On the fly OS Switching

[jdsanchez473]

I just had this idea pop into my head, and i think its doable (but prob. only by the mobo manufactures)..

I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to boot your computer into say windows, then without completely restarting the computer, save whats in memory to disk, pull windows out of memory and start your fav. linux distro. After the linux distro is started up, you could also then save it to disk, and load windows back up and be right where you left off. So basically you could switch operating systems on the fly without having to shut down, or loosing any current work. I know someone is going to say use some form of a virtual machine (vmware, vbox, ms vm, etc...) but the whole point here is to be able to switch back and fourth on the fly, and having 100% of the system resources available to whichever OS you currently have running.

Just an idea, i have no idea how to implement something like this, but im just putting it out there hoping this idea may get to someone who can implement it.

 

[rohan23]

That would actually take up more resources and memory. You can dual boot. But you have to shut down and do it.

 

[Prodigy146]

i've quad booted before..

Windows Xp
Kalyway 10.5 (Mac OS X)
Ubtuntu 8.04
Windows 7

Restarting your computer and choosing an os, is not that much of a hassle. i dont see the use of 'on-the-fly' os switching

 

[PvilleStang]

Sounds like you need a second box and a KVM

 

[DJ-CHRIS1]

I just had this idea pop into my head, and i think its doable (but prob. only by the mobo manufactures)..

I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to boot your computer into say windows, then without completely restarting the computer, save whats in memory to disk, pull windows out of memory and start your fav. linux distro. After the linux distro is started up, you could also then save it to disk, and load windows back up and be right where you left off. So basically you could switch operating systems on the fly without having to shut down, or loosing any current work. I know someone is going to say use some form of a virtual machine (vmware, vbox, ms vm, etc...) but the whole point here is to be able to switch back and fourth on the fly, and having 100% of the system resources available to whichever OS you currently have running.

Just an idea, i have no idea how to implement something like this, but im just putting it out there hoping this idea may get to someone who can implement it.

Such a thing exists, it's called hibernate and both the windows and linux kernel support it. Everything from memory is written to hard disk. The computer can enter a complete off state, but resume normal operation within a fraction of the time required to boot.

 

[SuxoR]

If you wanted to use another OS so quickly why not run it in VMPlayer?

I dual boot and when I need to get the other computer I just restart, normally (I guess depending on your machine) it's very fast and hassle free but I understand the want to get to the other asap :]

 

[i want a laptop]

On the fly...I don't see it happening. Sure you could save everything in memory to your hard drive, but you would also have to save exactly what your CPU is doing. Like, right now, your RAM has data in it, and your CPU is doing stuff, you can save the RAM...but can you "save" what your CPU is doing? The thing that would be easiest, is dual booting. The thing that would most replicate what you want, would have 2 pc's running, each a different OS, but only one monitor and the VGA or DVI cables hooked up to a switch, so you can instantly switch between OS's. However you would have to have a switch to switch your keyboard and mouse from one system to the other.

 

[dude_56013]

I think the only way this seems possible is with some kind of a modified server board that has more than one processor. Dedicate the one processor to running one OS from one hard drive, and dedicate the other to a different hard drive running a different OS...would be kind of neat...but still, that's not likely to ever happen, and if it ever did that'd be wayyy expensive.