Re: why umsdos?
Matthew Wilcox (Matthew.Wilcox@genedata.com)
Sun, 8 Nov 1998 15:19:15 +0100
> From: Rick Hohensee <humbubba@raptor.cqi.com>
> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 16:40:11 -0500 (EST)
> Subject: why umsdos?
>
> There have been a couple posts questioning the usefulness of umsdos.
> If you already use Linux umsdos is pretty lame. There are some 200 million
> PC users out there that don't already use Linux. Most of them have DOS FAT
> partitions of some flavor, and a umsdos distribution in most cases doesn't
> install, it merely unpacks. umsdos is an important bridge. The contest
> between M$ and the rest of the world will hinge largely on how fast Linux
> becomes easier to use, IMO. On the desktop anyway. This seems to be a
> common view, although I have a very different take on what constitutes
> user-friendly than the big distros do.
>
> That's why my cLIeNUX mini-distro is umsdos. umsdos allows the curious a
> taste of excellence without re-partitioning. A small umsdos mini-distro
> can be moved to an ext2 partition in minutes. Think of umsdos as an
> install utility for a real Linux. And a crucial piece of Linux outreach.
>
> As Linux use continues to explode, get smug with the UDI types perhaps,
> other unices perhaps, the press perhaps. Please do not get smug with those
> 200 million innocent victims.
>
> untfs wouldn't be bad either. Meanwhile, I wait eagerly for a umsdos boot
> to work on my PS2 with 2.1.
I don't like umsdos personally. Have you considered using a file on the
msdos filesystem with an ext2 filesystem on it instead? I have a machine
with its root filesystem mounted on /dev/loop0. A little playing with
initrd makes this quite easy. This means you have no need for a untfs
(and in my case, no need for a uadfs).
--
Matthew Wilcox <willy@bofh.ai>
"I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are
better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of
one's contributions to computer science." -- Donald E. Knuth, TAoCP vol 3
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