I'd be happy to join you on such a project...., but it is not the aim of
plex86. The real reason for this is an issue of feasibility right now. We
needed a known base to start work on--so we (more aptly Kevin..) chose to
start working on the concept on top of the LINUX operating system. We have
continued this way because it means that some real major ugly issues
(hardware compatibility, memory management.., etc.) have already been dealt
with. So yes, we have had this discussion before--we have decided to
confine the efforts of this project to just the virtualization framework.
Also, by choosing not to hack an OS and make it into a PLEX-OS we have
avoided many possible licensing issues and other unforeseen pitfalls that
are likely to crop up. To make a PLEX-OS work, in other words, we would
really need to make our own NEW OS, which is not the aim of this project and
have thus been discarded as a possible objective. I hope that this has
helped you out.
Drew Northup, N1XIM
P.S. I just thought that (because of what you mentioned & seem to be
pursuing) you & some of your friends over @ NASA may find the link
http://www.ausi.org/cadcon/simulation.html interesting and of some possible
use..... enjoy.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf
> Of X-Odus
> Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 3:05 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Thoughts.
>
>
> I was playing with VMWare and Plex86 (what would work at least) the
> other day. I got to thinking a lot about why they run slower than a
> native OS. It is because they have to go through another Operating
> system to get to the hard ware. Why Run one OS just to run another.
> Well, what if Plex86 _WAS_ the OS. A small one, that just creates VMs
> to run other operating systems. Using CTRL + SHIFT + (F1-F12) to switch
> between VMs. If the OS was optimized for Running Other OS's, than the
> speed would increase dramatically.
>
> The VMOS could be based of Linux or some other Unix system. Using the
> Ext2 partition to manage configuration, keeping the file system
> structure. This way the VMs could be configured to use a file (ex:
> /home/user/hd.img) or an actually device (ex: /dev/hda) for disk I/O.
>
> Memory management and resource sharing should be no different than the
> Current way that Plex86 is handling it.
>
> What is everyone elses thoughts or comments on the topic?
>
> --Don Becker
>
>
>
