I bought a book today called LinuxToys by Christopher Negus and Chuck Wolder. It has 13 projects using all free software to complete. Now can you imagine Windows XP being booted from just a floppy to play text games, using windows xp as an automated answering service that forwards your voice mail to your e-mail account, using it to control toy cars or even set-up your own small ISP. Well, windows can do some of those things (like being an isp) but the cost can be huge (I don't want to pay for windows server 2003).

Just food for thought.

i think "they" already did try it, called windows CE

what about it?

don't think CE can, for example, boot from a single floppy...

It's the openess and freedom of linux that is making a lot of this possible.
That's what I would like microsoft to do..

I would never expect Windows to boot from aFloppy nor would I expect any similarly equipped linux distro too either. Heck those graphics alone take up more space. if I needed to boto off afloppy your only choices are Linux or MS-DOS Either way I would dread such a need. I don't find it an appealing "feature"

But allt hsoe features are available as a result of ope source so people can modify the kernel as neded. Windows i sclosed source intended for use as an operating system and little else. Trying to get it to do otherwise is out of scope of its design. Linux was intended to be flexible. Thus the open source license. Its like comparing apples to oranges. Also you are talking about the kernel vs. an entire OS while ine ssence you should comapre thigns liek Madrake to Win XP which is more level of a comparision.

Actually he is. The book "LinuxToys" uses Red Hat as the OS.

There are linux distros that can be booted from a floppy. There are also floppy linux distros. Slackware started as a floppy distro.

Where can I find information about using linux for an answering service? This sounds intriguing.

I don't expect the same level of mandrake to be booted from a floppy.
I didn't say no linux could be booted from a floppy I said a simialry equipped linux on par with the graphical interface of the windows interface (ie KDE equipped linux)

And if you are saying the entire book was written around the red hat linux then I apologize but I serverly doubt its the same as trying to shove the full redhat onto a floppy. grnated the stuff you mention is cool but I found the window bashing rather pointless

A "similarly equipped linux" can still be stripped down in order to accomplish things impossible for Windows. The more recent Windows releases are designed to work in a single gui environment, and they break when you try to modify them beyond adding and removing some applications and drivers.
This is a huge difference, and one which allows ANY Linux distribution to be tweaked for whatever purpose you have in mind.
And if I had to choose between msdos and linux as a floppy OS, dos wouldn't even begin to show a glimmer of hope of ever crossing my mind...the plain fact is that Linux as a text based system is still in development, and can do nearly anything a gui system can.

Personally I don't think this thread is "bashing"...it's just pointing out yet another bonus for Linux. I think constantly stating that Linux is not yet as good as Windows is rather pointless.

there are linux distros that boot from a floppy, there are linux distros that boot from a DVD.

thats the beauty of open source.

Im not debating the fact that Linux can be broken down into its simplest form to run off a floppy I am just saying expecting a fully graphical OS to be broken down into a floppy run is unreasonable.

Nor would I debate the fact in a contest between Linux and Dos Linux most certainly wins.

Nor am I saying Linux isn;t as good as windows. Frankly both have strong points and negative points. I was simply queestioning the logic of bringing windows into this thread at all

a fully playable videogame that rivals doom 3 in graphics is only 96kbs

nothing is impossible.

such a game exists naturally in the OSS world?

Alright this is getting a little out of proportion. However, although not linux, you can fit a whole operating system WITH GUI onto a single floppy. check this out http://www.menuetos.org/ and it's open source

dang..

that's a complete OS written in assembly

ouch

http://www.theprodukkt.com/kkrieger.html

however, its neither opensource nor linux compatible. but im sure you can get it to work in wine.