Phat PCBSD?!?

[ShadowScythe]

Hello

I'm probably going to prove myself as a masochist buuuuut.... I wanted to bring this to peoples attention.

http://www.phatlinux.com/

It's Linux and it runs on TOP OF WINDOWS!!! I dunnot much about you guys but that, to me, is pretty impressive.

I think the question then becomes fairly obvious... dare we *cough*steal*cough* the concept and try to make a version of PCBSD that Windows users can install and test drive?

-Pete

p.s. I will make a note that I have NOT installed Phat Linux but I will do so on one of my many test HD's when thier mirrors come back up.

[antik]

Hello

I'm probably going to prove myself as a masochist buuuuut.... I wanted to bring this to peoples attention.

http://www.phatlinux.com/

It's Linux and it runs on TOP OF WINDOWS!!! I dunnot much about you guys but that, to me, is pretty impressive.

I think the question then becomes fairly obvious... dare we *cough*steal*cough* the concept and try to make a version of PCBSD that Windows users can install and test drive?

-Pete

p.s. I will make a note that I have NOT installed Phat Linux but I will do so on one of my many test HD's when thier mirrors come back up.

pay 25$ for this toy???

[sblevin]

Lets play - Guess how they do it!

hmmm
A basic pc emulator, install the OS into a loopback filesystem and pump the display out via VNC or a local X sever.

NEXT ATTEMPT PLEASE!

[yilez]

I was going to say you could just install bochs (http://bochs.sourceforge.net/) as this works for windows, as well as others, and you can run PC-BSD on Windows/Linux/whatever for free.

[Sparkfist]

If you really want a linux distro that will play inside of Windows, and is free, check out Damn Small Linux. All you have to do is put it on a USB storage device using the install to Pen option. Atleast thats what I think is involved, you'll have to check the site to make sure.

[Puffball]

Hello

I'm probably going to prove myself as a masochist buuuuut.... I wanted to bring this to peoples attention.

http://www.phatlinux.com/

It's Linux and it runs on TOP OF WINDOWS!!! I dunnot much about you guys but that, to me, is pretty impressive.

I think the question then becomes fairly obvious... dare we *cough*steal*cough* the concept and try to make a version of PCBSD that Windows users can install and test drive?

-Pete

p.s. I will make a note that I have NOT installed Phat Linux but I will do so on one of my many test HD's when thier mirrors come back up.

Even if the time was taken to load PC-BSD on some runtime emulator so it could run on top of Windows, the purpose of even using a *nix OS would be totally shattered. Any *nix OS has a great amount of reliability over Windows, and running PC-BSD on top of Windows makes it as stable as Windows, too.

Compatibility is what you want? Then don't run an emulator, try Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/), it has packages for most popular linux applications, and alot of linux sources surprisingly compile on it.

[ShadowScythe]

:shock: It would seem as though the purpose of my post was taken a bit um.... out of the context. Then again I should have expected that as I wrote a fairly decent intro to what could be an essay on how people do exactly that...

NE Ways, the purpose of that was partly to say "Hey LOOK! This is really Cool!" and partly to say "Gee willikers, why don't we do something like this as a DEMO!"

Personally I think that something like a LIVE edtion or another form of Test Drive PCBSD would VASTLY help people break out of thier fears of having to completely install and learn a new OS. Yes I know that it is in development stages and I am looking forward to helping the effort so please don't lecture me about that subject.

I am also not afraid to say that I am probably more of a BSD noob than the rest of you so I may talk out of my a$$ sometimes, but it is a learning experience so please bear with me.

I am simply trying to point out things from the Common User perspective so that as a community we can help draw them into this wonderful OS. I like it quite a bit and it is sad that I have not been able to dedicate more time to it but such is life.

So let me see if I cannot clarify some of the things that I am NOT saying. Porting PCBSD to windows is not what I want nor is compatability for long term usage. Yes I know about Cygwin and I even it for some GTK+ development stuff I am playing with so I know all about that. I am also NOT saying that PCBSD should be run under these circumstances.

Having an AMD Opteron system I have, painfully seen, how Windows x64 runs far quicker than the 32-bit counterpart so I know exactly what it means to run things in thier proper environments. (Sadly though there are not more 64-bit applications and again while the graphics drivers exist, they do not work.)

PCBSD is an excellent OS. The proposed UI is very nice looking and I would love to see it implemented. I am also quie impressed with the PBI system seems to me to be a first of it's kind in the *nix world. Among other things, I also liked the Installer.

HOWEVER.... you are NEVER going to get more users into the OS unless you really market it well. One of the ways, which got me into several different OSes, is through LIVE Editions. I am very glad that sblevin has an educated guess as how it works, I didn't know. T

-- In brief --
My ida was to make a PCBSD distro which would be even more accessible. There are an inumerable ammout of people who do not have spare HD's or are bold enough to play with partitioning. Therefore, (IMHO) it would be a wonderful thought to have a LIVE CD, or an emulated copy with tutorials where people can dabble.

It would probably be of interest to a greater number of users.

-Pete

[sblevin]

Shadowscythe : It may be possible! Look at this post:

http://www.pcbsd.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=9775

[Puffball]

Well, let's not over estimate the abilties of the average Windows user. Most of these types of people are by no means, power users, and probably wouldn't have the slightest idea how to utilize emulation. A live CD is definately a good idea, however, but seeing how PC-BSD is still relatively in it's infancy, I wouldn't count on that sort of thing being developed in the near future.