{"id":2743,"date":"2011-10-18T07:15:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T11:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/?p=2743"},"modified":"2011-10-18T04:29:43","modified_gmt":"2011-10-18T08:29:43","slug":"colinux-can-linux-and-windows-co-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/colinux-can-linux-and-windows-co-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"coLinux: can Linux and Windows co-exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The logo for Cooperative Linux<\/a>, more popularly known as coLinux, sums up the attempted approach to the platform.\u00a0 Placing the Windows logo and Linux penguin in opposite ends of the yin yang summarizes not just this software, but the problem it is attempting to address.\u00a0 With a few UNIX, Macintosh and scattered other exceptions, the hosting world is torn between Windows and Linux.\u00a0 This means that webmasters are similarly torn.\u00a0 While the strong and weak points of each are well known, the bottom line is that whichever you prefer, there is an advantage to having each of them.<\/p>\n

Some users solve this with multiple machines: an answer doesn’t get much easier, but that’s certainly not the cheap route.\u00a0 A bit more common is to have a dual-boot machine.\u00a0 This presents its own problems, though, namely that you don’t want to have to be constantly rebooting just to switch back and forth between the two.<\/p>\n

A marriage made in \u2026 ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

coLinux works by allowing the installation of a kernel on the host OS (usually some Windows variant, but it can be anything, so long as it sends certain types of operating data the installation needs to run).\u00a0 Unlike other methods of virtualization, though, Linux doesn’t quite so much run \u201cunder\u201d it as \u201cdown and across\u201d from it.<\/p>\n

The term \u201ccooperative\u201d is meant to signify the fact that, once installed, the kernels of the Linux OS and host OS work together, communicating back and forth with each other as needed to share machine resources.\u00a0 The Linux kernel accomplishes this by converting the two operating systems into equal coroutines.<\/p>\n

However, in order to work properly, especially since most hardware isn’t set to handle talking to two different masters in two different languages at once, the host OS still holds instructive sway.\u00a0 So those two coroutines are still slaves to it, and any Linux hardware requests get sent through it.<\/p>\n

Does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the most part, it does.\u00a0 Our surveying of both different review web sites and coLinux’s own FAQ seem to indicate that it does most of what you need it to do.\u00a0 This is a major piece of software though: with everything that a modern computer is capable of doing, something this complex is bound to have areas of deficiencies.\u00a0 Here are some of the biggest problems reported:<\/p>\n

Problem #1 \u2013 Multiple CPUs aren’t supported<\/strong><\/p>\n

The one that is probably most relevant given current technological trends.\u00a0 If your machine has more than one processor, then it appears coLinux can run, if you only give it access to one of the cores.\u00a0 This may be tricky, though, and could introduce some of its own problems.\u00a0 No better solution to this from coLinux’s home site is given.<\/p>\n

Problem #2 \u2013 No X server support<\/strong><\/p>\n

coLinux does not have the ability to support an X server that requires a graphic adapter, as it does not itself contain a virtual adapter.\u00a0 Some workaround solutions have been suggested for this, but they are ugly as sin.\u00a0 For the most part they consist of running the X server in such a way that Windows takes up the slack for whatever Linux can’t do, and thus gets bridged between them.\u00a0 The official coLinux page has a separate section devoted to how to do this, but this just seems to be begging for trouble.<\/p>\n

Problem #3 \u2013 No 64-bit support<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another one that is going to become relevant real quick.\u00a0 coLinux is not designed to work under any 64-bit operating system.\u00a0 For Windows users this includes Windows 7 64-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit and Windows Server 2008 r2.\u00a0 Perhaps sensing the urgency to get this taken care of pronto, there is an active online discussion page about how to change this.\u00a0 It appears possible to suggest that we might see this compatibility in a year or two.<\/p>\n

Problem #4 \u2013 No sound support<\/strong><\/p>\n

To play sounds of any kind would require that coLinux be able to access the sound card.\u00a0 We mentioned above that hardware is off-limits from coLinux, at least directly.<\/p>\n

Is it available indirectly?\u00a0 Yes, it would appear.\u00a0 The trick to doing this revolves around finding a sound server in Windows that can receive data in the form of an audio stream from your network, and then make Linux part of that network.\u00a0 Sound complicated?\u00a0 Well, the FAQ page that explains exactly how to do this doesn’t seem any less complicated.\u00a0 From the looks of it, though, users have had some success in getting this to work.<\/p>\n

What else?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those are the most common problems.\u00a0 There are some scattered other ones that you are even less likely to run into, but are worth mentioning.\u00a0 These include:<\/p>\n