jasong
05-01-2008, 12:42 AM
I read an article a while back that talked about how the PC badly needed a gaming OS.
This got me to thinking about a half-forgotten conversation I´d had with someone online about bootloaders. I know I´m revealing my ignorance by asking this, but why is it that when we boot a dual-boot a computer, we have a choice of, say, Linux OR Windows?
Why can´t we have both at once, and they´d basically treat each other as separate computers? You could have a 4GB of RAM quad-core computer, maybe 1 core and 1GB would go to LInux, or whatever, 2 cores and 3GB would go toor Windows, and you´d have a final core which would be mostly idle but could be called on at any time. If you wanted to use all four cores at once for something, you´d tell the bootloader,¨Hey, I need you to send this OS over here into hibernation until such-and-such a task is completed.¨
If you were playing a game, you could have a gaming OS running and force the other OSes to share a core(by taking turns with the core) and you could play a game with as much power as needed without having to worry about Windows warning messages(for example). The reason you wouldn´t have to worry about Windows warning messages is because the gaming program wouldn´t be allowed to interact with the Windows system directly, so security wouldn´t need to be as strict.
I know it´s definitely easier said than done, but am I totally off my rocker, or is this something that would be worthwhile to attempt?
This got me to thinking about a half-forgotten conversation I´d had with someone online about bootloaders. I know I´m revealing my ignorance by asking this, but why is it that when we boot a dual-boot a computer, we have a choice of, say, Linux OR Windows?
Why can´t we have both at once, and they´d basically treat each other as separate computers? You could have a 4GB of RAM quad-core computer, maybe 1 core and 1GB would go to LInux, or whatever, 2 cores and 3GB would go toor Windows, and you´d have a final core which would be mostly idle but could be called on at any time. If you wanted to use all four cores at once for something, you´d tell the bootloader,¨Hey, I need you to send this OS over here into hibernation until such-and-such a task is completed.¨
If you were playing a game, you could have a gaming OS running and force the other OSes to share a core(by taking turns with the core) and you could play a game with as much power as needed without having to worry about Windows warning messages(for example). The reason you wouldn´t have to worry about Windows warning messages is because the gaming program wouldn´t be allowed to interact with the Windows system directly, so security wouldn´t need to be as strict.
I know it´s definitely easier said than done, but am I totally off my rocker, or is this something that would be worthwhile to attempt?