Re: SEUL: Partitioning

[Dave Close <dave@compata.com>]

> I have a few objections on this:
> 
> 1) Letting Linux in a DOS partition will put him at the mercy of any
> rogue DOS program.

Making the Linux "partition" a DOS "system", "hidden", and "read-only" 
file will protect against most accidents. Most users will never know 
the file is there.

> 2) It puts Linux in position of inferiority (to the user it will seem
> it runs under DOS).
> 
> 3) It makes booting complicated specially if the user is running
> Windows 95 (most likely than DOS today): he has to boot unto DOS mode
> and then boot LINUX.

LILO boots to an absolute physical address on the disk. The user would 
never enter DOS. But Linux would have to recognize such a 
pseudo-partition since it would not appear in the partition table.

> 4) The user will later be unable to erase his DOS partition

This is a valid concern. It might be addressable with some kind of 
migration utility.
-- 
Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA  "Politics is the business of getting
dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359    power and privilege without
dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu           possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke


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