Dell Selling Dual-Boot Laptops 289
rsmiller510 writes "The EE Times reports this week that Dell has released a hybrid laptop running both Linux and Windows clearly aimed at business travelers. Linux for quick tasks and Windows for more intensive ones, but will such a machine really fly in the business world?"
Isn't this a dupe? Not just dual boot... (Score:4, Informative)
Hasn't this already been seen, a couple months ago when Dell announced it?
It's not just dual boot, the Linux boot is on a low power ARM CPU, so not only does it boot fast you should get significantly more battery life when running Linux.
Dupe? (Score:5, Informative)
It's not dual-booting really, you either run Linux on an ARM, or Windows on a Core2.
Link at end to the original EE article, rather than gushy blog.
Did we not cover this earlier this week?
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3TF41VYEZTQY0QSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=213402554&printable=true&printable=true [eetimes.com]
Re:Will it fly? (Score:2, Informative)
Okay, I'm going to admit my ignorance in the hopes that someone else will learn. I've been a bit removed from Linux, so my question was going to be "Does Linux support the NTFS file system?" Because VMs running on FAT-based file systems suck. The last Linux-based OS I had used was Ubuntu 6.04 (Hardy Heron), which, to my knowledge didn't support NTFS.
Then, with 30 seconds of research, I came across NTFS-3G [wikipedia.org] implementation.
All of that to say, I agree with the Windows VM idea. But Dell had better set up the VM, because most business people wouldn't have a clue.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:3, Informative)
The host can use small(2GB) chunks and tell the guest that it is one big drive. The guest OS can then format that into NTFS or whatever and store large files.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, Linux supports NTFS. You've referenced the right module NTFS-3G.
Ubuntu has had this module included by default since version 7.10: gutsy gibbon. Prior to that, it had to be manually installed.
I run a windows XP / Ubuntu 7.10 dual boot setup at home & the NTFS support is great. Ubuntu can read and write to both windows & linux partitions flawlessly. All of your windows files are accessible in the linux mode. I think that there is a slight performance hit (10% or so) for using linux rather than windows to write to the ntfs partition.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:5, Informative)
The new 17inch Macbook Pro's have an 8gb limit [apple.com].
Dell XPS line of laptops also have an 8gb limit [dell.com].
It may take a while for that standard to trickle down to the lower end laptops, but the trend at least has started.
Re:Will it fly? What do you mean win needs 4GB? (Score:2, Informative)
If Win 7 is any indication, win better NOT need more than 1GB. When SMART companies realize that Linux is running in under 1 GB with pretty decent response, and that Vista w/o any SP1 runs "so-so" to "ok" in VirtualBox, in a 2GB max system, then they should begin the next round of PUMMELING the hell out of ms.
For example, my laptop:
Gateway P-6301, 17-inch lappy with TWO HDD slots.
2GB RAM max, with 256 MB going to graphics
Mandriva Linux 2008.0, with use of under 300 MB... because
VBox i assigned 1.5 GB so win can have 128 MB video RAM
Vista runs so-so to ok, and i run AutoCAD 2008 (rarely, but it behaves well), Punch! ViaCAD (mostly), and other graphics intensive CAD software. I NEVER yet touched the Internet with vista, virtualized or natively!
Now,
Same laptop/same hardware
Mandriva 2009.0, with numerous updates.
Same virtual disk of VBox/Vista
Some kinks to work out, but overall, vista is still as fast as on Mdv 2008.
Why should windows require 8 GB, or even 4 GB?
Re:Good Idea but (Score:3, Informative)
That's exactly what it is. There are two power buttons. One boots Windows, the other boots Linux on a special ARM thingy.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Will it fly? (Score:1, Informative)
If you store your profile for the application (such as firefox or thunderbird) on a FAT32 partition then you can access the same profile from both Windows and Linux. I do this on my laptop. If you use shared folders for this profile you can even access it from with in a virtual machine.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:3, Informative)
True, but it's unusable as the root file system.
And also unusable by apps that use 8+3 (SFN) links internally, like Microsoft Office.
Re:Problem with "Dual-Hibernate" (Score:2, Informative)
If you are talking about suspend to disk then I don't think it is 'dual hibernate'/hybrid, hybrid suspend is saving information to both disk and ram so you can resume faster, and won't lost all the work if run out of power.
And for the mounting problem, I just make a ext3 partition and store all the things that need to be shared between two OSes, then install ext2ifs so windows can read them.
Re:Problem with "Dual-Hibernate" (Score:3, Informative)
I would presume that he meant that he had Windows installed in a VM. That would not presumably have any more issues with S3 than any other program.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:2, Informative)
Not only does it fly, it's also actually WORKS.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:5, Informative)
ntfsfix is the equivalent fsck.ntfs
It comes in the package ntfsprogs.
Re:Will it fly? (Score:4, Informative)
ntfsfix is the equivalent fsck.ntfs
It comes in the package ntfsprogs.
I appreciate you pointing this out but I looked into it and unfortunately it looks like a partial solution.
From the output of "man ntfsfix":
Regretably, that does not make me feel very confident. Filesystem integrity is one of the few areas where I really must insist on a complete solution. I don't take that position because I want to but because it's dictated by necessity. Preventable data loss or even the possibility of such is simply not acceptable to me.
Just my personal opinion, I don't really consider trying to play catch-up with Microsoft's proprietary standards (or even when the standards are published, their proprietary implementations) to be a sound idea especially when truly open alternatives are readily available. I just feel like you're always going to have problems like this that you can never completely overcome because you're playing someone else's game. Considering the inherent difficulty of this task, the progress that Open Source has made is really quite amazing but I just don't consider this to be anything like an ideal solution.
Microsoft created NTFS, they own it, they can "upgrade" or change it on a whim, and they have no interest in anyone else being able to work with it. That's the nature of the situation and it's beyond our control. Therefore, to me, NTFS compatibility is very much like a dual-boot setup; it is to be avoided unless truly necessary.
First done 25 years ago... (Score:3, Informative)