The latest release is based on the 2.6.x kernel, and not guaranteed to work out-of-the-box with Gentoo root file systems that are based on the 2.4.x kernel. Cooperative Linux is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. It allows one to freely run Linux on Windows without using commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware.
coLinux 0.6.2 Released
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Them Israelies are crazy! running linux from within windows in kernel space as a driver! who would have thought it would work. It’s crazy!
Actually Windows has a powerful design to run subsystem. So technically it shouldn’t be much of a problem running some sort of linux/unix kernel that exposes the standard system calls. Actually there’s Services For Unix by Microsoft, it’s also very powerful (and free)
Free as in beer, pal. Not as in speech. Whereas coLinux is.
> Free as in beer, pal. Not as in speech. Whereas coLinux is.
Did he say otherwise? Or were you jumping to conclusions?
If I can run Linux from Windows, and use, say, konqueror to surf the Internet, do still have to worry about Virus, malware, and spyware protection while using Linux this way? In other words, will the malicious stuff still be able to infect Windows?
I once used a program call IE eradicator <s>, which remover Internet Explorer from the Windows OS. Could a person remove IE in this way and only use the Linux part to more safely connect to the Internet?
Sorry for sounding so uninformed, but as it is I never connect my Windows partition to the Internet, and only use my Linux install to connect.
Using Linux in this way, if it would protect my Windows environment from malicious stuff would be very convenient.
Duel booting all the time can be a real pain.
it should be possible to hand your external network interface over to coLinux (at least it is no problem to have a virtual linux router with vmware) – still i think a firewall or nat router would be a better idea…
Thanks for the answer. Of course a firewall. I’m sitting behind an old i586 machine running Devil Linux now. I was just wondering, trying to think of a better way to use what I now use Linux for and use what I like to use Windows for, but without the constant reboot. I just thought that if the Windows part can be isolated to run non-Internet stuff, while at the same time using the Linux part to do that. Well, wouldn’t that be better than to unknowingly stumble onto some new mutation of malware everyday, which kills Windows but not Linux? Maybe that’s just a pipe-dream, but it sure would be less worry.
Being able to run both OS’s at the same time and use each for what they do or what one prefers might be really cool, and without having to spring for that huge VMware price tag.
I’m not sure how this works but is it possible to access the Linux HDD partitions from coLinux directly through Windows? Also what of the NTFS access through the Linux VM. Are write operations still dependent on the Linux kernel (which as I last read, does not work very well with the XP version of NTFS).
In particular, I’d like to setup a Tex processing system using through the Linux VM and then print, copy, backup, etc the documents in Windows.
If this will work I’m defin
If you are in doubt and if you want to try it, try Topologilinux, which is a Slackware-based distro, which can be installed on top of Windows, even on NTFS in an imagefile. The conception: As you know, Linux can write and read a file from an NTFS partition safely, it cannot create or delete it, cannot modify it’s size, but it can operate in a file. Topologilinux’s filesystem resides in such an image file. As I know, you can access Linux drives as well, just the device names become interesting. But if you need it only to access Linux partitions, then consider trying Total Commander with ext2fs plugin, it can read Linux partitions well.
I forgot that Topologilinux uses CoLinux
Thanks, so much for suggesting Topologilinux. I didn’t even know it existed. Here I was thinking the only way to run Slackware was to dual boot. Thank you!
I’ve been trying to get coLinux running on my system for a few days now, and I can’t seem to get it going.
Yep, it works just fine here.
If you want X, you can install X-Deep/32 for Windows (freeware as of last year) and there you have it. Truth to be told, it (X) is not very fast. However, running X makes no sense simply ’cause you do have Windows.
But, sshd and putty make good combination and everything works as expected on my coLinux/Debian on Windows.
It’s nice to have Linux in your systray
I have been using colinux for over 8 months now and have found it *very* useful for PHP development.
Here are a few things you may find interesting.
– Colinux with the Debian installation (sid or is it sarge? not sure…) can run MySQL, sqlite, postgres, Apache, PHP, perl, Imagemagick without a problem. (and Openoffice, gimp , quanta etc… you may need a lot of memory depending on what you want to do.)
This allows me to exepriment with postgres.
– You can view your web pages from your colinux browser by typing http://colinux (this has really helped speed up web development)
– You can also run an FTP surver or ssh and conect to colinux FROM windows, using an FTP client or putty.
– However it is better to install samba and map your “/var/www” directory to a windows network drive. This makes it extremely easy to back up and share files from windows to colinux and vice-versa.
– You can install KDE or Gnome and use VNCserver to access your linux desktop. So yes you can use colinux to surf the web and receive emails and windows for other stuff. However using vncviewer is a bit slow. The nomachines client is a lot faster but not super stable (at least that was 6 months ago when I last tried it.)
You could use lynx to browse the web of course
– The best way to use X is in full screen mode and simply ALT-TAB to switch over to your windows apps.
– The linux image can easily be backed-up.
There are a lot of other interesting things you could do but I will leave it at that for now.
In summary, colinux can really speed up web developement and is a safe environment to experiment with new software. Suprisingly solid and hassle free once set up properly.
I am thinking of writing a full blown article on the benefits, as well as the tips and tricks I have learnt using colinux. Would anyone be intersted?
Would anyone be intersted?
Yes.
OoooH Yeah!
Write it!
Ben!
Write! that! review! Pronto!
(Yes! I! subcribe! to! Yahoo!)
I’m not sure how this works but is it possible to access the Linux HDD partitions from coLinux directly through Windows?
Yes. Install samba, and files can be easily exchanged between coLinux <-> (local or remote) Windows. Works perfectly.
Ben, I’d really appreciate it if you’d want to write a review about Colinux! Thanks in advance m8!
Not to troll here, but what really is the point of this? The advantage of Linux is the kernel and the advantage of Windows is the programs, so why in heavens name would you want to run Linux programs inside Windows? Especially when most of what you’d want to run will run natively anyways.
As cool as colinux is, the point that
“Colinux with the Debian installation (sid or is it sarge? not sure…) can run MySQL, sqlite, postgres, Apache, PHP, perl, Imagemagick without a problem”
seems a little redundant as AFAIK all those programs run natively on Windows (I could be wrong).
Francis
And they also run well in SFU (which is based on OpenBSD). Plus SFU offers much more transparent operation.
What’re the advantages of CoLinux over SFU, apart from the “free as in speech” ideological “benefit”?
Umm… you can run all that stuff in Windows too.
It’s a great learning tool plus you still have Windows, all the time.
OK I will write it (give me a week) and will explain why it is good even though most of these programs can run under windows.