Re: [OT] Re: AOL in Negotiations to Buy Red Hat?

Nicholas Knight
2002-01-20T00:35:05Z

On Saturday 19 January 2002 02:30 pm, David Benfell wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Jan 2002 00:45:36 -0500, Werner Puschitz wrote:
> > http://www.washtech.com/news/media/14759-1.html
>
> Forgive the mind-numbing question but, it says, "But the AOL software
> could be configured to override Windows and launch a version of Red
> Hat's Linux operating system, sources said."
>
> Now, my idea of overriding Windows is blowing it away, or at least
> making the system dual-boot. I'm having trouble reconciling the
> concepts. Can anyone shed some light?

Actually it'd be quite simple so long as they don't want to support NT
based systems. Linux distributions in various shapes and sizes did it
for years, and there is no doubt some that still do it. All you have to
do is add a shortcut on a windows desktop that reboots it to MS-DOS
mode and runs LOADLIN.
However I find this unlikely, esspecialy with NT-based desktops
becoming more common, be it Win2k or XP.
Plus the journalist obviously doesn't have much technical background,
so for all we know he took what sources told him and inverted it,
reversed it, inverted it again, and then ROT13'd it to get the final
result.