Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 14:53:31 -0800 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com> To: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com> Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Getting more people to use FreeBSD Message-ID: <37361.922661611@zippy.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 28 Mar 1999 19:56:13 %2B0100." <19990328195613.A259@marder-1.localhost>
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> 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
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