I'd like to see dual-boot as an option

I'd like to see dual-boot as an option

Posted May 3, 2007 2:05 UTC (Thu) by njs (subscriber, #40338)
In reply to: I'd like to see dual-boot as an option by drag
Parent article: Dude, you're getting Ubuntu (Linux.com)

>You could do it with XP, but with Vista EULA agreements forbid using their software in a VM unless you purchase the business or ultimate edition.

...Well, I guess no-one has ever accused MS of not being clever. Is this a technical or merely legal requirement? (I.e., can an operating system running inside a hardware-virtualized environment tell that it is running inside such an environment?)

If it's a legal requirement, it's only binding (assuming EULAs are binding at all) on the end-user. So there's nothing stopping we, who are not parties to that contract, providing nice packages that install kvm (or whatever), auto-detect other installed operating systems, and insert menu items in appropriate places. (Obviously people who actually click on these menu items would be violating their contract, but that's their own decision.)

Discussion question: Will Canonical's entering a contractual agreement with Dell end up forcing Canonical not to provide such packages? I can easily imagine that kind of user-friendly VM support becoming a feature of default distro installs, and the press release says that Dell will be installing pure default Ubuntu...

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