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Re: Linux/Solaris/Windows on Notebook



On Tue, 16 Apr 1996, Eli Marmor wrote:

> 4. Some versions of Linux can be installed also under DOS file-system.
> What is
>  the "price"?  I heard that there is an overhead in performance, do
> you know
>  exactly how much?  Is there other behavior that is damaged?
>  And, does this case (installing Linux under DOS file-system) allow me
> to
>  switch between these OSs without rebooting the computer?

The file system for using Linux in a FAT partition is called UMSDOS.
Slackware distribution supports installing on this, I don't know about
the others. 
I did not notice a performance penalty when using this file system,
though I didn't benchmark. The main tradeoff is disk space, because every
file is stored as a DOS file, resulting in a lot of wasted disk space. A
typical installation that uses 80Mb on a Linux file system, used 240Mb on
a 500Mb FAT volume. 

You don't have to reboot from DOS to Linux, but that is true no matter
what file system you use. You do have to reboot to switch to DOS.


> 6. These OSs will have shared stuff (e.g. my sources, etc.). Where
> should I
>  place this stuff, and how can I use it (mount, another device with
> special
>  drivers for all the OSs, etc.)?

DOS reads and writes only FAT, and I guess that any operating system used
on PCs can read and write FAT, so that's the only option. There is a set
of tools to read from Linux file system, but it only enables you to read,
and it has an interface like ftp, and not as a file system.

> 8. How can Linux be connected (as a client!) to a PPP server?  Is it
> hard?
>  Does it limit me to specific ISPs?

Can be connected, and from my experience, without difficulty.
Some ISPs support Linux, but in any case it's no more than writing
a script.


> to write an excellent FAQ about notebooks, UNIXes, and using 3 (5 in the
> future!) OSs together under the same computer. In addition, I'll port
> all my
> stuff (including the Hebrew Support of X-Windows & Motif!) to Linux, so
> I'm
> sure I'll have much to report and to tell when everything will be ready.

Please do so.

> Eli Marmor


Matan Ziv-Av     matan@actcom.co.il