I've never seen Linux for PPC, but if it's written even nearly as well as the
kernel I'm using on my Pentium, and I had the money to get my own Mac, I'd dump
my IBM in a second. Even if Apple *has* screwed it up completely.
The Mac is dead. Apple killed it with the confusion starting with System 7.5.
May it one day rise again.
Long live the Mac.
Byron Davies wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> The early feedback:
>
> Non-list responder: Absolutely not.
>
> Mike Sharkey: Too hard, just use two computers and Ethernet.
>
> Joerg Pommnitz: How would you share RAM?
>
> Jake Messinger: No and WHY? Use multiple machines and NFS.
>
> Robert G. Brown: Likes the concept, but suggests a Windows app precompiler.
>
> Same non-list responder: Why would a Linux person possibly be interested in
> Windows?
>
> Phil Brutsche: Loves the idea. DOSEmu is too slow (on a '486).
>
> ==============
>
> Thanks for your quick responses. First, I'm encouraged. I haven't yet
> heard any show-stoppers.
>
> Second, here's why I'm interested. There are a lot of people (e.g., in the
> engineering community) who need Linux to do serious computing and Windows
> to share the results. These are people who are pro-Linux (for its
> capabilities) but not necessarily anti-Microsoft. Dual booting is a major
> pain and having two separate computers is expensive. Emulation is a great
> idea, but it's not easy either. (Through the beauty of freeware, however,
> it's likely that a substantial amount of Wine could be recycled into a dual
> processor, dual OS system, whether implemented via PCI or shared memory.)
>
> My customers would be ecstatic if they could, as Robert G. Brown put it,
> hot-key between Linux and Windows. Performance wouldn't be a major issue.
> >From what I've read, the dual processor Pentium board provides only
> marginally better performance anyway. What I would hope from this
> configuration is super convenience at a small incremental cost.
>
> How would RAM be shared? Run Windows in low memory, relocate Linux to a
> higher region. I'm brand new to Linux myself, having been a Mac user for 5
> years and a Lisp machine user for 12 years before that, so I have no idea
> if this is possible.
>
> Why not a Windows app precompiler, as Robert G. Brown suggests? This
> sounds similar to interpreting Java byte-codes. This approach is
> equivalent in complexity to emulation, though it has greater opportunities
> to apply techniques of compiler optimization. Once Wine works, then
> Robert's technique can be used to speed things up.
>
> Yes, there is a lot of work to making such a system work, but if you know
> of a technical reason that makes it impossible, please tell me.
>
> ===================================
> Byron Davies, Ph.D.
> VP and Chief Technologist
> Savant Computation Instruments, Inc.
> Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
> davies@pobox.com
> (602) 759-8228