Seems like everybody's trying to take the fun out of installing Linux. They want to make it easy. They want to give away the ending and spare us the story. They want to make the hacker's OS as hack-free as possible.
Well, maybe they have a point. And if they do, why not go one better? Why not make Linux installable on any Windows box as it stands. Open your download and install the sucker right there, from Windows, without partioning the hard drive.
Sound crazy? Not to Cameron Cooper and Keith Broere, the founders of Phat Linux. These guys have figured a way to load a full Linux distribution from inside Windows. When it's over, you've got a two-OS box.
The punchline? This isn't new to either of these guys. They've been on the case since they were both 14 years old. Last year. Next fall they'll be sophomores in high school.
But not the same high school. In fact, not even the same country. Cameron lives in Winipeg, Manitoba and Keith lives in Sandusky, Ohio ("near the amusement park," he explains). Two guys, two countries, one cool new distribution. Check it out at www.phatlinux.com.
No sooner thought than done.
Right on the heels of last month's Internet Floppy idea, the guys at FreeDiskSpace.com have mounted a set of sites that works for all the major platforms, including Linux.
Want extra disk storage? A place to store up to 25 megs of files you can pull down from any browser anywhere? Check out www.FreeLinuxSpace.com. Sign up is a breeze.
Now the next step is to make this a value-add for ISPs and anybody else with the space and a way to make money with it.
But wait a minute. They do that too, with an affiliates program, banners and sponsors for the folders in your FreeLinuxSpace directory.
Now how long will we have to wait for file I/O over the Net? Another whole month?
— Bruce Fryer