Date: Sat, 03 Apr 1999 15:15:34 +0100 From: Christopher Raven <c.raven@ukonline.co.uk> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com> Cc: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Getting more people to use FreeBSD Message-ID: <37062286.F7A9B3BF@ukonline.co.uk> References: <37361.922661611@zippy.cdrom.com>
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If this is a matter of paying someone, why hasn't it been done? Is this a *major* financial undertaking for FreeBSD.org ? If so, what kind of monies would we be talking here ? "Jordan K. Hubbard" wrote: > > Half the battle in getting Windows users to try FreeBSD is getting > > them to install it on their PCs and using it. This, of course, > > Yep. > > > It would be much easier if they could load FreeBSD onto their > > existing HD. > > Slackware does this and they call it "zipslack" - apparently a very > popular feature of theirs, in fact. > > > What I would propose, and ask if it is technically possible, is to > > be able to create a virtual UFS inside a file on a FAT disk. I'm > > thinking along the lines of the way DoubleSpace/Stacker work(ed). > > In Windows there would just be a large file (FREEBSD.DAT?), with > > the read-only, hidden, & system attributes set, but internally the > > contents wuld be laid out like a Unix FS. Ideally it would be > > possible to boot FreeBSD from DOS (does DOSBOOT allow that for > > anything other than an install?). > > You could do this, yes, using the vn device to attach it. You can > even use the Windows swap file as the FreeBSD swap area, if one > exists. People have reported this to work, anyway - you can do a lot > with the vn device, assuming that you also add some hacks to make it > possible to mount one as root. > > > I believe that such a system would be really useful in getting > > Windows users to at least give FreeBSD a try. It would make trying > > FreeBSD as easy as those 30-day trial versions of Windows applications. > > Yep! > > > Is this idea feasible, how easy would it be to implement and would > > the time and effort be worth it for the potential returns? > > 1. It's feasable. > > 2. It would require somebody with a reasonably significant > amount of clue to implement (we've looked into it before). > > 3. It would be worth the time and effort, IMHO, for all the reasons > you state. > > The only issue is that this has been brought up at least 10 times > before, and each time by someone who also says: > > > Yes, I know the usual response to "why don't we" suggestions is > > "don't just suggest it, do it" but, as I said before, this is beyond > > my technical ability. > > So it never progresses any further beyond this point and whatever > energy goes into discussing it proves, in hindsight, to be completely > wasted. :-( > > - Jordan > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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