on their Windows desktop - spreadsheets, telnet sessions, and things of that nature. If they can see Linux running within a window, they'll be much more likely to play around with it since they know that they can just click a close box and return to their normal routine whenever they want.
It may not work for everyone, but for those people who this can influence, I see nothing wrong with extra shiny things to attract the naive.
Re:hope for good performance (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great, But... (Score:2, Insightful)
I agree though, Live eval cds are invaluable, and are preferable to running a slower emulated environment, but this cd allows both options, so why not say its a good thing?
OP has a torrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Now only if others would follow.
news? (Score:1, Insightful)
I got news damnsmall linux has been doing this for sometime now in an "embeded" download to test out the distribution in windows. Running linux inside of windows at 1/10 normal speed isn't gonna make people switch over to linux any faster....
Re:Great, But... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm, I think you're exaggerating a bit... Windows users should (and I'm not even joking) be quite used to booting and rebooting their systems. Even my mom would understand the implications of restarting the computer.
Are they insane? (Score:4, Insightful)
They're going to end up convincing dumb windows users that Linux is slow as hell!
Before you say anything, keep in mind that they are running QEMU on windows, and the QEMU virtualizer is closed-source and linux only. So they can ONLY do full emulation.
Re:Are they insane? (Score:5, Insightful)
b) QEMU is the fastest (99%) Free emulator, and QEMU is getting faster all the time. There is a strong emphasis on speed by Fabrice
c) Yes Knoppix will run slower under emulation than natively, and Knoppix doesn't run as fast as a native Linux install. But there are obvious speedups laying around. This looks like a first cut by some developer.
But I think there is one obvious case where this can be useful, in the particular situation where a machine is locked down so that you can't boot install CDs without a password, and the user does not have admin priveleges. Also, it may be useful for users who aren't willing to boot a Linux CD since they are afraid that it will wipe something out.
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
The bigger advantage for users is the number of applications freely available for Linux.
What comes with a new Windows machine? Usually a lot of "lite" versions of various payware. Word processor, maybe. Eventually the system gets hosed and even those may be lost.
I don't think most users have any idea what it's like to think "I wish I had a program that did ____" and then apt-cache search'ing for it 3 or 4 programs that do it ready to be downloaded...
And Knoppix has a lot of stuff just available in the menus right off the bat. Just give the users the caveat that, yeah, this isn't going to be real fast, but it will give you an idea of what is available.
Re:Login? Why?-is it illegal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great, But... (Score:4, Insightful)
OK, people are asking why this is scary. Here's why:
You reboot, and suddenly, all this small text in bright colours is crawling across your screen (at least, that's what Knoppix did, the last time I tried it). Your Windows environment is gone. You don't know if it's coming back, or even if it's reformatting your hard drive, that's what it's supposed to look like, right?
Yeah, I know, this crap is irrational. But guess what, if the world was purely rational, Microsoft would have gone out of business ages ago...
Having Knoppix run on the Windows desktop is reassuring. It lets you know that Windows is still there and you can return there at any time, and since all your icons are still on your desktop, your files must therefore be safe. Yeah, more irrational fears, sorry, but that's how many people think.
everyone overestimate average windows users (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:use coLinux+VNC (Score:3, Insightful)
Every post in this thread I've written from Firefox running in a coLinux instance displaying via the Cygwin X server. I use coLinux, I like coLinux, but that's not to say that other solutions like QEMU have no place. The parent asked if there existed any advantage of QEMU over coLinux -- not specific to Knoppix but in general. I answered that question.
Re:My aunt and KNOPPIX (Score:2, Insightful)