[humorix] The Truth About Microsoft Linux

[James Baughn <jbaughn@ldd.net>]

The Truth About Microsoft Linux
Bernhard Rosenkraenzer, bero@redhat.de
December 22, 1999

Microsoft accidentally revealed some details about the
upcoming top-secret release of Microsoft Linux [Microsoft
is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Linux will be a
registered trademark of Microsoft as soon as the government
accepts the bribes] in an article published on their
website:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q247/8/04.ASP?LNG=EN&SA=ALLKB

It explains how to remove Linux and install an inferior OS.
The article, however, apparently due to incompetence of its
writer, reveals some secrets about Microsoft Linux:

> The partition types used by the Linux and Windows
> operating systems are incompatible

Microsoft has added a very valuable patch to the kernel -
it has removed support for some inferior technologies
(msdos, umsdos, fat, vfat and ntfs filesystems) that
bloated the kernel for quite a while. Thank you, Microsoft.
It's about time someone dared to do this.

> The Linux operating system is generally installed on
> partition type 83 (Linux native) or 82 (Linux swap)

Microsoft Linux introduces another innovative(tm)
technology - the possibility to install the whole system on
a swap partition. The Vast Spy Network informs us that this
is for FUD purposes ("Linux becomes unstable if you use it
with less than 64 GB RAM - it will overwrite arbitrary data
on your harddisk").

> "Superblock" in Linux terminology means that the Linux
> partition should be the active partition

Microsoft Linux introduces a new filesystem that doesn't
need superblocks anymore (and it's not fat or ntfs - they
removed those... Maybe cpmfs?) - but apparently the new
filesystem can't be booted from.

> Remove native, swap and boot partitions used by Linux

Cool - another feature from Microsoft Linux - partition
type boot (type b0). What's it for? 
dd if=vmlinux of=/dev/hda1?

> Insert either a bootable floppy disk or a bootable CD-ROM
> for the Linux operating system on your computer, and then
> press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer. [...] To
> remove LILO, type fdisk /mbr at the command prompt, and
> then press ENTER.

Well, I just got "Unable to open /mbr" when trying this on
Red Hat Linux - seems Microsoft indeed ported Microsoft
fdisk to Linux! Is it GPL? Where can I download it? And why
would I want to? Microsoft is rather good at throwing up
interesting questions lately.

> Also, Linux recognizes more than 40 different partition
> types

"More than 40" is a nice way to put "about 100 last time I
checked". I wonder if they'll advertise that Windows 2000
can make use of more than 10 kB RAM.

-
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