On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Robert W. Cunningham wrote:
> First, make a truly minimal and elegant patch (re-architecting Win4Lin as much
> as needed), and submit it as often as needed until all arguments against it have
> been properly resolved. And encourage all distro vendors to include the patch
> in *all* their kernels, at least until it becomes part of an official released
> kernel.
I would only support this (as in, continue upgrading my version of
Win4Lin), if there were absolutely no slowdown incurred by this change
(which I think would be pretty unlikely!). I think much of the problem
with VMWare's implementation, and why I find it to be *SO* much slower
than W4L, is due to the fact that so much of their product is implemented
in user space.
I stopped using VMWare, and purchased a second computer for windows, and
accessed it via VNC because I was tired of waiting on VMWare. Win4Lin has
allowed me to sell off that second computer!
> Second, create a distro with the patch included, and include the distro with
> every shipment of Win4Lin (with install options to NOT use the full distro, of
Groan! I can hear it now:
- Why can't I use W4L with <distribution_of_choice_here>?
- Where is the update for package foo, that fixes bug-du-jour?
- Anybody get NetraLinux to install on my
<cool_hardware_released_yesterday_here>!
> Bottom line, NeTraverse will likely not be able to keep releasing their own
> pre-patched kernels forever. The present patches are not nearly portable
> enough. It is clear none of us like this situation, including NeTraverse.
The changes between minor kernel versions (2.2.18->2.2.19, for example),
should be pretty easy to keep up to date with. Heck, even applying
Andrea's 2.2.19 patch, which touches just about everything, only requires
an additional 2-line patch for me to fix Win4Lin, and the changes were
obvious.
> Ponder this: Could it be time for a "Win4BSD" product? I'm thinking of going
> with OpenBSD on my main SMP workstation for several reasons, and I'd sure like
I wouldn't mind seeing a FreeBSD port. Although from what I know of
FreeBSD, Linux (2.4 kernel, at least) actually has better SMP support, so
I won't be changing anytime soon.
--
Richard Fish Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc.
Sr. Software Engineer 2920 E Camelback Rd Suite 250
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phoenix, AZ 85016
(602) 470-1115 http://www.estinc.com
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