Before virtualization, if you wanted to to simulate a Linux environment on a Windows desktop you would use Cygwin or MKS. I’ve been using Cygwin for a long time now but recently I been tinkering with different Linux images (OpenSUSE, Ubuntu) with VMWare. Now there is a third option, in addition to emulation and virtualization you can run Linux natively in Windows with andLinux.
andLinux is a Ubuntu distribution running as a native Windows application. andLinux uses coLinux which is a port of the Linux kernel to Windows. Basically they cross-platformed Linux. andLinux is still in the beta and the installation feels a bit rough around the edges. But once installed you can run KDE applications such as Konsole, KWord, KPresenter, and Konqueror amongst others.
Even though andLinux is in beta and I have not figured out completely how to access Windows’ disk drive and other resources, it is download worthy.
It used to be that to cross platform a software application you spend time porting it, then with virtual machines you write once and run anywhere the VM is running, but now with andLinux the whole Linux Operating System was crossed platformed to Windows.
A similar movement is also happening where Windows application such as Photoshop or Office are made to run as native applications in Linux. The Wine project allows you to run Word, Photoshop and other of your favorite Windows application in Linux. Wine is an implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix.
Technorati Tags: linux, colinux, andlinux, windows, cross platform, virtualization
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3 Comments
hi there,
the other options are to dual boot. you could also run something like VM player from vmware; also sun’s (innotek) virtualBox software http://195.34.175.98/download/1.5.6/VirtualBox_1.5.6-1_Win_x86.msi
Yes, cygwin and MKS are the easiest way to get to a shell and its tools. But with the player from VMWare, things are getting more interesting.
BR,
~A
The installation script doesn’t seem to work. To add a Windows drive you should use samba. To do that you need to:
1. Removed shared status form your drive (in Windows).
2. Re-Add the shared status to that drive (remember to Add appropriate access rights to some user).
3. In andLinux (preferably Konqueror) go to “remote:/” and add an MS network drive (Name = new name in Linux, Server = your computer name, Folder = name from Windows).
I gave it a shot. The installer did not give a lot choices, but the things works just as one would expect. Responsive and robust it seems.
I like to have the best of both worlds. Windows being quite picky about its environment, I think this is one of the best solutions to have any the Debian applications on any Windows install running at nearly native speed.